Some universities hold events to celebrate revered painters, famous writers and distinguished composers.
This January, ASU is throwing a party for a rockstar — one of rock's first stars, in fact.
A series of events from Jan. 24 through 26 will be dedicated to rock 'n' roll pioneer Roy Orbison, and will include a tribute concert, film screening, gallery exhibit and even a symposium to discuss the historical impact of Orbison's music.
The rocker, whose hits include "Oh, Pretty Woman," "In Dreams" and "Ooby Dooby," had a brief stint in the limelight in the early 1960s. Orbison languished into obscurity until a career resurgence in the early 1980s.
Figures from the Beatles to Bono and Bob Dylan have praised his music and cited him as a major influence on their own careers. Orbison was a member of the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys with Dylan, George Harrison and Tom Petty.
After his death, Orbison's voice appeared on records from k.d. lang and Jimmy Buffett, and his posthumous album "Mystery Girl" was the best-selling of his career. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
"One of the interesting things about his music is that it cuts across traditional genres," ASU professor Peter Lehman says. "He appeals to everything from punk and new wave, to folk music and country and western music."
Lehman, director of ASU's Center for Film, Media and Popular Culture, is an Orbison scholar and the author of "Roy Orbison: The Invention of an Alternative Rock Masculinity." He says he encouraged the university to pay tribute to Orbison in large part because popular music is not treated with the same level of academic respect as other art forms.
"Rock and country music don't have much of a prominent place within most major universities," Lehman says. "I feel that [Orbison] is a very important figure, and there are some similarities between the way popular music has been ignored, minimalized, condescended that is similar to the way movies used to be treated over 50 years ago."
Orbison's fans are among the most dedicated in rock. One Orbison aficionado, Dallas entrepreneur Glen Agritelley, will be exhibiting over 100 items from the singer's career, including a signed guitar, posters and even clothing.
The tribute concert will feature ASU's own Herberger String Quartet performing a classical arrangement of Orbison's music, as well as California act Truly Lover Trio performing Orbison's songs in his distinctive retro style. Barbara Orbison, who has kept her late husband's music alive for nearly two decades, will receive a lifetime achievement award on his behalf.
Reach the reporter at: sam.gavin@asu.edu.
