№ 33. The Day the Music Died

I remember those lazy Sundays--- no cable TV, no iPhones, no internet and DVDs. Kids, you can say that the world then wasn't wifi-ed and interconnected.

And it was, no doubt, analog!

Our noises, rants and angsts were heard in rich sepia tones. Stereophonics, of course, came with the ambient hisses and pops. 


But no matter. The songs that lulled the afternoon hours away were classics. I think that's how my music ed germinated and took flight. My ears's early steps began with neither Chopin Etudes nor Beethoven sonatas. Nah. I started with the oldies, the pop songs of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. 


RJ Radio filled our tiny apartment with music from the post war, G.I. Joe era; the British Invasion; the flower power and Woodstock. The Platters, Nat King Cole, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Timi Yuro, Peter, Paul and Mary, Mamas and Papas, Connie Francis, Doris Day crooned the rounds of our radio playlists.

Here's one of them. 


I didn't realize this was Buddy Holly's version. I thought this was sung by Cliff Richard, also a favorite, when I heard it in the movie, "Have You Heard About the Morgans".





Bento Box:

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959) known professionally as "Buddy Holly," was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. Holly was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".

On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killed three American rock and roll pioneers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.... The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean, in his song "American Pie". The plane crash has been called the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered. (Wikipedia)