The Philosophy of Modern Song: Roy Orbison

Posted on February 22, 2026 by Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

This series takes a look at the songs Bob Dylan wrote about in his work “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” the book that followed his honorary doctorate.  Thus, this isn’t a review of the book as such, since the book is a review in itself, but rather it has become a review of the songs within the book, and includes one or more recordings of each song in case there are any in Bob’s book which you have never heard.

Details of other songs from Dylan’s book “The Philosophy” which have been covered within Untold Dylan are given at the end of this article.  Here, I take a look at and listen to Blue Bayou by Roy Orbison

In my youth, I was something of an Orbison fan, and found his music consistently different from everyone else’s, and it is not with a little regret that I note that this was the only Orbison song in Bob Dylan’s collection listed in his post-doctorate book.

Yes of course, I was attracted by the voice of Orbison, but I thought (and I wasn’t the only one) that there was something dark and deep in the songs which, although replicated in Bob Dylan’s work, was only there on occasion.  While Roy Orbison seemed to be eternally capable of being hurt and indeed torn to shreds, Bob more often (it seemed to me) found fault in the world around him in general.  Different men, different voices, different perspectives, and for me, utterly wonderful the two could come together, if only for a short while.

Thus it is that we know of him as one of the Travelling Wilburys with Bob, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, so it is natural from this point alone that Bob would include at least one Orbison song.  In fact, I think I would have expected more.

Although the song was written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson (as were many of Orbison’s hits) and although it was recorded in 1961 it wasn’t actually released until the summer of 1963.  It reached number 3 in the UK charts and got into the 20s in the various US singles charts.  It was also re-released in the 1989 posthumous album “A Black and White Night Live”.

I have to admit that if I had been selecting a set of recordings that influenced me in my young days, this isn’t one of those I would include, but I most certainly would have Roy Orbison featured in there somewhere, if for nothing other than the fact that his voice and his songs were so utterly different from everyone else’s compositions and performances.  Indeed, the sheer range of Orbinson’s voice was just beyond comprehension.   Other singers had a wide vocal range, but wherever Orbinson’s voice went, the pitch, the timbre and the control were perfect.

I guess the song that immediately comes to my mind, and I suppose the one I would have chosen, was the much more obvious “Only the Lonely” which, even though I haven’t played it myself or indeed put on a recording of it for many a long year, I still have utterly perfectly in my head.  Indeed, its impact on me was so great that a quick trip downstairs to the piano proved to me (just for my own ego) that I could still play it from memory.  Although the bands I played in could never have touched it as we didn’t have a singer who could get anywhere near Oribson’s range.

There is a Wilbury’s video that I truly treasure where Orbinson gets a solo at “I’m so tired”.

But as this a personal reflection on Bob’s choices, I do want to include the song that utterly stayed with me from the moment I first heard it.   It is not my usual sort of favourite song, as I don’t normally go for popular songs that include orchestration, but I make an exception for this.   If nothing else, just wait for “Just before the dawn”, not just Orbison’s incredible vocal, but also the orchestration.   Really, if you have a few minutes, do play it all the way through.    It is the perfection of pop music vocals.

Previously in this series

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