Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
I wrote: Just thought I'd be the first to chime in that today (Tue. Feb. 3rd) is the *40th Anniversary* of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper... I mean WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3rd!! Geesh, the things you noticed only *after* you hit the send button! g mmm pie, Paul
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
And it's my 45th birthday. -B "halfway to 90" B-
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
On Wed, 3 Feb 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just thought I'd be the first to chime in that today (Wed. Feb. 3rd) is the *40th Anniversary* of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper... Yup. It's been 40 years since the night God took Buddy Holly and spared Waylon Jennings. Kind of perverse on God's part, if you ask me. Anyway, I read something interesting about the infamous Winter Dance Tour yesterday: it continued on without the three dead headliners, substituting Holly-wannabe Bobby Vee as the star! Some things never change about the music industry... Btw, the Winter Dance Tour is commemerated every Feb. 3rd in Iowa at the very ballroom where the last show was played. It literally attracts rock'n'roll fans from all over the world. Last year, 6000 people attended. Kip
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
It was a joke, mostly. The Waylon Jennings crack. I like early Waylon just fine. Don't shoot, I'm only the piano player. Kip
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
It was a joke, mostly. The Waylon Jennings crack. I like early Waylon just fine. Don't shoot, I'm only the piano player. Kip How many of you know what Waylon's last words to Buddy Holly were? (Hint: see his autobiography. It was on one of my old .sig files, but I took it off 'cos it was even too scary for me.) -- Geff King * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://www2.ari.net/gking/
RE: Bye, Bye American Pie...
[Matt Benz] According to Buddy bio's, that tour was typical of most rock package tours of the 50's: as long as the cash came in, the promoters- who didn't ride the bus, natch, didn't care about anything else, and the crew suffered long and hard -bus breakdowns, no heat, frostbite, horrific weather, etc.. which made a small plane trip into a storm sound damn good. To set up a tour in that time of year in that region was insane, and it shows how poor the "stars" were that they even considered it, and then never quit. After the crash, the promoters insisted the tour continue, even with out the stars. Didn't make any difference to them who played, cos there was money to be made... I'm just glad the music business has come around in the last 40 years.
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
Geff: How many of you know what Waylon's last words to Buddy Holly were? So tell us!!! g --junior
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
How many of you know what Waylon's last words to Buddy Holly were? (Hint: see his autobiography. It was on one of my old .sig files, but I took it off 'cos it was even too scary for me.) yeah it is a very scary quote and i can only imagine how strange waylon musta felt after he heard the news.if you don't know thet quote, vh-1's behind the music is running a buddy holly story tonite with jennings talking about the night and what he said to holly.mark
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
Ph. Barnard wrote: Geff: How many of you know what Waylon's last words to Buddy Holly were? So tell us!!! g --junior According to the story I read the other day, the two guys were joking around and Buddy Holly told Waylon Jennings that he hoped he had car trouble. Waylon replied "well, I hope your plane crashes." Took him 40 years to admit it, after lots of guilt and water under the bridge. They were friends, and just needling each other... b.s.
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
In a message dated 99-02-03 12:57:08 EST, you write: Geff: How many of you know what Waylon's last words to Buddy Holly were? "I hope your plane crashes." Really, I just read the Waylon autobiography (written with Lenny Kaye). Says it took him years to get over that little comment. Ouch. Elena SKye
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...Hello East Orange
Anyway, I read something interesting about the infamous Winter
Dance Tour yesterday: it continued on without the three dead headliners,
substituting Holly-wannabe Bobby Vee as the star! Some things never change
about the music industry...
Hey, isn't this the same Bobby Vee that hired a young piano player named
Bobby Dylan within a couple years after this gig?? Of course, he didn't last
that long with the band ("creative differences" is what the papers
reported), but it does remind me of what Woody Guthrie supposedly told
Dylan: "Well, kid, I don't know about your writing, but your voice'll take
you places."
Lance . . .
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...Hello East Orange
Lance:
Hey, isn't this the same Bobby Vee that hired a young piano player named
Bobby Dylan within a couple years after this gig?? Of course, he didn't last
that long with the band ("creative differences" is what the papers
reported), but it does remind me of what Woody Guthrie supposedly told
Dylan: "Well, kid, I don't know about your writing, but your voice'll take
you places."
Just an amusing Dylan's-voice anecdote: last weekend I was driving
my 10 year-old daughter to a lesson and put in a cassette of the
acoustic disc from the 1966 live album. She listens a minute or two
and just started howling with laughter. Ever since then she's been
walking around the house doing imitation Dylan renderings of songs by
the groups she listens to: Spice Girls, Shania, N' Sync, etc. It's
pretty funny to hear a 10 year-old do a Dylan version of "Any man of
*mine* / Better walk the *line*, etc." for example g
--junior
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
Brad Bechtel wrote: And it's my 45th birthday. -B "halfway to 90" B- Happy Birthday Brad! According to today's paper, you share birthdays with: Matraca Berg-35 Maura Tierney-34 Lee Renaldo-43 Nathan Lane-43 Morgan Fairchild-49 Dave Davies-52 Joey Bishop-81 Here's a clip about "The Day..." Rock pioneers remembered 40 years after the music died By Gary Graff DETROIT (Reuters) - Forty years ago, Bob Keane was driving on Los Angeles' famed Sunset Boulevard toward the offices of his Del-Fi Records when the devastating news came over his car radio. ``The DJ on my radio said '... and now, the late, great Ritchie Valens,''' recalled Keane, whose label released Valens' records. ``It was like somebody hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat.'' The full news was even worse; rockers Buddy Holly and J.P. ''The Big Bopper'' Richardson had been killed along with Valens in a plane crash in Iowa around 1 a.m. on Feb. 3, 1959. It was the first tragedy of the formative rock 'n' roll era, robbing pop culture of three of its most promising young talents. Holly was 22, Valens was 17 and Richardson was 28. It was, as Don McLean coined the phrase in his 1971 hit ''American Pie,'' the day the music died. ``The impact of the event, of the crash of the plane, hit me because I was in love with Buddy Holly's music,'' says McLean, who was a 13-year-old paperboy who learned of the accident when he picked up his stack of morning deliveries. ``I tucked that memory away, and many years later it returned to me.'' ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY The irony, of course, is that the music didn't exactly die; rock ultimately thrived and became a mainstream force in popular culture during the next decade. But rock 'n' roll was moribund for a time after the crash; Elvis Presley was in the Army, Jerry Lee Lewis had fallen from grace for marrying his cousin; Little Richard had entered the ministry; and Chuck Berry was being prosecuted for transporting a minor across state lines. Their places were beginning to be taken by bland pop singers and early teen idols such as Pat Boone. At the time of their deaths, Holly and Valens in particular were rock's great hopes, though former radio personality Richardson also was riding high with his smash ``Chantilly Lace.'' Valens had shot to fame with hit singles such as ''Donna'' and his adrenalized rendition of the Mexican-influenced ``La Bamba'' riding the charts. But Holly was the most established talent of the three. Born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas, he emerged with his band the Crickets in 1957 and reeled off a string of hits such as ``That'll Be the Day,'' ``Peggy Sue,'' ``Oh Boy!,'' ``Maybe Baby'' and ``Rave On.'' ``His stuff sounds so positive and so life-affirming, just shoe-ringing major chords and those happy melodies,'' says Marshall Crenshaw, who portrayed Holly in ``La Bamba,'' the 1987 film biography of Valens. ``He was really savvy about the recording studio, too, and that really influenced the Beatles. The Beatles were glued to every Buddy Holly record. ``I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Buddy Holly was the single most important influence on the Beatles. They knew exactly how those records were done and where Buddy Holly was coming from, and they copied his approach.'' In fact, former Beatles Paul McCartney was so enamored with Holly that he bought his song catalog during the mid-'70s from Norman Petty, who produced the bulk of Holly's hits at his studio in Clovis, N.M. COME ON, LET'S GO Holly, Valens and Richardson were in the midst of the Winter Dance Party, a concert tour through the Northern Plains states made miserable by an underheated bus, lack of sleep and no time to bathe or do laundry. When the troupe hit the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly learned that it might be possible to lease a plane. For $108 he could save himself another long bus ride and instead get some much-needed rest and perhaps some time for a lengthy telephone chat with his wife, Maria Elena, who was five weeks pregnant. Holly originally intended to take his bandmates, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup (billed as the Crickets even though the name was in dispute at the time), but Richardson persuadedJennings to give him his seat while Valens pestered Allsup until Holly's sideman agreed to a coin toss -- which Valens won. ``He used to say, 'I'll never ride in those kinds of planes,'' recalled Valens' aunt, Ernestine Reyes, adding that Valens was afraid of small aircraft after two of them had collided above his junior high school, killing two students. ``I guess he was really miserable on that bus.'' The Beechcraft Bonanza plane was discovered the following day, its debris strewn across a frozen cornfield 7 miles northwest of the airport where it took off. An error by pilot Roger Peterson is thought to have caused the crash. The next show in Moorhead, Minn., went on, as
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
In a message dated 2/3/99 11:27:22 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Yup. It's been 40 years since the night God took Buddy Holly and spared Waylon Jennings. Kind of perverse on God's part, if you ask me. Excuse me? What exactly do you mean by that comment? Kind of perverse thinking on your behalf, it seems. slim - who has been called "Hoss" by Waylon
RE: Bye, Bye American Pie...
Also the date of Bill Monroe's first Decca recording session in 1950, which has greater significance - well, for me, anyhow - than Joey Bishop's birthday, though not, of course, Brad's... Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/ Website revised 2/1/99
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...Hello East Orange
Lance wrote: Hey, isn't this the same Bobby Vee that hired a young piano player named Bobby Dylan within a couple years after this gig?? I believe this is true. I just heard Bobby Vee on "Fresh Air" the other day. He made mention that Bob went by yet another pseudonym...I didn't really catch the first name, but it was something like Alton Gunnn (with 3 g's). Do I hear Purcell's new bandname in there? Paul (who's gonna miss the VH1 Buddy Holly stuff only due to his dedication seeing fellow P2er's The Deliberate Strangers perform - record release party - and possibly Ms. Erin (if the Naildrivers are on the bill as well...))
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...Hello East Orange
Bobby Vee not only filled in, but later did a Hooly tribute album and an
album with the Crickets, both readily available.
Hey, isn't this the same Bobby Vee that hired a young piano player named
Bobby Dylan within a couple years after this gig??
Definitely true. Also--young Boby Z. was at the Holly show the night
before the crash...
The CD "Bobby Vee The Shadows: The Early Rockin' Years" (ERA/CEMA/K-Tel)
shows this Vee band to be pretty good for that time. Dylan was never
recorded with them, for the record, but here are some relevant comments by
Bobby V. on the matter, from the CD notes:
"While we were on the road we talked about how cool it would be to have a
piano in the band, like Little Richard or Scotty, what's his name, with
Gene Vincent, not any old piano player, but someone wwho could put it down
like Jerry Lee. But hey, the 50s were about Fender guitars, not pianos! We
couldn't find a rock and roll piano player anywhere.
Then one day Bill came home and said he was talking with a guy at Sam's
Recordland who claimed he played piano and had just come off a tour with
Conway Twitty. Bill made arrangements to audition him at the KTGO studio
and said he was a funny little wiry guy and he rocked pretty good. Wow!!!
This must be the guy! "What's his name?" "Elston Gunn." We decided to try
him out.
His first dance with us was inGwinner, North Dakota. All that I remember
is an old crusty piano that hadn't been tuned since Mae West was a virgin.
In the middle of "Lotta Lovin" I heard the piano from hell go silent; the
next thing I heard was Gene Vincent handclaps--and heavy breathing and I
looked over to find Elston Gunn dancing next to me as he broke into a
background vocal...The next night was more of the same. He was
good spirited about the fcat that none of us had the money to secure a
piano for him and there was no hard feelings ..as he made his exit for the
University of Minnesota. He sure had the spirit, and he rocked out in the
Key of C...Hey, he would have been great on Floyd Cramer tunes. That's
basiclaly he Bob Zimmerman story as it relates to the Shadows. Bob, aka,
Elston, aka Bob Dylan...What I remember most is his sense of energy and
spirit. Confident, direct and playful. A rock and roll contender, even
then."
Barry
PS: Bob can be heard playing rockabilly piano on the pre-Freewheelin
sessions from 1962, including a full-tilt version of "That's Alright
Mama"...and varied rockin takes of his first rock record ('62) "Mixed Up
Confusion"..Of course, nobody would really hear him in a rock and roll
context for some years. But he'd sing to Woody Guthrie in East Orange in
the same days.
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...Hello East Orange
On Wed, 3 Feb 1999, Ph. Barnard wrote: Ever since then she's been walking around the house doing imitation Dylan renderings of songs by the groups she listens to: Spice Girls, Shania, N' Sync, etc. It's pretty funny to hear a 10 year-old do a Dylan version of "Any man of *mine* / Better walk the *line*, etc." for example g Back when I was in school we used to have a game of that. See who can find the funniest song in a Dylan voice. "Killing Me Softly With His Song" was a big winner. Will Miner Denver, CO
Re: Bye, Bye American Pie...
Just thought I'd be the first to chime in that today (Wed. Feb. 3rd) is the *40th Anniversary* of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper... My parents were going to the show in Fargo/Moorhead that those guys never made it to. Dina
