Posted on 04/09/2015 4:35:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The music died because Buddy Holly merely wanted what every touring musician wants: to do laundry.
Shoved into unheated buses on a “Winter Dance Party” tour in 1959, Holly — tired of rattling through the Midwest with dirty clothes — chartered a plane on Feb. 3 to fly from Clear Lake, Iowa, to Fargo, N.D., where he hoped he could make an appointment with a washing machine. Joining him on the plane were Ritchie Valens and, after future country star Waylon Jennings gave up his seat, J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “the Big Bopper.” Taking off in bad weather with a pilot not certified to do so, the plane crashed, killing everyone aboard. The toll was incalculable: The singers of “Peggy Sue” and “Come On Let’s Go” and “Donna” and “La Bamba” were dead. Holly was just 22; incredibly, Valens was just 17. Rock and roll would never be the same.
Thirteen years later, Don McLean wrote a song about this tragedy: “American Pie,” an 8½-minute epic with an iconic lyric about “the day the music died.” Now, the original 16-page working manuscript of the lyrics has been sold at auction for $1.2 million.
“I thought it would be interesting as I reach age 70 to release this work product on the song American Pie so that anyone who might be interested will learn that this song was not a parlor game,” McLean said in a Christie’s catalogue ahead of the sale. “It was an indescribable photograph of America that I tried to capture in words and music.”
That photograph was always a little bit blurry. At more than 800 words, the meaning of “American Pie” proved elusive even for a generation used to parsing inscrutable Bob Dylan and Beatles lyrics. McLean has said the song was inspired by the 1959
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I saw him live many years ago. He was interesting. Very good storyteller. Said that an old 50’s musician told him never to give up the rights to his songs. Because of that piece of advice he said he never had to work again because of American Pie. But I guess an extra million in the bank for some old pieces of paper doesn’t hurt!
If it really was about Holly's death, I'd have to disagree that music died that day.
And I haven't heard anyone (in nearly 100 posts between this and the other thread) even comment on the obvious references to Altamont.
“There is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of ‘American Pie.’"
He was sure right on that one.
The first time I heard “American Pie” on the radio, in 1971, it was a version in which all of the lyrics were explained by a narrator.
Saw him in Tampa in the early eighties. Great show. He’s a solid performer and has a creditable repertoire of original compositions. I guess that’s understating it a bit. A little cheeky at times. The review of that show was titled, “I’m OK, you’re so-so”.
More then just a little bit of hyperbole in that statement. Rock and Roll has survived a great many tragic deaths.
Burl Ives?
I had a coworker who owned his own airplane and we were talking about the concept of bad weather and general aviation. With a smile on his face he said everytime he punched in with his Lancair he would start singing “Peggy Sue.”
Has it survived?
They gots to move product!
The lesson would be that you don’t let some guy named the Big Bopper get on your small plane.
I think it died after "Let's Dance" or "Eminence Front".
Due for another resurrection, though.
Never liked the song even though I thought it was interestingly based on that famous plane crash.
On the other hand, I liked the movie, The Buddy Holly Story”, starring a relatively skinny Gary Busey.
I was never a huge fan of “hidden meaning” songs.
Buddy Holly and company was flying to Hector Airport in Fargo, ND. They were scheduled to play at the National Guard Armory, in Moorhead, MN. After the accident, another singer and group filled in Bobby Vee and the Crickets.
In 1967, I went to a college dance at the Armory. The building has since been torn down.
The lyrics may be slightly cryptic, but not all that difficult to decipher.
Buddy Holly, Manson, Joplin, Beatles, Dylan, Vietnam, JFK.
It’s nothing but a liberal ode to failure of liberal policies masked in a tribute to Buddy Holly.
Great song, great memorial.
Love the song, one of the few secular/pop songs on my tablet. Don’t care if there are hidden meanings or not, doesn’t matter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.