Posted on 07/22/2014 1:51:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On the basis of simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is a case for calling Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash 50 years ago next Tuesday, the century's most influential musician.
Holly and Elvis Presley are the two seminal figures of 1950s rock 'n' roll, the place where modern rock culture began. Virtually everything we hear on CD or see on film or the concert stage can be traced back to those twin towering icons – Elvis with his drape jacket and swivelling hips and Buddy in big black glasses, brooding over the fretboard of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
But Presley's contribution to original, visceral rock 'n' roll was little more than that of a gorgeous transient; having unleashed the world-shaking new sound, he soon forsook it for slow ballads, schlock movie musicals and Las Vegas cabarets. Holly, by contrast, was a pioneer and a revolutionary. His was a multidimensional talent which seemed to arrive fully formed in a medium still largely populated by fumbling amateurs. The songs he co-wrote and performed with his backing band the Crickets remain as fresh and potent today as when recorded on primitive equipment in New Mexico half a century ago: That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Not Fade Away.
To call someone who died at 22 "the father of rock" is not as fanciful as it seems. As a songwriter, performer and musician, Holly is the progenitor of virtually every world-class talent to emerge in the Sixties and Seventies. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Bruce Springsteen all freely admit they began to play only after Buddy taught them how.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
You can like what you want but I just stated facts. Holly set the template of what is called the classic Rock line up...two guitars a bass and drums. He was one of the earliest to write his own songs, songs that sounded nothing like the Tin Pan Alley derived pop being written at the time. His songs were covered by the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan and many others. It’s just facts there.
You stated opinions. I stated mine. Music is subjective. To each his own.
What was the opinion part of my comments? That all those other acts covered Buddy Holly songs and revered him? That’s fact. That the two guitar, bass and drum line up existed before the Crickets? It did not.
I didn’t know he was religious! Christian?
Well, his family was very religious Baptists and all joined in on regular family singalongs.
However, Buddy was considered sort of the “rebel” of the family.
But he wasn’t so rebellious that he got himself into serious trouble. But he wanted to “break free”.
His “rebellion” was sort of the desire to get out of the “chains” of his traditional religion.
Buddy’s friend Sonny Curtis remembers him as “someone who drinks —loud, a smart aleck, head-strong.” Even after publicly professing Christ and being baptized, Buddy told his friends that he had no intention to stop his sinful ways.
From time to time, Buddy expressed some remorse for his rebellious life... Buddy’s older brother, Larry, who is still a member and a trustee at Tabernacle Baptist, believes Buddy was saved but backslidden and the Lord took him home because of his stubborn rebellion.
Mom and Dad were skeptical because of his fiance, Maria Elena, not being the same religion. But they just figured he would change her, or she would change him.
The wedding took place on Aug. 15, 1958, at the Holley family home at 1606 39th St.
Family pastor Ben Johnson presided over the ceremony.
Holly’s funeral took place at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, 1911 34th St., four days after the Feb. 3, 1959, crash.
I got the above information from David W. Cloud’s “1950s Rock — Creating a Revolution”
Thank you writing all of that up for me! How fascinating! I never knew any of that. I’m going to pass that all on to my mother. She’s the one who got me to love his music. She was born in 1942, so he was her contemporary.
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