The best perk I’ve ever had from this job wasn’t the access to aftershow parties, or the trips to exotic interview locations, or even all those afternoons playing Scalextric with Liam Gallagher — it was the day I stood in Brian Eno’s studio and he played me You May Feel Me Crying, a Roy Orbison track he was producing. Hearing Orbison fresh from the master tape was amazing enough, but then, just as the song reached the bridge, Eno smiled quietly to himself and pushed a button that muted all the instrumental tracks, leaving the voice out on its own, just as Orbison shifted into top gear. The sheer, elemental power of that voice was staggering. “There are stronger men than me,” he sings at that point in the song; but I didn’t believe him. The Soul of Rock and Roll contains four CDs that follow Orbison’s career from 1955 through to his last, posthumous release, taking in all the classic hits. The songs tell a relentless tale of loneliness and betrayal, weariness but survival; and Orbison’s strength shines through every desperate chorus. The roll call of rock greats who revered Orbison or wanted to write like him or sing like him includes Bob Dylan, several Beatles (Lennon wrote Please Please Me as a homage; try singing it slower and you’ll hear) and Bruce Springsteen, who attempted to emulate Orbison’s voice on Born to Run, but had the grace, years later, to concede: “Nobody sings like Roy Orbison.” No, they don’t.

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