Late Night Open Thread: The Day the Music Died

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 10:27:45 PM EST
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It was 50 years ago today that Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

[More...]

This is one event I wasn't old enough to have a clear memory of, I was just a kid, but I do remember slow-dancing to Donna around the sixth grade and knowing all the words to the Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace.

Here's Don McClean singing American Pie:

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they'd be happy for a while.

But february made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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Late Night Open Thread: The Day the Music Died | 26 comments (26 topical)

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I Asked Dad About That Once (none / 0) (#1)
by Blue Jean on Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 10:49:43 PM EST

since he and my mother were living in Iowa, near the crash site at the time. He said they weren't into rock music, and didn't read much about it in the papers. Funny thing, since I was born on one of the anniversaries, and my niece was born in Lubbock.

: Funny. I asked my older brother (none / 0) (#19)
by oculus on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:22:37 AM EST

if he was aware at the time of the plane crash out of Clear Lake. He sd. yes. We were both living in SE Iowa, but my brother was much more tuned into popular music.

[ Parent ]

Almost 20 years ago in London ... (none / 0) (#2)
by cymro on Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 10:58:59 PM EST

... I saw the show Buddy. The last half of Act two recreated that last concert. Everyone in the theater was on their feet by the end!

Whoa. I was just about to (none / 0) (#3)
by oldpro on Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 11:00:19 PM EST

email you about this an ask for a thread and musical memorial...thanks, Jeralyn.

Takes me back. I was a young parent, 22, and heartsick about these kids dying so needlessly.

Now, all I need to do is hear somebody whistling or humming "American Pie" and it all comes back. The sixties.

My Dad.. (none / 0) (#4)
by TomStewart on Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 11:20:39 PM EST

was born and raised in Iowa, and had been to the Surf Ballroom in Clearlake IW, where the last concert was held, many times. He had moved to Washington State by 1959, but I asked him about it when I was in Jr High in the 70s and a huge Buddy Holly fan. He just sighed: "Those poor kids. I knew exactly where they were, I'd been to the hall, the airport, had friends in the audience that night. I can understand not wanting to be in that Iowa winter in an old bus. Should never have happened.."

: I saw Santana at the Surf (none / 0) (#5)
by JThomas on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 12:00:05 AM EST

back in the summer of 73. Nice little venue. They have maintained it..and there was a big concert there tonite.

[ Parent ]

Thanks for the post, Jeralyn (none / 0) (#6)
by TomLincoln on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 01:40:01 AM EST

You always seem to have a way of keeping track of these things. I, too, was not old enough to remember, but not that old that I wasn't dancing to Donna, La Bamba, etc. at parties in the 60's. There's a YouTube video interview of the real Donna and Peggy Sue (who did get married - to a plumbing contractor).

Since this is an open thread (none / 0) (#7)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 07:51:23 AM EST

Here is an eye opening story on the mistreatment of women.

I stopped buying the wingnut (none / 0) (#17)
by jondee on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:32:18 AM EST

faux concern about the ill-treatment of women when it bacame apparent -- about four years ago -- that the concern only extended to the ill-treatment of women in countries targeted by neocon dipsh*ts.

All those Dalit women in India and those women toiling in offshore and Chinese sweatshops can all take a flying eff at the moon for all the Abduls in the country care.

[ Parent ]

: I see your point (none / 0) (#23)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 01:08:43 PM EST

Getting the best job available can be pretty much the same or worse than being raped for the sole purpose making you ripe for being talked into blowing yourself up in a mass murder suicide bombing.
How insensitive of me.

[ Parent ]

Obama staff encouraged defiance (none / 0) (#8)
by Anne on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 08:22:27 AM EST

of Pelosi?

Saw this on Politico last night and wondered what everyone thought about it:

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) -- one of the lead Blue Dogs -- made a startling admission to lefty Liberadio on Sunday, suggesting the White House quietly encouraged him to buck House leadership on the stimulus.
Cooper was one of 11 Dems to vote no -- joining every GOP House member.
"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I actually got some quiet encouragement from the Obama folks for what I'm doing," said Cooper, one of about 55 House Democrats to sign a letter criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi for suspending normal debate and committee rules on the $819 billion package.
He went on -- and on:
"They know its a messy bill and they wanted a clean bill. Now, I got in terrible trouble with our leadership because they don't care what's in the bill, they just want it pass and they want it to be unanimous. They don't mind the partisan fighting cause that's what they are used to. In fact, they're really good at it. And they're a little bit worried about what a post-partisan future might look like. If members actually had to read the bills and figure out whether they are any good or not. We're just told how to vote. We're treated like mushrooms most of the time."
The White House press office and Pelosi's spokesman didn't immediately return requests for comment.
Cooper, an early supporter of Obama's, referred to the House leadership repeatedly as "old bulls" and the president as "Barack," said House leaders had "pinned" Obama down by jamming pork into the bill, and expressed hope the Senate would radically revise the package.

Isn't Cooper one of the names being bandied about for the HHS job?

: Wow... (none / 0) (#10)
by ap in avl on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 08:36:30 AM EST

So this is what Obama learned from FDR? Saying "Make me do it".....only this time handing that kind of power over to the Blue Dogs and Repugs. Jeez....

[ Parent ]
: When have we ever had (none / 0) (#15)
by ThatOneVoter on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 09:28:40 AM EST

"clean" lawmaking, in that sense?

[ Parent ]
: Cooper was a prime mover in (none / 0) (#20)
by oculus on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:24:36 AM EST

torpedoing Clinton's health care reform proposal back in the day. Please, please, please do not appoint him to head HHS.

[ Parent ]

Poor Buddy Holly (none / 0) (#9)
by kaleidescope on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 08:25:05 AM EST

His music was brilliant and his death a great loss. I especially liked the twisted way he sang on Peggy Sue. But an even greater tragedy -- and a degrading indignity -- is that Holly will always be associated with that horrible, absolutely detestable, boring Don McClean song.

And you could probably say the same for Vincent Van Gough.

: Holly was the man.... (none / 0) (#12)
by kdog on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 09:02:15 AM EST

I think "Oh Boy" will always be my fave....the way he belted out the verses.
"All my life
I've been a waitin'
With you there'll be no hesitatin'"
Grabs ya right in the junk.

[ Parent ]
: Holly was well before (none / 0) (#14)
by brodie on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 09:26:15 AM EST

my time, but I remember reading how Lennon & McCartney were greatly influenced by his music.
Here he turns in a quality performance of my favorite of his songs, and does it live -- unlike the lip-synching Superbowl frauds Faith "Less" Hill and Jennifer "I'm No Kate" Hudson.
The other takeaway in that clip is how dreadful the fashions were in the 50s for both sexes. The women's awful, heavy clothing and the old-lady hairstyles, and the men using way too much greasy stuff.
Holly, Elvis (pre-Army), James Dean -- some of the few bright spots in an otherwise terrible, conformist decade.

[ Parent ]
: Yours is definitely the minority opinion. (none / 0) (#26)
by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 02:29:17 PM EST

"... [Buddy Holly] will always be associated with that horrible, absolutely detestable, boring Don McClean song."
American Pie was a ginormous hit back in the day, and continues to get extensive airplay on oldies stations, so there are still lots of people who like it. I never really cared for it until I heard an explanation of the lyrics, and then I learned to appreciate it as representative of a very controversial and divisive period in American history.
I do have to agree with you about Vincent, McClean's silly ode to Van Gogh, which stands as Exhibit No. 1 supporting my argument that 80-90% of all pop music -- regardless of era -- is pure, unaldulterated crap. Tunes like that should be forever consigned to "Radio Velveeta," the official station of the soundtrack from Hades.

[ Parent ]

The contrast in Presidencies in two pictures (none / 0) (#11)
by flyerhawk on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 08:39:11 AM EST

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/01/29/a-story-in-pictures/

Gotta love Macy's..... (none / 0) (#13)
by kdog on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 09:14:07 AM EST

Lay off 7000 fools one day, shell out over a million in bounuses to execs the next. ???

It's like somebody is actively trying to incite a class riot or something.

Don't worry the music (none / 0) (#16)
by SOS on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:13:38 AM EST

never dies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUckQd0qBI&feature=related

Turn off your (none / 0) (#18)
by SOS on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:43:43 AM EST

TeeVee.

;-)

TImes of India had a nice piece (none / 0) (#21)
by oculus on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:25:39 AM EST

about Buddy Holly. Sd. Elvis didn't write songs.

The Stimulus (none / 0) (#22)
by jbindc on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 12:56:11 PM EST

Senate lacks the votes to pass.

Lost and Found (none / 0) (#24)
by squeaky on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 01:34:06 PM EST

The agency is asking for public help in identifying suspects. The DPS wants Anyone with information to call 956-728-2201.

That would be for 9120lbs of weed found in a schoolbus abandoned on the side of a Texas road.

That will be quite the bonfire party.

: Whoever stumbled upon that scene... (none / 0) (#25)
by kdog on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 01:45:00 PM EST

should play Mega-Millions...what a stroke of luck!

[ Parent ]