Orbison’s musical magic transforms a bad day into a good day

Saturday, March 4, 2017, was not the day I had planned.

The weather was good, just a trifle windy, but our timber land was threatened by a fire that was started next to our land by some careless idiot earlier that morning. We didn’t know about it until fire trucks came hurtling by our house.

For most of the rest of the day, the firefighters were very busy trying to get the fire under control. Just before nightfall, they had extinguished all the blazing timber.

I had made my special blueberry and yogurt pancakes for breakfast and planned to clean up the yard and plant a few vegetables early in my new planter box. I didn’t, however, because I wanted to keep an eye on the blazing woods.

That Saturday made up for the hectic day by having a Roy Orbison special on AETN. Roy Orbison remains my favorite singer and songwriter of all times. His songs “Pretty Woman,” “Blue Bayou,” “In Dreams,” “Blue Angel,” and “Crying” are just a sample of his writing and performing that I love. On this AETN show, he had Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello accompanying him. Nothing could have surpassed this 1987 performance.

There is no telling how many more beautiful songs Orbison could have written if he had lived more than 52 years. He could write them as well as he could sing them.

— Louis Houston is a resident of Siloam Springs. His book “The Grape-Toned Studebaker” is available locally and from Amazon. com. Send any questions or comments to louis1931@gmail.com or call 524-6926. The opinions expressed are those of the author.