Remembering Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & JP Richardson

[Alan Brookes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqzY9LPWZxw

Check out this interview that Garrison Keillor gave last year with Travis Holley, Buddy's elder brother, and Peggy Sue. It's quite interesting.

In another episode of A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor narrates how he was at school when he heard of the crash, and he and two of his school friends skipped school to drive to the crash site. When they got there there were so many people that they had to park outside town. Keillor went into the bushes to relieve himself and found the remains of Buddy's Stratocaster. In reverence to him he left it there, but in retrospect he wished he would have taken it away, because it disappeared. It was probably thrown into the trash when they came to clear up the debris from the site.

[Godfrey Arthur]

The day the music died..

[Godfrey Arthur]

Keillor went into the bushes to relieve himself and found the remains of Buddy's Stratocaster. In reverence to him he left it there, .

Dang!

[Roger Rettig]

Alan wrote:

"As cheap and tawdry as the venue was, several of today's well-known stars were sitting in the audience waiting for them to appear, including Bobby Vee and Bob Dylan."

I'm not sure what point you're making here, Alan; at that time they were just a couple of impressionable teenagers like the rest of us, not musical luminaries making the trek to see an 'important' rock and roll show.

[Larry Bressington]

Buddy would've done just fine, he did it with class, not trash, and I believe he would have maintained, a true troubadour... I just got back from Lubbock what a beautiful place.

[Craig Stock]

Waylon Jennings story about that tour is very amazing too.

Later on Lubbock produced a ton of other greats, Joe Ely , Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Lloyd Maines , Terry Allen, Jessie Taylor, etc. what a great place, I got my education at Texas Tech and got to experience some of that. Haven't been back for 31 years, but would like to revisit.

[Alan Brookes]

Another year rolls around. Gone for 57 yrs. now, but not forgotten. Who knows what music we've lost over the last half century as a result of this tragic event?

[Charlie McDonald]

Tourists actually come here as a destination to see the Buddy Holly Museum.
On the news, a nurse from Illinois bought a t-shirt to take back to her dad, a big fan.
I remember his music well, like I first heard it on the radio in a little town outside of Abilene a long time ago. It sounded new.

[Alan Brookes]

Charlie, before I retired, everyone knew what a big Buddy Holly fan I was, so salesmen in the Lubbock area would pop into the museum and shop and bring me back T-shirts and memorobilia. I really must visit Lubbock some day. I have a good friend there who has given me an open invitation. The last time I was in Texas was 1976, and I was on a train from Atlanta to New Orleans, so I just passed through. Since my home town is Birmingham (the original one) I've often wondered what its namesake town is like in Texas. All I've seen of that town has been from the train.

[Charlie McDonald]

There used to be trains from here to Houston and other places that students rode home on, but you can't get through her by rail anymore
(or I'd be headed to Ft. Worth at this moment). There's not a lot besides Buddy's museum, and I don't get out much anymore, but
we're bound to find somewhere to go with your friend (who probably knows the places to be). It'd be fun, even if I'm gone by then.
We did go to the BH center for an outdoor concert one evening when the weather was nice, probably in the Spring.
Of course, in the Spring is when the famous winds get up (they say it's where the wind don't blow, it sucks).

[Michael Haselman]

I've played the Surf a few times, including the 2010 Winter Dance Party. The building itself was very interesting to me, got a sense of "deja vu" when I entered it. Then I saw a plaque stating that it was one of 3 ballrooms built exactly the same. One was the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul where I grew up and my mother worked as a coat check. Another called The Terp is still functioning, I believe. Definitely an aura about the place, quite palpable. The autographs on the dressing room wall are really fascinating. Don McLean wrote a verse of "American Pie" in one section of it.

[Craig Baker]

There's a ton of Buddy Holly music on our local FM station. He still has a huge and loyal following.

What a shame this accident was, as was the Patsy Cline crash. The NTSB reports say Buddy Holly's pilot had low time in the aircraft and mis-read the artificial horizon. In the Cline crash the pilot had only 160 hours total time and was warned by high-time pilots to stay on the ground. Such an unnecessary loss!

As others have mentioned, who could say where all of these artists may have gone with their talent.

Craig

[Charlie McDonald]

Here's an account from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in the 'fifties, received from a forum member whose name I won't mention, but thanks, Sonny:

" TEENAGE BOP CLUBS WORRY CITY OFFICIALS" ...." On the Small Bandstand, three young musicians persistently belabored "Hound Dog" with electric guitar, drums and piano (Holly, Allison, Don Guess) each vibrating to the crashing beat of the drums. The guitarist hoarsely shouted the unintelligible words of the song... The Night Club is not located in New York's Harlem section,in Hollywood's night-life belt, nor in the Loop in Chicago. It is here in Lubbock on North College Avenue. The Teenagers who have attended dances at the club each Friday for the past three months are not "those wild college kids"... They are not airmen from Reese Air Force Base away from home and out on a fling..They are... teenagers from throughout the city, rich and poor, from good homes and bad.."

Now they have streets named after them,,,

Later on Lubbock produced a ton of other greats, Joe Ely , Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Lloyd Maines , Terry Allen, Jessie Taylor, etc...

... not to mention Charlie McDonald... oh wait, you didn't... never mind.

[Roger Rettig]

Many years ago now I was honoured to play guitar for Sonny Curtis on a UK tour he did. If pushed, he had many stories about life in Lubbock in the '50s.

Some of his memories became songs and I particularly remember his 'When Amarillo Blows', 'The Straight Life' (with references to wild teenage trips across the border to Mexico) and, of course, his 'The Real Buddy Holly Story'.

Sonny is a fine musician, an excellent writer, an amusing raconteur and a very nice man. This tour may be the most fulfilling work I've ever done.

[Alan Brookes]

Another year. We get older but they never shall.

[Andy DePaule]

I was about 12 years old then and living in LA but remember it well.
Richie was very popular there because he was a local kid who made it big.
Impossible to predict how they would have progressed in the years to come.
Such a loss.