Buddy Holly, The Day The Music Died

[Steven]

Depending upon where you are geographically, we're at or near the 50th anniversary
of when the plane went down.

[ladydi]

Today is the day....February 3rd. I vaguely remember being totally devastated. When you're young, mortality seems a long way away but when those you listen to every day are suddenly and violently gone, it takes awhile to understand the why. We'll never know what he could have accomplished.....but who knows, maybe he's still composing....

[UrPal]

It doesn't really matter what Buddy Holly might have accomplished had he not been denied so young. In the short time he had, he'd already written, performed, recorded and left behind a body of exceptional songs for us and future generations to enjoy and take inspiration from .... in that he achieved a greatness few of us will know from our fuller lifetimes.

Here's to Buddy and all the other great musical achievers (whether remembered by millions or only by a few). Cheers!

[liverpoolken]

Like your first sweetheart I think you always remember your first gig.
I was in my last year at school studying for my final exams when my best friend Dave, his big brother and I went to the Liverpool Philharmonic on March 20 1958 to see Buddy Holly.
Buddy and Hank Williams were my first ever two musical heroes.
Here is my all time music hero talking about the night that Buddy looked at him.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ms8I2QIoczc

Last year to celebrate the 50th. anniversary of the Liverpool concert we had a tribute concert at the Philharmonic which was attended by Buddy's widow.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -20656043/

Next month we will be staging another Buddy tribute concert to help fund a singer/songwriter scholarship at the Liverpool Insititue Of Performing Arts (LIPA aka The Paul MCartney Fame School) which will bear Buddy's name.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -22660919/

I remember Pete Wylie of the Mighty Wah confering Buddy with the title of 'honorary scouser' at last year's concert

Buddy's music has and always will, play an important part of the Liverpool music scene.

Throughout the days
those true love ways
will bring us joys to share
with those who really care

Buddy Holly: True Love Ways


Ta Ken

[ladydi]

Ken, thank you so much for sharing the videos and articles with us. In his short life Buddy Holly had already created a wealth of rock and roll music. His vision influenced many before and after his death. He's still great to listen to today! Just as classical music will never die....the beat of true rock will never die.

[sebmelmoth2003]

all at iplayer :

21:00–22:05 Arena

Buddy Holly

Documentary looking at the short but brilliant career of rock'n'roll star Buddy Holly. (R)
***********
22:05–23:55 The Buddy Holly Story

7 days left to watch

Oscar-winning story of the 22-year-old rock legend who was killed in a plane crash.
******
23:55–00:10 Rock Shrines

Buddy Holly

7 days left to watch

Fans congregate in Iowa to pay tribute to Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. (R)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes ... 2009/02/04

[Joe Way]

Ken,
Thank you for providing those links and for your stories-very interesting. Here is an article that appeared recently in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the winter tour. As we are in the midst of another very bad winter, it is very easy for me to appreciate the frustration that they must have been feeling as they made their way in a school bus across the frozen midwestern landscape. If you look at the graphic that they have included that shows the route and direction of the tour, it is hard to imagine that it could have been arranged with any more difficulty by the promoter. The trip from Green Bay, WI to Clear Lake, Iowa on 1959 highways must have been a particular nightmare-in those days there was not even a direct route highway from Green Bay to Madison which they more than likely passed through.

This reminds me to ask my sister who was a teenager if she had considered going to the concert in Green Bay. I doubt my father would have allowed a group of teenage girls to travel the roughly fifty miles from our home at that time of year. There was a ballroom located in a small town near our home that used to host some national acts. In particular, I remember my sister coming home and telling us that Conway Twitty had kissed her on the cheek.

I don't think that I was a particular fan yet since I was too young, but I do remember that by the time I got to college that we had borrowed all of my sister's 45 records and some of my room mates sister's also and used them for parties. So even though, I was a huge Leonard Cohen fan even then, we had the good sense to choose music like Buddy Holly's and The Big Bopper for our house parties.

Here is the link:

http://www.startribune.com/entertainmen ... yP4O:DW3ck

Joe

[sebmelmoth2003]

philip norman has just written a bio of buddy.

he was talking about it on radio 5 - click `listen again` for tuesday and torward time dial to one hour, 41 minutes and 50 seconds into programme.

either - http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/mayo.shtml or http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_02_2009/

http://www.amazon.com/Rave-Biography-Bu ... 0684800829

http://www.pfd.co.uk/client/philip_norman/

[liverpoolken]

Joe

Thanks for your Buddy Holly stories.

Was it your lovely sister Jean who kissed Conway Twitty?

If it was then I can't wait to tell my sister Sandra that I have met someone who once kissed Conway Twitty.

6 degrees of seperation and all that, or in this case three degrees.... Jean-myself-sister Sandra.

I remember my mother telling us all that she once kissed Bing Crosby in the Aldephi Hotel here in Liverpool and if true gives me only three degrees of seperation between most of the Hollywood/Broadway greats of the 20th. century.

Maybe one day I will get to kiss Kate Winslett or on a bad day Bob Dylan, well maybe not Bob:-)

Ta Ken

[sebmelmoth2003]

last day of london buddy show today!

https://www.nimaxtheatres.com/buddy.asp
------------
and here's another bio of buddy :

http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/book.cfm?isb ... 84831034-6

[Joe Way]

Hi Ken,

Was it your lovely sister Jean who kissed Conway Twitty?

Yes, it was, indeed, the self-same sister whom you met. But a minor correction, it was Conway Twitty who kissed her on the cheek.

I hope you get the chance to kiss Cate Blanchett done up in her Bob Dylan attire rather than scraggly old Bob himself.

Joe

[sebmelmoth2003]

Forever 22

10 Feb 2009, 11:30 on BBC Radio 4

Synopsis:Roger Daltrey explores the turbulent relationship between Buddy Holly and his manager and producer, Norman Petty.

Niki Sullivan and JI Allison, guitarist and drummer with The Crickets, and Buddy's widow Maria Elena reveal that all was not well between the pair, and the tensions led to a split.

Roger hears how Petty made a series of unusual business decisions on behalf of the band, and accrued writing credits - and consequently royalty payments - to himself which are still causing financial difficulties some 50 years on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hc948

[sebmelmoth2003]

photo exhibition of buddy until 26th april

http://www.proud.co.uk

[liverpoolken]

Thanks for the link sebmelmoth

We had a heated discussion in the pub the other night about Buddy Holly.
A group of us were trying to list the number of firsts that Buddy was responisble for.
We all more or less agreed on the following …
....first singer/songwriter of the rock'n'roll era….
....first to have the lead/rhythm/bass/drums line-up…
....first to use double-tracking in the studio…
....first to have strings on a rock'n'roll record…
....first to use the Fender Stratocaster…
....and of course the first rock'n'roll star to wear glasses.

However the problem occurred when I claimed that he was the first ever white performer to play the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

A bet was taken that I was wrong.

Despite the alcoholic haze I was enjoying at the time as soon as I got home I went straight on to the computer and all I could come up with was…

On August 16, 1957, Buddy Holly was allegedly the first white rock and roll performer to play at the Apollo.
That claim is challenged by Jimmy Cavallo and the House Rockers who say they performed there in December 1956,and Dale Hawkins, who says he performed there in July 1957, about a month before Holly.

I know I read it somewhere that Buddy was the first to play the Apollo so all I have to do now is find the evidence, otherwise I'm going to have to hand over my £20:-(

Ta Ken

[sebmelmoth2003]

looks like you've lost.

why else would two individuals claim to have been there first?

you could get in touch with one or more of buddy's biographers and ask them what they think and/or ask for buddy's surviving relatives' email addresses who may be able to shed light on the affair.

rock on