Sound Check
Remembering Buddy Holly and "the day the music died"
It has often been said that a man's life can be measured by the size of his funeral. If that's true, then Lubbock native Buddy Holly's measurements are off the charts. Fifty one years after his death there are throngs of fans - many of whom weren't yet born when Holly died - still in mourning.
Those who remember the cold Feb. 3, 1959 morning when a rock n' roll caravan carrying Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson, boarded a 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza B35 four-seater plane after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa and disappeared into the night, retell the story as if it were a vivid recent memory.
Many, like me, who were born a decade or more after his death but who grew up immersed in his innovative music, know the story so well that it's almost impossible to believe that it happened half-a-century ago.
Even more unbelievable is how indelible an imprint Holly made on the world of popular music, even though he only lived to be 22 years old and released just three proper albums.
From those few albums, however, Holly created hits like "That'll Be The Day" "Peggy Sue," and "Oh Boy!" that combined Elvis Presley's rockabilly style, the traditional country traditions that Holly grew up with in Lubbock and a hiccupping exclamation laced into his vocals that was all his own.
Holly's death was felt across the entire rock music landscape. The Beatles have always cited him as a major influence and Bob Dylan has often told the story of attending a Holly concert two nights before his death and the imapct the experience had on his music.
A young Waylon Jennings, a member of Holly's band during that final tour, was haunted by the tragedy his entire life. (Jennings passed away in 2002 at age 64.) Jennings was supposed to be on that little plane headed for the next gig in Moorhead, Minnesota. But Jennings offered up his seat on the plane to Richardson, who wasn't feeling well, and took his place on the cold, slow tour bus being used by the rest of the touring crew.
As Jennings tells it, when Holly found out he wasn't going by air, he jokingly yelled at him, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up."
Jennings shot back, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes."
Those were the last words he spoke to Holly and he never completely forgave himself for uttering them.
Perhaps singer and songwriter Don McLean summarized the scope of what was lost in that plane crash best, declaring it "the day the music died" in his iconic song, "American Pie."
All these images make Holly seem larger than life. Few, however, can make him seem like a real person as well as his widow.
I had the pleasure of meeting Holly's widow, Maria Elena Holly, nearly 10 years ago when she represented her husband at the first Hard Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Houston. She is the first to tell you that her husband was a self-assured young man who always knew what he wanted. She smiled when recalling that Holly asked for her hand in marriage on the first day they met — the first date she ever went on in her life.
She partially blames herself for Holly's death. Having just found out she was two-weeks pregnant, Mrs. Holly was not feeling well when her husband left on that last Midwest tour. She knows that if she had been there, her husband would have never gotten on that plane.
Holly's funeral took place in Lubbock but she was too distraught to attend. She still has never visited his headstone. Perhaps that would make his death too tangible.
Maria Elena, who now lives in Dallas, was fond of telling her very practical and proactive husband that he was age "22 going on 50." In truth, the image she keeps of him in her mind is frozen in time at 1959.
The same goes for the rest of us.
If he had lived, Holly would be 73 years-old today. Perhaps he would still be playing the occasional gig, like his early rock n' roll peers Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. We can only imagine what else he would have added to popular music and what effect it would have had on the generations of bands and artists.
What we are left with instead is a dramatic tale of a tragic untimely death and a reason to celebrate Holly's life by "spinning" a few of his greatest hits over again in his honor.
