Buddy Holly's Last Tour

Ha. At least there's a few of us around old enough to know.

Hopefully, his story will Not Fade Away. Because, as Huggy notes, he was doing stuff in the late 50s that hadn't been done before and wouldn't be matched in many respects for almost a decade.

 

I have that book, and that's exactly where he touched on it, in a couple of different ways.

The most creative one was the fantasy about the plane staying in the air, what would have happened to each of the three singers. Buddy would have remained successful as a songwriter and producer, Ritchie would have become an LA session guitarist and mentor to Carlos Santana and others, and Bopper would have scraped the barrel for another hit or two, then would have become a game-show host with an Oprah-ish weight control problem.

 

Yes, he was. An interesting factoid from wiki:

'In May 1957, he broke the record for continuous on-the-air broadcasting by eight minutes. He performed for total of five days, two hours and eight minutes, playing 1,821 records and taking showers during five-minute newscasts. He lost 35 pounds (16 kilos) during his marathon. KTRM paid Richardson $746.50 for his overtime and he slept for the next 20 hours.

Richardson is credited with coining the term music video in 1959, and recorded an early example himself. However, his business venture in this area was cut short by his untimely death.'


A lot of talent dropped from the sky that evening.

 

Bingo. That's the one I remember.

 

Anyone remember a 1990's sitcom starring Dabney Coleman called Drexell's Class?
Dabney Coleman's character was at a talent show where his daughter (played by A.J. Langer) and her boyfriend's band was about to play and he said to a friend "I was there when they discovered Buddy Holly."
His friend said "In the small club in Texas?"
He said, "No, in the big field in Iowa."

 

Ouch.

 

With respectful nods to Waylon and Orbison, Buddy's the greatest artist ever to come from Cowshitistan.

The Beatles were inspired by The Crickets for their name...

 

Eddie Cochran would be in that category, too. Two big what-ifs as far as the history of rock goes. Would the teen idols (Frankie Avalon, Fabian) gained any traction? Would the Beatles have donned the suits and become the Fab Four, or would they have stayed the bad boys they were in Hamburg? (Holly and Cochran, along with Chuck Berry, were huge influences on their music, no doubt). Or would Holly and Cochran have been co-opted?

 

Wasn't Holly moving away from the raw rock 'n' roll and into orchestrated stuff like "True Love Ways" and "Raining in my Heart?"

How slimy was the music business? You find these incredibly talented kids who are bursting with creativity, steal their publishing, steal their record royalties and then send them out to tour on some ridiculous breakneck schedule to promote the records that make you money. Wow.

 

Um, was? Has it really changed?

 

Buddy Holly invented the Internet.