Posted on 02/03/2009 6:44:28 AM PST by DBCJR
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Buddy's music is so musical. The number of great recordings he made in his very short life places him at or beyond the level of any musical artist in almost any category.
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They are rock mountains that nobody has climbed. The diversity of Buddy's music is also profound. "Moondreams" and "True Love Ways" are musically as advanced as anything by the great popular composers. Gershwin or Berlin would have marveled at these compositions.
His electric guitars were raw, but controlled like bullwhips. They jingle and jangle freely in "That'll Be the Day" and "Oh Boy," and they snake around in "Words of Love."
The Beatles and the Stones became the behemoths they are on the back of Buddy Holly and the records he made before anyone made records or wrote songs like his. Aside from his geek image and his sudden and cruel death, his music is a wonder that still contains the potency of its original magic. Buddy was a genuine original. He was a genius.
Buddy's death, for me, an impressionable 13-year-old, delivering papers, was an enormous tragedy. The cover photo of the posthumously released "Buddy Holly Story" and "The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2," coupled with liner notes written by his widow, Maria, created a sense of grief that lived inside of me, until I was able to exorcize it with the opening verse of "American Pie."
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Through my relationship with Buddy, I was able to discover my peculiar writing talent and, much to my amazement, help bring Buddy and his music back from the dead. In a sense, "American Pie" contains the spiritual connection to Buddy Holly that was always in me. It's as if we both gave each other new life.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
i believe Holly was, if not he inventor, at least the innovator of multi-track (layering) recording.
He was one of the first rockers to use string arrangements on his recordings.
So, he was the first to do many of the things we take for granted today.
I think a pretty decent songwriter for the time, but possibly remembered for being a charismatic performer and entertainer.
McClean might be gushing a bit, but Holly was exceptional. He was just 22 when he died.
“I like his music but I can’t say it was that profoundly impactful upon me.”
His music profoundly affected many of the artists you have heard since, I promise you.
Buddy Holly lives.
His band 1st was called "Buddy Holly and the Crickets" and it seems I heard somewhere that is where the Beetles, big fans of Buddy, came up with their name.
Next to Buddy Holly the rest were definitly pikers.
As for Don McLean, I always change the station when his "American Pie" comes on the radio. That sappy song really grates on my nerves for some reason.
“Rock’s been goin’downhill ever since Buddy Holly died”.
John Milner
American Graffiti
Buddy Holly died at Clear Lake, Iowa; thirteen miles from where I lived and I was thirteen at the time. It broke my heart. Clear Lake was named after a big swimming hole and was a teenage hangout for kids from Muscatine and Davenport. John M. & Jon C if you read this: Cathy’s Clown says hello.
Kathy if you read this, well I don’t know - once burned, once learned in my book. “Harold Roark”, aye Ayn?
I like his music but is he really a mountain to climb?
Here in Lubbock, Tx, we salute Buddy Holly! It was actually HOLLEY!
What a genius at such an early age. I do believe he would have been bigger than Elvis.
Hell. the HOLLIES named themselves after Buddy [and did a really great “Peggy Sue Got Married” singing and playing backup to Buddy’s vocal on a tribute album].
The BEATLES did “Words of Love” on one of their LPs. The SEARCHERS used a lot of his stuff in their early days. The Stones first U.S release was “Not Fade Away”.
Yep. One of the first [and most prolific] singer-songwriters. Invented his own sound. Produced [after spliiting with his original label] his own records. Used strings [including some pizzacotto] on his records. Played everything from rockabillyto ballads to straight rock to blues. Did all of it well. Did all of it in less than four years.
R.I.P. to the true “King of Rock n’ Roll.
There is no doubt he was brilliant! I didn’t mean that. I just meant the gushing seemed a little overboard.
Nah. Alot of what made Elvis famous was his good looks and sex appeal. While Buddy Holly wasn’t ugly, he wasn’t Elvis circa 1957 either.
Big mistake on his part. He was starting to go the way Elvis did, moving from pure rock'n'roll to manufactured pap. I suspect his career had peaked and would have soon been on the downslope. Today, he would be doing the oldies circuit like so many of his contemporaries.
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