Buddy Holly

3 years late or 7 years early, let's commemorate 53 years since Buddy Holly's death in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959, at 22 years old. At the time he had been relatively famous for 18 months. His widow and others blame producer/manager Norman Petty for witholding about 100 grand in royalties which forced Holly onto a miserable winter tour to pay the bills. But that's another story.

YouTube is full of rough but entertaining video, some of it live, some of it overdubbed. If you're a fan, you've already been through them. First we must say hats off to those who work so hard at these. I don't have the patience. Some start with commercials - sorry.

On Holly's influence, from Wikipedia:

Ian Whitcomb said "Buddy Holly and the Crickets had the most influence on the Beatles."[26] Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence.[27] (Their bug-themed band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets.)[26] The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was a close reproduction of Holly's version, released on late 1964's Beatles for Sale (in the U.S., in June 1965 on Beatles VI). During the January 1969 sessions for the Let It Be album, the Beatles played a slow impromptu version of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" — although not written by Holly, it was popularized by him — with Lennon mimicking Holly's vocal style;[citation needed] the recording was eventually released in the mid-1990s on Anthology 3. In addition, John Lennon recorded a cover version of "Peggy Sue" on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.

A 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959, show, two nights before Holly's death. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year:

"And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way." 

Keith Richards attended one of Holly's performances, where he heard "Not Fade Away" for the first time. The Rolling Stones had an early hit covering the song.

In my unstudied opinion there is no more notable piece of music from the 50s than "Well All Right". Recorded in 1958 with perfect sound, one percussion instrument, played by the somewhat overlooked drummer and frequent songwriting collaborator Jerry Allison, a bass, and, I assume, Holly's acoustic guitar. Holly sings it straight with no trademark hiccups or exaggerated phrasing. Yes, the lyrics are about young love, but never has it sounded more quietly self assured. The first verse is unusually eloquent. This is years ahead of it's time, again, in my opinion. No one in country, rock, gospel, R&B, or even folk, sounded like this. The apotheosis of Americana.

For "True Love Ways" the compiler also provides notes on the musicians who played on the recording. Whatever you think of the strings and saxophone and syrupy sentiments, this is just good. It is also reportedly exactly what Holly wanted. More than most of his contemporaries he had a hand in the sound and production and, in this case, none of the strings were added after his death.



Like all the rapacious manager/producers of the era, Norman Petty slapped his name into the songwriting credits whenever he could. A fine old tradition that relieved performers of royalties. Perhaps a more disciplined student could investigate how much he actually contributed.

Fans of alternative histories usually fantasize about the big things like the South winning the Civil War, or Americans losing the war of independence. Me, I wonder where Buddy Holly would have been on February 3, 1969. Would he have cared that the Beatles had lifted their name from his Crickets? What would he have thought of the Hollies?  Would he have followed his disturbing interest in strings, and what would later be called soft rock, and been playing 8 shows a week in Vegas, or maybe getting ready for some stupid outdoor festival in Woodstock, New York? He would have only been 32, or two years older than counterculture high priestess Grace Slick. Wire-rim glasses, bad afro and sideburns all seem likely.

This clip doesn't really need the subtitles, and they get in the way of watching his chord changes, and he didn't write this song anyway, but...



This is a shockingly good clip of "Peggy Sue". The camera loses Holly right as he begins one of the most distinctive solos ever, but still, it's great. One itty-bitty amp. The patronizing tone of the hostess was standard.



All before he was 23.
No going back.