From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Sep 7, 2002  2:03 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Buddy Holly
 
BUDDY HOLLY (By John A. Alexander)

Born Charles Hardin Holley, September 7 1936, Lubbock, Texas
Died February 3 1959, Clear Lake, Iowa

People don't associate the name "Charles" with the heady world of rock and
roll. Perhaps this is why Ella Holley decided to call him Buddy rather than
use his christened name. Whether or not she had some special foresight we
may never know, but it is now impossible to consider what the world of rock
and roll would have been like had it not been for her son, Charles Hardin
Holley. Born September 7, 1936 Buddy grew to be a tall chap, but his
physical stature was nothing compared to his status as a true giant in the
history of popular music. His hometown of Lubbock, situated well in the old
bible belt of the southern USA in the great state of Texas, is rated as
nothing special even by others from there. Indeed, there is a song with the
line "happiness is Lubbock in the rear view mirror". For sure, the town owes
a lot to its most famous son.
Like many other stars in the history of music Buddy showed talent from an
early age; luckily for us he not only had talent but also drive and innovation.
The heady mix of gospel, hillbilly, country and of course rhythm and blues
were there for Buddy to work with and within his sadly short career it is
easy to see elements of all three, plus that little bit of magic that Buddy,
like a master chef, added to the basic ingredients of classic rock and roll.
(Though where on earth he got the idea to record "Wait Til The Sun Shines
Nelly" is way beyond me.)
Buddy's first real move towards a musical career came in his time with Bob
Montgomery as Buddy & Bob working on the local radio station KDAV in
Lubbock (it is still going on the AM band - and can be found at
http://www.kdav.com/). A local DJ, Hi-Pockets Duncan gave the duo their
opening and was also their first manager.
In 1955 Buddy saw Elvis perform. This is one event that really spurred him
on and shortly afterwards Decca, in their attempt to milk the rock and roll
cash cow, gave Buddy a contract. With the help of session men the Decca
sessions produced some of the finest rockabilly ever, but Decca did not
understand the new music - country was their forte - and they let Buddy go
in 1957.
It was in '57 that Buddy started his association with Norman Petty who had a
small studio in Clovis, New Mexico. The first single was "I'm Looking For
Someone To Love" with "That'll Be The Day" as the B side. The B side was a
re-recording of a track Buddy had recorded for Decca and the new version
became his first hit and an all time classic.
Much has been said about Buddy's relationship with Petty, but for me the
important thing is that while working in the studio Buddy had the chance to
experiment and hone his art. The result was ground-breaking. Here was a band
that wrote their own songs and the simple format of a couple of guitars,
bass and drums laid the way for others such as the Beatles. I, for one, wish
that some of the backing vocals from the Picks and the Roses had been
omitted, but you can't please everybody.
Buddy Holly and The Crickets became big time artists with the success of
That'll Be The Day. The US label Brunswick issued the single credited to the
Crickets and shortly after Coral issued "Words Of Love" by Buddy Holly. This
was due to an unusual arrangement by which the Crickets (complete with
Buddy) were signed to one label and Buddy (yes, with the Crickets in all but
name) were signed to another. However the next big one was to be "Peggy Sue"
on Coral under Buddy's name which was released while TBTD was still at
number 1. Although originally called Cindy Lou, the title was changed and
Jerry Allison's girlfriend, Peggy Sue Gerron, was handed rock and roll
immortality on a plate.
Buddy and the band toured extensively on the back of their success, and not
just in the USA; Australia and Britain were also visited. When in England
they played the Philharmonic in Liverpool but poor John Lennon and Paul
McCartney failed to get enough money for tickets and had to rely on friends
to tell them all about it.
1957 was the pinnacle for Buddy and (possibly rock and roll as well) by the
end of '58 Buddy had moved from Lubbock to New York, married Maria Elena
and the rock and roll bubble was about to burst. Elvis was in the army, payola
scandals and so on were all taking their toll. Buddy, strapped for cash,
went on the Winter Dance Party Tour. One stop on the tour was Duluth where
Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) did do better than John and Paul by managing
to get a ticket to see the show. The best that can be said for the tour is that
it was ill conceived, the number of dates and amount of travelling by road
at the height of winter placed unimaginable strains on all involved. The
strains (and for that matter stains, as he wanted to get some clean laundry)
led Buddy to convince his protégé, Waylon Jennings, to give him a seat on a
small plane that had been chartered as an alternative to the unreliable tour
bus to get to the next venue in Fargo, North Dakota. The plane, a single
engine Beechcraft Bonanza piloted by Roger Peterson, that also had The Big
Bopper and Ritchie Valens on board, crashed shortly after take off in the
early hours of February 3, 1959. All four on board were killed in the crash
on the day that is now know as "The Day The Music Died". Ironically Buddy's
hit at the time was "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".
For me, all of Buddy's recordings have merit whether it be rockabilly such
as Rock Around With Ollie Vee or the superbly produced love song, True Love
Ways. His magic has touched millions and inspired others such as McCartney,
Lennon and Dylan to pursue their own musical careers. The Rolling Stones
recorded "Not Fade Away" and had a hit with it. Graham Nash, Alan Clarke et
al allegedly called their group (The Hollies) after Buddy and countless others
have recorded one or more of his 40 songs.
As proof of the timeless nature of his music Buddy last had an album in the
UK charts in 1996 when the collection, The Very Best Of Buddy Holly" reached
number 24.
Whatever his motives were, I thank Norman Petty for his work with the
Fireballs and their work on some of Buddy's demos, in particular "Brown Eyed
Handsome Man" which was a hit in the UK in 1963 and my introduction, at the
age of 8, to the man.

Official website: http://www.buddyholly.com/
Overview of websites: http://www.geocities.com/buddyoungirl/

Recommended listening:
Thanks to ongoing (yes - over 40 years later they are still ongoing) legal
wranglings there is no real definitive box set for this most influential of
artists.
The 6 LP/cassette set, The Buddy Holly Story which has never been legally
available in CD form was shown to be incomplete by the 4 cd bootleg set from
Vigotone "What You've Been A Missin' Vigotone - Vigo 134-7"
There is another bootleg a 6 CD set called "The Buddy I Knew" which is as
about as complete as can be, but it is hard to get.
Check the Shakin' All Over Web site for my list of essential Buddy CDs -
http://www.rocknroll.freeserve.co.uk/holly.htm - but don't ask me where to
buy them.
If anybody wants a copy of the radio show I produced in 1979 to commemorate
the 20th anniversary of Buddy's death which has truly exclusive interviews
with Buddy's mum (Ella), his widow (Maria Elena) and manager (Norman Petty)
then send me an e-mail off list.

Recommended reading:
John Goldrosen and John Beecher, Remembering Buddy : The Definitive Biography.
London : GRR/Pavilion, 1987. (In the USA : New York : Da Capo Press)
Philip Norman, Rave On : The Biography Of Buddy Holly. New York : Simon and
Schuster, 1996.