“He's in everybody.” – Keith Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, on Buddy Holly.
-
Buddy Holly passed 60 years ago today – February 3, 1959 – or as Don McLean sang, “the day the music died.” Hey passed 10 days after I was born. I am thankful, as I found out later, I was introduced to him in 1972.
In 1972, Don McLean’s tribute and anthem to Buddy, “American Pie” was the number 1 single for 4 weeks. My mother asked my father what all the fuss was about.
“Oh, it is an anti-war song.”, my father said matter-of-factly. My mother shrugged.
My father (the engineer) added, “And, it doesn’t make sense. He [Don McLean] says they were drinking ‘whiskey and rye.’ Well, rye is whiskey.”
So, there I was with my fellow impressionable 7th graders singing along to an anti-war song that made no sense.
Then, in 10th grade, word spread through the halls of Mt. Hebron High School that some guy had done a presentation on “American Pie” and said the song was all about Buddy Holly and the day he died. I had a vague sense of Buddy and realized Don McLean introduced him to me in 1972 – “Something touched me deep inside.”
It was time to get to know Buddy. In the following 40 years, I learned the value of what I call a BHB - “Buddy Holly Break.”
Need to unwind? “Rave On”
A we-a-e-a-ell The little things you say and do Make me want to be with you-a-hoo Rave on, it's a crazy feelin' and I know it's got me reelin' When you say, I love you, rave on
Need some determination? “Not Fade Away:”
I'm a-gonna tell you how it's gonna be You're gonna give your love to me I wanna love you night and day You know my love a-not fade away
Need some fortitude? “That’ll be the day:”
Well, that'll be the day, when you say goodbye Yes, that'll be the day, when you make me cry You say you're gonna leave, you know it's a lie 'Cause that'll be the day when I die
Need some love? “Heartbeat:”
Heartbeat, Why do you miss when my baby kisses me, Heartbeat, Why does a love kiss stay in my memory,
Need some adrenaline? “Oh Boy:”
All of my love All of my kissin' You don't know what you've been a-missin'
Need to cry? "Crying, Waiting, Hoping:"
Crying, my tears keep a-falling all night long Waiting, it feels so useless, I know it's wrong
Need to smile? “Peggy Sue"”
If you knew Peggy Sue Then you'd know why I feel blue without Peggy My Peggy Sue Oh well, I love you gal, yes, I love you Peggy Sue
Buddy Holly songs are the definition of elegant simplicity. The verses look silly – these songs are not. Play one of the Buddy’s songs above. Put it on – 45, album, Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, whatever. Try to sit still, try not to smile, and try not to enjoy the moment. Impossible.
Go ahead - take a Buddy Holly Break!
It is hard to overestimate the influence Buddy Holly. From Wikipedia:
“Two nights before Holly's death, 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959, show in Duluth. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time Out of Mind being named Album of the Year; Dylan said, "...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...with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way"
“He’s in everybody.” Rave On.
How about you? What is your Buddy Holly Break? Share a Story!
Taste the Food Blog Desserts:
See the Taste the Food More Absolutely Nothing blog for more about Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, and "Not Fade Away."
It is great to see a new generation of bands embrace Buddy. Take a listen to the 2011 Tribute Album, Rave On Buddy Holly.
In his book History of Rock and Roll in 10 Songs, Greil Marcus illustrates that the Beatles essentially began and ended with Buddy.
As if, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, as the Quarry Men, cut a version of “That’ll Be the Day” [written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison] for their first recording, in Liverpool in 1958, and later named themselves the Beatles in imitation of Holly’s Crickets, they were not simply copying a hero but conducting a kind of séance with him...”
He writes about the last Beatles recording sessions:
“Crying, Waiting, Hoping” [written by Buddy Holly] they dance around the sound that: still hanging in the air, knowing this is where it will happen or fail. “We used to do it” someone says sadly, defeat all over his voice. ‘It ended with, ah’ George [Harrison] says. John plays a fragment of a chorus on his guitar. The words begin to come to him like birds. The singing is ragged, but they are all part of it, with John’s fragmented lead only a step ahead of everyone else...
Smokin’,” says Paul. “Jokin’,” John answers. Time and again John returns to “Hopin – you’ll come back” – and as you hear the group coming apart across these sessions, the bell rings all too clearly. They love this song, and they love each other, or they remember that they did. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s nothing to what is coming.”
