A Bit OT/ The Day The Music Died 50th Anniversary

[Aaron]

Any one else relize what today is?? Its The Day the music died!50 years ago...On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, United States killed three American rock and roll musicians: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean in his 1971 song "American Pie".[1][2]


R.I.P.

Aaron

[bart1927]

As far as I'm concerned, music died a lot earlier, when Swing made it's appearance in the 1930's.

[Amberola 1-A]

Yes, a sad day indeed. I have always been a big Holly fan and have been fortunate enough to amass a large collection of his music, some that has never been issued.
A little bit of macabre info: Last year J.P. Richardson's (The Big Bopper) son had his father exhumed and relocated to a new location at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Beaumont, Texas. He was placed in a new casket and the original one will be auctioned off. (ugh) Originally, it ws to be put on eBay, but I was told they put the kibosh on the sale. There was also an autopsy done (none was done after the crash) and it put to rest a decades long theory that there were gunshots fired inside the plane, causing the crash. This started when the field that the Beechcraft Bonanza came to rest in was plowed up that spring and a .22 caliber revolver was turned up. The gun came back registered to Charles H. Holley (Buddy Holly) and shortly thereafter speculation began to swirl that a fight had ensued and the gun discharged causing the crash. Nevertheless, the FAA ruling of pilot error still stands today.

[gramophoneshane]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXmkMQEisg

[Shane]

Buddy Holly on an acoustic phonograph??!! That just looks sooo strange... yet kinda cool at the same time!

The design of that machine makes it sound almost like electric reproduction.

[Steve]

Yes, it is a VERY significant day for a number of reasons.

Buddy Holly was (to my mind anyway) the single most influential and important songwriter and musician to appear in the era of rock 'n' roll. Elvis might have beaten him to it but only Holly from the same generation would form his own group (The Crickets), write his own timeless songs (still being covered today by other modern groups)and actively be involved in the recording and engineering of the sound he wanted. He had a vision and was not simply an idol looking for an audience. Without Holly, there would be no Beatles, The Stones or hundreds of other popular groups of the 1960's and beyond. The young Bob Dylan saw him a few days before he died and described him as having a "halo" around him. Young Bob certainly was inspired by him, it seems.

Very few artists have managed to cast such a huge spell over popular music for so long with such a small volume of recorded output. An article published in a British newspaper this week cites Buddy Holly as being THE most important recording artist in popular music from the second half of the 20th Century. Not bad for a kid of 22 years old!

But for me, the most significant event today by far is the release of the CD album: "Down The Line: Rarities"

It's been a long wait: 50 years. Reuters called it "a revelation" and to fans of Holly it is probably the single most important record release since the 6LP box set "The Complete Buddy Holly" 30 years ago. For those who don't already know, Buddy Holly's legacy was treated without much respect following his untimely death. There was a huge clamour to release more new material immediately following his deah so the songs he had been working on when he died and which were recorded as demos on his Ampex tape recorder in his New York apartment, were posthumously overdubbed with backing singers, second rate musicians and string arrangements. Until recently, it has been impossible to hear all of the "Apartment Tapes" in their original versions without buying poor quality bootleg records. Legal arguments have ensued for decades and whilst the major companies have never been able to release the material the fans have always wanted to hear, the record pirates have gladly stepped in to take their place.

The "Down The Line" CD marks a new dawn for any serious fan or collector of rock 'n' roll: here we have 50 years late, the original Holly demos, early performances recorded with his high school friend, Bob Montgomery and alternative versions of some of those classic songs with the Crickets, all together, remastered, restored and undubbed for the first time anywhere together. I'm sure even a perfectionist like Holly would approve.

5o years is a very long wait but this set has so far only received ecstatic reviews from the international music press proving that the power, honesty and maturity of a song like "Learning The Game" cannot be diminished with time. The critics are right in my opinion, listening to the "Apartment Tapes" today in that intimate setting (Buddy's wife, Maria Elena, can even be heard stacking plates in the background)wit Buddy singing such incredibly mature pop songs that he was then writing, you can't help but wonder what might've been, had that plane never crashed.

The recording industry at long last has corrected one of its horrible mistakes from the not too distant past.

[gramophoneshane]

Yes, all those RnR records seem a bit weird coming from the Re-entrant.
It's a UK pressing unfortunately, so I can't play it very often. The 202 can certainly handle the frequencies well though.

[Steve]

One of the single most important and influential songwriters and musicians of the 20th Century. More important than even Elvis as his legacy and influence proves today. Without Buddy there would be no Beatles or The Rolling Stones or countless hundreds of others groups to the present day.

He wasn't just a pretty face or an icon, he wrote his own songs, formed his own band, and defined how they should sound both live and in the recordings he made in the studio.

To mark this anniversary, Geffen have released what is probably the single most important Buddy Holly release for over 30 years: "Down The Line: The Rarities".

Just Google it and read the 50 year history which has now been revisited with this landmark release. For me personally as a Buddy Holly collector, this is like hearing Elvis' "Sun Sessions" for the first time. It has THAT impact.

Few artists in the history of recorded music have had their legacy so poorly treated both before and after their deaths. This CD goes some way to putting right 50 years of mistakes and poor judgement.

RAVE ON!

[JohnM]

I always love that scene in 'American Graffiti' where the greaser character suddenly turns off the car radio when the Beach Boys comes on, turns to Mackenzie Phillips and says, "I hate that surfin' s**t! Rock n' roll ain't been the same since Buddy Holly died".

John M

[Steve]

Yes and ironically, it was to this surfin' **** crowd (in part) that many of the overdubbed recordings were peddled to during the early 1960's, hence the incongruous mix of styles and inappropriate additions that fans have been complaining about for so long.