Today is Buddy Holly's Birthday
September 7, 2015 8:31 AM Subscribe
September 7th is Buddy Holly's 79th birthday.
Restoration of the last guitar that he ever played:
How to play Peggy Sue on guitar.
The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.
And, of course, the music (MLYT):
Not Fade Away
Maybe, Baby
That'll Be the Day
Every Day
Not Fade Away
Maybe, Baby
That'll Be the Day
Every Day
(I love that book, clvrmnky)
With all the mythology, it's easy to forget what an innovator Buddy was. He codified the standard rock group lineup, was one of the first rockers to use a Stratocaster, and man did he write some great songs.
posted by jonmc at 8:54 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
With all the mythology, it's easy to forget what an innovator Buddy was. He codified the standard rock group lineup, was one of the first rockers to use a Stratocaster, and man did he write some great songs.
posted by jonmc at 8:54 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
ME: “Oh hey, MetaFilter says its Buddy Holly's birthday.”
COWORKER: “I don't care bout that.”
ME: *sighs*
posted by Fizz at 8:57 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
COWORKER: “I don't care bout that.”
ME: *sighs*
posted by Fizz at 8:57 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Must be nice to work with Weezer, fizz.
posted by dr_dank at 9:19 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dr_dank at 9:19 AM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
"These rock and roll specialists ..." play "Peggy Sue" on the TV show "Arthur Murray Dance Party", 12/29/57.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 10:02 AM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by King Sky Prawn at 10:02 AM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Love his songs. The 'Peggy Sue' chord heard in the bridge (flat 6) was not heard in pop before Holly I don't think. The Beatles were unobtrusively obsessed with it and set about domesticating it, initially only able to wield it for shock effect, then took a break from it and returned to use it more colloquially in later songs.
See: I Saw Her Standing There, It Won't Be Long, Lady Madonna, Oh! Darling, P.S. I Love You, Polythene Pam, With A Little Help from My Friends, Hello Goodbye.
posted by colie at 10:34 AM on September 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
See: I Saw Her Standing There, It Won't Be Long, Lady Madonna, Oh! Darling, P.S. I Love You, Polythene Pam, With A Little Help from My Friends, Hello Goodbye.
posted by colie at 10:34 AM on September 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Two related geocaches in the northern Iowa region for Holly fans:
The Day The Music Died, at the Surf Ballroom where they played their last show, and
Holly Shrine, at the plane crash site.
These are both "virtual caches", so there is no physical geocache to find - just the latitude/longitudes of noteworthy locactions.
posted by TheClonusHorror at 11:19 AM on September 7, 2015
The Day The Music Died, at the Surf Ballroom where they played their last show, and
Holly Shrine, at the plane crash site.
These are both "virtual caches", so there is no physical geocache to find - just the latitude/longitudes of noteworthy locactions.
posted by TheClonusHorror at 11:19 AM on September 7, 2015
I'm getting awfully into these "how to play Peggie Sue" lyrics of "My Dee-Dee. My Dee-Dee Ay-uh-ay."
posted by cardioid at 11:34 AM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cardioid at 11:34 AM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm getting awfully into these "how to play Peggie Sue" lyrics of "My Dee-Dee. My Dee-Dee Ay-uh-ay."
When writing, my stand-in for vocal melodies that don’t have words yet is sometimes “meow meow [etc.]” (the word, not imitation cat sounds), but i’m hardcore twee (see you in the mosh pit with the kittens).
(Yes, i know on the video he’s doing that to say the chords.)
posted by D.C. at 12:11 PM on September 7, 2015
When writing, my stand-in for vocal melodies that don’t have words yet is sometimes “meow meow [etc.]” (the word, not imitation cat sounds), but i’m hardcore twee (see you in the mosh pit with the kittens).
(Yes, i know on the video he’s doing that to say the chords.)
posted by D.C. at 12:11 PM on September 7, 2015
How to play Peggy Sue on drums:
| paradiddle :|
posted by Quonab at 12:40 PM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
| paradiddle :|
posted by Quonab at 12:40 PM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
You're the One - written and (I think?) recorded with Waylon Jennings in December, 1958.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:56 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:56 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Whoohoo Buddy Holly! Today is also my birthday. I will listen and raise a glass to my birthday twin. Nice post!
posted by aka burlap at 1:33 PM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by aka burlap at 1:33 PM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Three items
1) Buddy's records sound fantastic, firmly in that category of "recordings that sonically do not sound dated ever", and Buddy was hugely influential and a tragic early loss.
2) Gruhn's Guitars, famous vintage dealer in Nashville, had his Magnatone amp for sale at one point a few years ago, I seem to remember the price was several hundred thousand dollars. The listing/articles are offline, but they let nerd Conan O'Brien play it. Conan with the Magnatone
3) Nothing has cracked me up more than the tales from Little Richard's book about the early days of rock and roll. Given that Buddy has the sock-hop innocent image, I don't know how many people have a picture in their mind of Little Richard/Buddy Holly threesomes. I'm tempted to quote a few passages for the laughs, but it is severely NSFW so I'll just link to a few extremely dirty/funny excerpts. The Life and Times of Little Richard
posted by C.A.S. at 2:08 PM on September 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
1) Buddy's records sound fantastic, firmly in that category of "recordings that sonically do not sound dated ever", and Buddy was hugely influential and a tragic early loss.
2) Gruhn's Guitars, famous vintage dealer in Nashville, had his Magnatone amp for sale at one point a few years ago, I seem to remember the price was several hundred thousand dollars. The listing/articles are offline, but they let nerd Conan O'Brien play it. Conan with the Magnatone
3) Nothing has cracked me up more than the tales from Little Richard's book about the early days of rock and roll. Given that Buddy has the sock-hop innocent image, I don't know how many people have a picture in their mind of Little Richard/Buddy Holly threesomes. I'm tempted to quote a few passages for the laughs, but it is severely NSFW so I'll just link to a few extremely dirty/funny excerpts. The Life and Times of Little Richard
posted by C.A.S. at 2:08 PM on September 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Good post. Just dug up some Buddy Holly out of the archives to listen to.
Have to link to my favorite of his: Well.. All Right.
posted by JonathanB at 2:55 PM on September 7, 2015
Have to link to my favorite of his: Well.. All Right.
posted by JonathanB at 2:55 PM on September 7, 2015
The NPR story on the so-called Buddy Holly Apartment Tapes (includes three very rare unreleased songs) made me buy my first and only bootleg box set. (Be sure to listen to the NPR story, don't just read the blurb.)
I could (and do) listen to Holly acoustic all day long, on infinite repeat.
posted by anastasiav at 3:34 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I could (and do) listen to Holly acoustic all day long, on infinite repeat.
posted by anastasiav at 3:34 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
An 8x10 of Buddy adorns the wall of my staircase in my house, as part of a small, select "rock legends" salon-style display. Most of my earliest musical memories involve Buddy Holly and listening to his music. I have loved him as long as I can remember, and he had already been dead for more than 25 years before I was born. Even to this day, Buddy Holly a huge part of my life. Thank you for posting.
posted by wats at 4:32 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by wats at 4:32 PM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I really want to live in the alternate universe where Buddy Holly lived to drop acid.
posted by dogheart at 4:45 PM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by dogheart at 4:45 PM on September 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
"One of the main things about the Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician.'" — Paul McCartneyIn February 2009, on the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death at 22 in 1959, I wrote this on my blog (I won't self-link):
"When I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory [three days before he died] and I was three feet away from him. And he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way." — Bob Dylan, on recording his 1998 album Time Out of Mind
He got as close as anyone has to the essence of rock 'n' roll: saying a lot with the sparest of elements, and not caring if you seem like a bit of a fool as long as you say what you mean.
No one will ever do what he did. Sure, there are imitators — he's very easy to imitate. But no one can do it with that purity and innocence anymore. There will always have to be a layer of irony or allusion.
Of course, there were many legendary originators of rock from the '50s. But his is one of the most enduring voices. I'd rank him, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley in a class of their own.
And no one else had so much potential cut off.
posted by John Cohen at 6:42 PM on September 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure if it's their biggest theft from him, but the verse of Crying, Waiting, Hoping is pretty much transplanted into Please Please Me.
posted by colie at 1:36 AM on September 8, 2015
posted by colie at 1:36 AM on September 8, 2015
The only list longer than the number of people Little Richard has slept with is the list of people Little Richard has said he has slept with.
posted by clvrmnky at 2:35 PM on September 9, 2015
posted by clvrmnky at 2:35 PM on September 9, 2015
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posted by clvrmnky at 8:45 AM on September 7, 2015 [4 favorites]