Posted on 02/03/2009 8:03:41 PM PST by Flavius
DULUTH, Minn. — The rickety old bus pulled out of the Duluth Armory late on Saturday, Jan. 31, 1959, and headed across St. Louis Bay into the frigid Wisconsin night.
On board were some exhausted and stinky rock ’n’ rollers and their harried manager. The Winter Dance Party tour had just finished its ninth gig in as many days and was headed for Appleton and Green Bay, Wis., for two shows that Sunday.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
settle down young man. unless you were there, SYSFMS.
Maybe it’s because none of you realize what that time was like in this country. It was a time that sadly will never be again and the music is a big part of that psyche.
True Love Ways was always one of my favorite Buddy Holly performances. These men were all taken from us at the height of their careers and one can only imagine with the body of work they left behind what they would have amassed had that danged bus not been such a POS that they decided to fly.
Then go be annoyed somewhere else. Too bad your generation doesn’t have anything you will look back on with nostalgia when you are our age.
http://www.last.fm/forum/5/_/500340
Buddy Holly - 3rd Feb 1959
From http://www.thisdayinmusic.com
A young Bob Dylan attended the Duluth National Guard Armory show on 31st January 1959, two nights before Holly's death.
The family name was "Holley". When Buddy received his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956, they inadvertently spelled his last name as "Holly". He kept it that way for the rest of his career.
Buddy failed his draft physical because of his poor eyesight.
Many groups from the era named themselves after insects, they did the same and choose "Crickets" as it was the only insect, which made its own "music", by chirping. (They almost named themselves the Beetles!).
Buddy had watched the John Wayne movie The Searchers. Each time that Wayne became disgruntled with something someone said, he'd mutter "That'll be the day". That catch phrase became the title of the first hit record by Buddy.
"Peggy Sue" was an actual person. Peggy Sue Gerron attended Lubbock High School and was the girlfriend and eventual wife of Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly's drummer.
Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the first all-white group to perform at New York's famed Apollo Theatre.
He was one of the first rock 'n' rollers to use overdubbing when one-track recording was the rule, and one of the first to use strings on a rock 'n' roll record.
Their tour busses kept breaking down and when they arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa to perform at the Surf Ballroom the evening of February 2, 1959, Buddy decided to charter a small plane to their next stop.
The Beechcraft Bonanza, named "Miss American Pie," took off from Mason City, at around 1:50 AM on February 3, 1959. The weather was cold and snowy. The plane crashed just after taking off. The pilot, Valens, Richardson and Holly were all killed.
Don McLean's 1971 "American Pie" is inspired by the day of the plane crash.
Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Holly No.13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.
The 1992 Nirvana video for "In Bloom" is filmed in Black and white using 1950s era television cameras and shows the band appearing in 1950s attire, (including Kurt Cobain wearing Buddy Holly style glasses) in an apparent tribute.
Weezer's self-titled debut album features the single "Buddy Holly."
On Feb 29th 1980, the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Mason, Iowa after being there for over 21 years.
Back when Rock wasn't allowed because we were church going folk?
Back when trash collection didn't exist, and you had burn barrel chores to do?
Poser my (hirsute posterior).
Back when songs played for MONTHS?
/johnny
Not to mention drop dead gorgeous and a gentleman.. I actually met him in person one time in Las Vegas when he made his comeback.
Boy is that ever true. Britney Spears wouldn’t have made it to first base back then, no acoustic studios to make you sound like you could sing, you HAD to be able to sing.
I remember where I was when I heard about the crash, I remember where I was when they told us Kennedy had been shot and I remember where I was when they announced Elvis died...
Oh my! I had forgotten about having to burn our trash... and not just out in the country, either.
Duran Duran had a bunch of great songs in the 80’s. Hungry Like the Wolf, The Reflex, Union of the Snake, Rio. Buddy Holly and Duran Duran are the same genre. The only difference between 50’s and 80’s pop music is the addition of synthesizers and an occasionally increased tempo.
Bump for Wed. reading
There is only one Elvis. There was pop music, and rock and roll, and then along came Elvis, and changed music forever.
Long live thwe King!
I guessd you just don’t get it. Elvis was a transformational figure in music... junk like Duran Duran and co. will not be remembered.
Wrong, but thanks for playing.
Try a little cold-war context.
/johnny
If Duran Duran had played the Fender lead of “That’ll Be The Day” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 influencing both the future Rolling Stones and Beatles, you might have a point. But it was Buddy Holly who did that. I don’t think there is ANY New Wave music from the Big ‘80s that approaches Holly, whatever people want to think of that decade musically.
Thanks for the great photo.
We had TV when I was a little kid, but we only watched kiddie programs AND the Ed Sullivan Show.
What we did have was communication...with fsmily, friends, schoolmates, in real time. And of course we had Radio and we had our Music.Murray the K, Cousin Brucie, and going way back, Alan Freed...not to mention Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
as rightly she should, Kurt, and Nirvana as a whole, were awesome!!!
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