I went to the George Forss Theater Of The Arts Saturday afternoon at the Ginofor Gallery in Cambridge for a celebration Saturday afternoon of the life and the music of Roy Orbison, one of my favorite songwriters and singers, the voice I listened to in the ICU, and work out to at Cardiac Rehab and many of my walks. I have always loved Orbison’s soulful rock romance music. In the late 1980s, fourteen months before Orbison’s death, a number of musicians – including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, T. Bone Burnett, James Burton, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, K.D. Lang, and Jon David Souther gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to sing with Orbison, their performance became a television show and a wonderful CD called “Black&White Night.”
George offers some music or poetry or film every Saturday afternoon at 2:30, and he knows I love Orbison. In his theater, George offers popcorn and water and puts a sign up in front of his gallery. Two or three is a good crowd. Maria and I were the audience, along with George and Donna Wynbrandt, his partner and lover in life and an artist. Red comes also, curls up and growls at the sounds coming out of George’s two big screens, each stacked inexplicably on top of the other.
As often happened with us, the Orbison celebration – George loves Orbison as much as I do, we were both near tears – became a culture fest. Donna sketched me watching Roy, Maria took a video of George titling the sketch, I took photos for the blog. We have a wonderful time together, four souls adrift in the world who get one another completely.
Orbison had a very hard life, he sang and write his sad and romantic songs from reality, and the gathering was in part a tribute to him, everyone knew he was ill. They also knew he was one of the most influential musicians who ever lived. I love Orbison’s music and I love George and his great spirit, only he in all the world would open a Theater Of The Arts in his own living room and offer some art and culture to the world for free Saturday afternoon. Maria and I are regulars, I thank George for a sweet and meaningful afternoon. I loved every minute of it. I thank Donna for this wonderful sketch of my watching Roy. George and Donna are the prophet creatives in the world, they make joyful sounds and music every day of their lives. (George and I will present our new books – “Saving Simon,” and “The Way We Were” at the Battenkill Bookstore, Main Street in Cambridge, at 7 p.m. October 7, the publication date for both of us.
The sketch is titled “Music Is A Common Love For Jon And Roy Orbison.”