Buddy Holley

February 3, 2003 2:12 PM

The Day the Music Died...It was February 3, 1959 that Buddy Holley, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash. You need look no further to find one of the true icons of rock and roll than Buddy Holley. Originally scheduled to fly, Waylon Jennings gave his seat to an ailing Big Bopper. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes." This friendly banter of friends would haunt Jennings for years. And can anyone really decipher Don McLeans' "American Pie"? More.
posted by Mack Twain (23 comments total)

{knocks on wood}
posted by Witty at 2:13 PM on February 3, 2003

Holly. Buddy Holly.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:17 PM on February 3, 2003

A great time as any to go out and rent La Bamba.
posted by PrinceValium at 2:32 PM on February 3, 2003

Holly. Buddy Holly.

Bond. James Bond.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:35 PM on February 3, 2003

Also, don't miss Gary Busey's amazing performance in The Buddy Holly Story.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:37 PM on February 3, 2003

Why couldn't they just send up a rescue plane if they knew the plane was going to crash?
posted by bondcliff at 2:44 PM on February 3, 2003

Crash, I believe you mean Gary Busy.
posted by jonson at 2:46 PM on February 3, 2003

Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley = Buddy Holly...It seems interchangable and I wasn't sure (googling both spellings produces apx same results) but my "greatest hits" CD says Buddy Holly, so my bad. Two things which strike me: what a great songwriter and innovator he was, and the sheer volumn of talent that used to travel around and give concerts together. Far cry from these days.
posted by Mack Twain at 2:49 PM on February 3, 2003

It's also worth mentioning that Busey *shoots jonson the skunk-eye* performed all the music in The Buddy Holly Story himself, rather than lip-synching to Holly's original tracks, and the similarity is mind-boggling.

(on preview: I wasn't knocking you, Mack. Your third linked site bounces back and forth between the two spellings in its first two paragraphs, and that was what annoyed me.)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:51 PM on February 3, 2003

[sarcasm] And of course who could forget the amazing performances of Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder in Great Balls O Fire! [/sarcasm]
posted by ZachsMind at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2003

They were so young! Richie Valens was only 17.
The Dead Musician's Directory airplane crash victims page has more info on these guys and others. Damn, a lot of good musical people have crashed and burned!
I didn't realize Otis Redding was killled in a plane crash - I thought he was murdered, similar to Sam Cooke.
posted by madamjujujive at 2:56 PM on February 3, 2003

Not to be picky (look at the people I'm saying this to), but I believe the Waylon story is more poetic license than anything else.

madamJJ - I saw a photograph of Otis Redding post-crash in a book, (the name of which escapes me) a sheriff was pulling him out of the water and he just looked slumped over asleep. That image has stuck with me and I wish I'd never seen it. Poor Otis, what a talent! Buddy and Ritchie rocked mightily and who cannot dig a man nicknamed the Big Bopper?
posted by Woolcott'sKindredGal at 3:17 PM on February 3, 2003

sounds like earlier on in this thread that some left the tv on with behind the music blaring.

i respond though to collaborate kindred gal's seeing the picture of otis redding. i saw it online somewhere when i was on a big soul fix... will look for it again.

maury muehleisen also died in the plane crash that took jim croce's life. maury's album gingerbreadd, to me is just as good as croce's work, but in a more spingtime way.
posted by the aloha at 3:26 PM on February 3, 2003

Sorry, but I can never forgive Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper for voting for Sideshow Bob.

(I know, I know, the Simpsons thread is over here.)
posted by arto at 3:29 PM on February 3, 2003

The very little known Buddy Holly tune composed in the 1980s:


Saturday night
Hanging round for a bite
Find a real cutie with the dust mite blues
Hangnail, high tail, fairy tale, very well
Finding anything that I can chew

Coo coo daddy longlegs
Rough it up, rough it up, oh oh oh oh
Rain fly pie with a mosquito side salad
23 years on a meat-free diet
Beetles, crickets, gonna get you sick
It's here's a little sucker and you ought to try it
Coo coo, daddy longlegs
Hope it makes more money than "Peggy Sue"-ue
Ha ha ha ha ooooh


-- Care of the Young Ones
posted by thanotopsis at 3:35 PM on February 3, 2003

"I remember the last time I saw Buddy. He had me go get us some hot dogs. He was leaning back against the wall in a cane-bottom chair and he was laughing at me. He said, 'So you're not going with us tonight on the plane, huh? Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up. It's 40-below out there and you're gonna get awful cold.

"So I said, 'Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes.' I was so afraid for many years that somebody was going to find out I said that". From Waylon: An Autobiography... Jennings' account of his friendship with Buddy Holly in his own distinctive words.
posted by Mack Twain at 3:42 PM on February 3, 2003

Thanks for clearing that up Mack Twain, I certainly defer to Waylon's account. Myth about the myth, and poor Waylon! Wow, this is depressing...
posted by Woolcott'sKindredGal at 3:56 PM on February 3, 2003

Too bad they didn't stay around to become absurd ridiculed parodies of themselves.
posted by HTuttle at 8:55 PM on February 3, 2003

Richie Valens went to my junior and senior high school (a bit before my time). He recorded one of the first "live" albums Live at Pacoima Jr. High. I got a copy on CD from Rhino (although i can't seem to find it on their site now).
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:54 AM on February 4, 2003

I don't like to quibble with the FPP's selection of links, but the one on American Pie seems pretty lame. The thrust of the song is the British Invasion, which McLean saw as the nail in the coffin of "true" rock & roll music, a sacrament we (Americans) were unable to defend because we'd lost three of our heaviest hitters to that plane crash. The references aren't that oblique within this context. I'm sure there's a better, more exhaustive page on this, I'm just too lazy to go find it.
posted by soyjoy at 8:52 AM on February 4, 2003

OK, here's one.
posted by soyjoy at 9:47 AM on February 4, 2003

soyjoy, your link is the third one that shows up on a google search; I thought about using it, but my link was the only one I could find with any participation by Don McLean himself. I found both lacking, and short of someone coming up with a reasonable interpretation I'm subject to believing that except for the obvious references, most of this song is like a lot of Dylan songs: "Go Figure".
posted by Mack Twain at 11:15 AM on February 4, 2003

Yeah, after reading through all of the one I posted, I agree it's pretty lame too - Lee Harvey Oswald? Come on!

I just wanted to provide one that actually went through the whole song rather than dealing with a mere handful of references. Like I said, I was too lazy to even search, then I overcame that, but now I'm too lazy to find a better one. It's out there, though, I know it is, and once it's found, the whole song will make perfect sense!
posted by soyjoy at 1:27 PM on February 4, 2003