The Day the Music Died
Today, February 3rd, 2009, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson. The crash also killed the pilot, Roger Peterson. Not killed in the crash was Holly's bass player—a young musician named Waylon Jennings, who gave up his seat to The Big Bopper. Jennings would live another 43 years and enjoy a long and productive career in country music.
The event and its aftermath are chronicled in popular song form by Don McLean in the song "American Pie". This annotated version, hosted by FiftiesWeb.com, does a pretty good job of explaining (or trying to explain, anyway) McLean's eight and a half minute musical tribute. McLean, as best I can determine, has never explained the song himself.
I was reminded of all this by a recent article on Yahoo! Music, Chart Watch Extra: 22 Days The Music Died. It chronicles briefly the lives (and deaths) of twenty-two musicians who won Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards and who died before the age of 50. The article makes this interesting commentary:
Drug and/or alcohol abuse played a role in many of these deaths. Given how much performers travel, it's not surprising that four of the 22 artists (Holly, Otis Redding, Patsy Cline and Glenn Miller) died in plane crashes. But it is sobering to realize that three (Sam Cooke, John Lennon and Marvin Gaye) were shot to death.
There's a theory that there exist an infinite number of universes very similar to our own, differing only in historical details that either did or did not happen—universes where Lincoln was never assassinated, where Germany developed the atomic bomb first, or where Tesla's direct current won out over Edison's alternating current. I wonder if there's a universe where Buddy Holly and his cohorts decided to take the bus that night and ended up having long, productive careers. If such a universe existed, I think I'd like to visit it some time. I would like to hear where Holly went with his music in the turbulent, mind-altering Sixties. It would be interesting to see how he would have held up against the likes of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones.
On the other hand, if Buddy Holly hadn't died young, how much would we really care about him? Or Ritchie Valens? Or the Big Bopper? Would they all have faded into obscurity like so many other artists of the day? Would we even still remember their names or their music, fifty years later?
As it is now, do you suppose anyone will still remember them in another fifty years? Will there be a centennial remembrance of their deaths? Something tells me there just may be.
The event and its aftermath are chronicled in popular song form by Don McLean in the song "American Pie". This annotated version, hosted by FiftiesWeb.com, does a pretty good job of explaining (or trying to explain, anyway) McLean's eight and a half minute musical tribute. McLean, as best I can determine, has never explained the song himself.
I was reminded of all this by a recent article on Yahoo! Music, Chart Watch Extra: 22 Days The Music Died. It chronicles briefly the lives (and deaths) of twenty-two musicians who won Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards and who died before the age of 50. The article makes this interesting commentary:
Drug and/or alcohol abuse played a role in many of these deaths. Given how much performers travel, it's not surprising that four of the 22 artists (Holly, Otis Redding, Patsy Cline and Glenn Miller) died in plane crashes. But it is sobering to realize that three (Sam Cooke, John Lennon and Marvin Gaye) were shot to death.
There's a theory that there exist an infinite number of universes very similar to our own, differing only in historical details that either did or did not happen—universes where Lincoln was never assassinated, where Germany developed the atomic bomb first, or where Tesla's direct current won out over Edison's alternating current. I wonder if there's a universe where Buddy Holly and his cohorts decided to take the bus that night and ended up having long, productive careers. If such a universe existed, I think I'd like to visit it some time. I would like to hear where Holly went with his music in the turbulent, mind-altering Sixties. It would be interesting to see how he would have held up against the likes of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones.
On the other hand, if Buddy Holly hadn't died young, how much would we really care about him? Or Ritchie Valens? Or the Big Bopper? Would they all have faded into obscurity like so many other artists of the day? Would we even still remember their names or their music, fifty years later?
As it is now, do you suppose anyone will still remember them in another fifty years? Will there be a centennial remembrance of their deaths? Something tells me there just may be.
posted by Michael at
6:59 AM
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