The Music Never Stopped

They called it “the day the music died”. When the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa, the course of rock and roll history was changed forever.

As I stated in my last post, I had planned to put together a short podcast featuring Holly, Valens, and Richardson, but stopped when I discovered that WBAI in NYC was rebroadcasting Peter Bochan’s 1979 radio special: Not Fade Away. I was so impressed with this broadcast (very well produced) that I have already listened to it 3 times!

The broadcast highlights a story where Holly and the Crickets go to see Elvis at a club, only he has no drummer, just bass and guitar. Holly advised Elvis to add drums to his outfit and it was this suggestion that gave Elvis and his hips all that punch. As the story goes, Holly was mesmerized by Elvis and the way he drove the ladies crazy. The local Texas men were not quite so thrilled.

Elvis, Holly, and others were trying to shatter the country and rockabilly moulds, but their attempts to push rhythm & blues in a whole new direction were met with much resistance by the established recording industry. Greater availability of newer post-war technology (much of it stolen from the Germans and Japanese) led to smaller studios being built outside of the big city, but the production and distribution of records was (and still is) controlled by the big city corporations and their ideas of what a record should sound like. The radio stations were no different, and the payola scandals only made problems worse.

New social cliques were forming and the tension was quite palpable. Gangs of greasers and rednecks would ride around at night “cruising for action”. The Texas (Holly was from Lubbock) clubs were “dry” at the time, and so people would bring their own liquor. My father graduated from high school just as this scene was exploding. He went to a vocational school which was rife with bullies and gangs, and so violence was a regular part of high school life. He told me a story about some greasers who decided it would be “fun” to throw his naked ass out of the locker room into the bright bliss of snow one January afternoon. He bounced down a flight of concrete steps and had to pick himself up and limp quietly (to keep the remainder of his dignity) through the front hall (they locked the gym door). No teachers, parents, or police were involved. The “anti-snitch” problem is not new. Nobody wants to be labeled as a sissy.

My dad turned 21 just a few weeks before the music “died”. He had a 1938 Plymouth that he modified with a cutting torch. Voila! Instant convertable, but a bitch when it rains. He would “cruise” this beast many miles to the local “sock hops”. Drag races on “the strip” were a nightly occurrence during warm weather. Open liqour, sans seatbelts (his car was built without them), and white-walled radial tires. Back pockets stuffed with leather wallets, combs and prophylactics. Brylcreem was “de rigueur”. Yeah man, dig. We’re ready to go! Be cool. Be cool.

The bands at the sock hops played a host of the new rock and roll hits plus their own jazz and swing arrangements. A musical crossover was under way on the dancehall bandstands. Wild and screeching tenor sax sounds, tremelo guitars, screaming vocals, and a sharp backbeat. I asked my dad when rock and roll officially started. Everything was so “swinging” at that time that he couldn’t really say for certain, but he recalls that it was “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets that really grabbed everyone, because it was noticably different.

I remember my folks telling me about the famous plane crash when I was a kid. They were big fans of the Big Bopper, and so I decided to do a musical review of Richardson and Valens and was surprised to learn that despite their short recording careers, each had several songs that I was not familiar with. Since the 1979 Bochan broadcast was focused on Holly – and the 50th anniversary discussions are similar – I decided to put together a compilation that highlighted the recordings of all three, including a few cover tunes. Rather than hit you with the usual standards: La Bamba, Donna, Chantilly Lace, I decided to feature some of the lesser known numbers. While Holly was certainly the biggest of the three, Valens and Richardson were also influential, if not as recognized. Led Zeppelin’s “Boogie with Stu” (with legendary session keyboardist, Ian Stewart) is a direct rip-off of Valens’ “Ooh! My Head.”

The Music Never Stopped: 50 Years After the Day the Music Died

1. Don McLean – American Pie memorial remix – 9:48
2. Buddy Holly – That’ll Be The Day – 2:14
3. Buddy Holly – Oh Boy – 2:07
4. The Beatles – Words Of Love – 2:11
5. J.P. Richardson – Crazy Blues – 2:04
6. Buddy Holly – Not Fade Away – 2:20
7. Grateful Dead – Not Fade Away / Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad – 9:10
8. Blind Faith – Well All Right – 4:26
9. Weezer – Buddy Holly – 2:39
10. Buddy Holly – Fool’s Paradise – 2:28
11. Ritchie Valens – Fast Freight – 1:55
12. Ritchie Valens – Framed – 2:13
13. J.P. Richardson – Bopper’s Boogie Woogie – 3:09
14. J.P. Richardson – It’s the Truth Ruth – 2:12
15. Ritchie Valens – Ooh! My Head – 1:46
16. Led Zeppelin – Boogie With Stu – 3:53
17. Ritchie Valens – Malaguena – 2:59
18. Ritchie Valens – In a Turkish Town – 2:12