But something touched me deep inside, the day the music died...

Cafe Society
1

But something touched me deep inside, the day the music died…

The thread title is a snippet from the lyrics of Don McLean’s song American Pie, about that cold February night in 1959 when a small plane crashed and killed young up-and-coming rock stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (JP Richardson), and Ritchie Valens, and pilot Roger Peterson.

That was 55 years ago: 03 February 1959 was The Day The Music Died, in the wee hours of a cold winter’s morning. All were very young. Buddy Holly was only 22, JP Richardson was 28, and Ritchie Valens was 17. Pilot Roger Peterson was 21.

The plane was chartered by Buddy Holly and was intended for Holly and his band members. Holly’s guitarist Tommy Allsup was supposed to be on the plane instead of Ritchie Valens, but Valens wanted to fly instead of taking the bus and Allsup agreed to toss a coin and the winner would get Allsup’s seat on the plane. Valens won the coin toss and took the fateful plane seat. Holly’s bass player Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the plane instead of JP Richardson, but Richardson was coming down with the flu so Jennings gave him his seat so he could get to the hotel sooner for some much-needed rest.

I visited there on Saturday, in Clear Lake, Iowa (2 days ago - it’s Monday morning as I write this). I visited the Surf Ballroom, and also the crash site six miles north of The Surf in a corn field. Here’s a picture of the crash site memorial:
File:HollyMonument.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. The plane took off from nearby Mason City Municipal Airport (Wikipedia link: Mason City Municipal Airport - Wikipedia) - just six miles away.

Have any other Dopers visited? And, what are your thoughts about this tragic night?

What’s not shown in the above picture, and maybe it was added later, is that to the right of this monument is one for the pilot, Roger Peterson. Here’s a picture of that:

And here’s a picture of the Buddy Holly eyeglasses at the road side:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/GlassesSign.jpg/220px-GlassesSign.jpg.

None of the pictures I’ve linked to are mine.

The Buddy Holly eyeglasses marker is at the (roughly) address of 22500 Gull Ave., Clear Lake, IA, where the west end of 315th Street ends at Gull Ave. From that ‘trailhead’ marker it’s about a ¼-mile walk directly west to the spot where the plane crashed. The crash site is on private property, and the farm owner keeps a clear trail from the simple Buddy Holly eyeglasses statue beside the road to the crash site memorial. Thank you, farm owner, whoever you are.

I am home now. I flew home yesterday morning. My visit there was good — sobering, humbling, appreciative of their music, and surprised at how popular the Surf Ballroom remains to this day. Many pictures of entertainers are on its walls. Also, many autographs cover the walls of ‘the green room’ behind the stage where acts would wait. I’m too young to have been a fan of their music when they lived. I wasn’t even born when they died. But I love Don McLean’s song. It’s both haunting and celebratory at the same time:

A long, long time ago,
I can still remember how that music
used to make me smile…

*But February made me shiver
with every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep…
*

***I can’t remember if I cried
when I read about his widowed bride
but something touched me deep inside
the day the music died…

A great song. Am wondering what Dopers think about the song, or about the artists.

2

I was only 5 years old when they died. I think Ritchie Valens had a lot of potential, but there’s no way to know whether he would have had a big career or not. Buddy Holly is someone who stature has grown, in my eyes, as I have learned more about him.

I knew his hits when I was a little kid. When the Beatles became my musical heros in 1964, I gradually became aware of Holly’s influence on their music and their name. I think that in general, the older I got and the more accomplished I became as a musician, the more I appreciated Holly. I can’t remember when I first heard, or even heard about, the Apartment Tapes, but those recordings provided a convincing glimpse of the poetential that died in that plane crash. I think that Holly was a great artist whose best work didn’t get a chance to be created.

I still like Don McLean’s song.

3

The song is fun.

As to the musicians, I think they died young, left good looking corpses and have “enjoyed” the fame and publicity that comes from that. Listen to their actual music and I don’t hear anything that special.

4

I never knew that memorial existed. Thank you for posting the story and thanks to the farmer for generously making access available to those who would visit.

I still like the song too, always have.

5

I have a personal connection with that. I was working at the time as a DJ at a station in Wisconsin, and I did the booking for record hops and live shows. I got a call from the agent for the Holly tour, a couple of weeks before, asking if we wanted to book a night. For various reasons, it would not work in our plans, so I declined. If I had booked them, it would have changed their itinerary, and they wouldn’t have been in Roger Peterson’s plane in Iowa that night. And nobody would ever know how I changed history.

6

I didn’t know there was a memorial either. My sister lives about 10 miles from it, so I will schedule a visit next time I’m in the area.

7

I like the song, which is still played now and then on KRTH, an oldies radio station in the Los Angeles area. Cecil himself has provided a description of the allegorical lyrics; and he printed a final word from McLean himself, who is probably tired of the matter.

8

I suspect McLean is tired of the matter all the way to the bank, as the debate over the lyrics is probably a major factor in keeping the song in popular rotation.

All artistic bushwah about songwriters not explaining themselves aside, he long ago could have written an essay on the influences and references and been done with it.

9

You have to listen to Buddy Holly in context, and realize that few if any were doing what he did in his era. To whit:

• Performing his own compositions (this was still mostly the era of staff songwriters) with himself and his band (this was still mostly the era of studio musicians)

• Mixing elements of R&B, country and rock together in a combination that appealed to teens but still had a bit more depth to it

• Adding a melodic and harmonic content that was largely absent from rock ‘n’ roll songwriting
If Holly sounds “ordinary” to you today, it’s only because so many others went on to work from his template. He was there first. Listen with 1958 ears, not 2014 ones.

10

Moved this over to CS for ya.

11

Oops, sorry…“to wit:”

12

I think the song is a nice memorial to a couple talented artists, specifically Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. I think The Big Bopper was something of a novelty act and wouldn’t have achieved nearly the level of success as the other two, but I guess we’ll never know.

The song itself is a catchy one, but goes on unnecessarily long and frankly, I’m surprised we’re still listening to it. It’s just not that good, aside from the meaning behind it. I’ve probably heard it a few thousand times in my life, at least a thousand too many, and if I never hear it again I won’t miss it.

I’d prefer to hear songs by the deceased artists rather than American Pie, but I’m not a classic rock station musical director and I haven’t yet achieved world domination, so I guess that will have to remain a dream of mine.

13

LOVE the song American Pie, always have, and when I learned the meaning of it many years later it became particularly poignant. It’s a classic about the classics.

14

My mother loved the Big Bopper, and would often sing along to Chantilly Lace when it was on the radio. I remember one morning coming down to breakfast and seeing her by the radio upset, listening to the news of the crash. She was only 28 at the time, a fact which to me now is just unbelievable.

15

This.

And consider this: the BIGGIES in circa '58 Rock and Roll were Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. Of those five, which one was least likely to offend the parents of teenagers watching their idols appear on Ed Sullivan?

16

Just found this (inspired by this thread): The Big Bopper’s son, who was born 80 days after his dad died, died himself just short of a year ago: http://blog.chron.com/29-95/2013/08/big-bopper-jr-dies-in-katy/

17

You left out** this dude:**

Pat Boone - Wikipedia :smack:

18

And **this guy **as well:

I remember Kasey Kasem saying that Elvis, Pat, and Ricky were the top three charters in the pre-British Invasion era.

19

As Amateur Barbarian said, McLean is tired all the way to the bank. Many of his songs wouldn’t have been appreciated without people first appreciating American Pie. Further, in the Surf Ballroom there are several mementos of Don McLean on the walls, including signed copies of a record of his, and also a notebook page with his handwritten scratch of some of American Pie’s lyrics, including words scratched out and replaced by the final version.

One stanza, from memory, was something like this (IIRC):

Did you write the book of love?
And do you have faith in (the man above)?
{‘the man above’ was scratched out and replaced with ‘God above’}

That wouldn’t have been on the wall without his approval. Don McLean is doing alright. He may not have liked being typecast because of one song, but so be it, he was, and he also made a lot of money from it.

20

No he didn’t.

Ranger Jeff said: “the BIGGIES in circa '58 Rock and Roll…”

Pat Boone has nothing whatsoever to do with rock and roll.

Furthermore, by halfway through 1958, his run of Top 10 pop hits had just about come to an end, and his subsequent single releases had only modest success.

He had only two more Top 10 hits in his career: the novelty “Speedy Gonzales” and the folky “Moody River,” in 1961 and 1962 respectively.