Sunday, February 3, 2019

60 Years Ago Today

The event known as "The Day The Music Died" tragically played out in a frozen field near Clear Lake, Iowa. Why the video shows an image of Marty Robbins, I don't know. It has nothing to do with the crash or Don McLean's song.  






R.I.P. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and pilot Roger Peterson.


As a footnote, two of the "Crickets" were spared by fate that day. Waylon Jennings gave his airplane ticket to J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson as he was sick and Waylon had suggested to him to go on, arrive early, and see a doctor the next day. Tommy Allsup flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens to see who would fly and who would travel by automobile. Valens won the toss, but Allsup had "won" his life. Tommy tells the story in this video.


3 comments:

  1. When I lived in Nashville, I was right across the street from Waylon's office & studio. Nicest person you could ever meet. He did not like planes at all and had several tour buses, decked to the max and were the reason I met him. One night at Oh-Dear-God-is-too-early" in the morning, the busses were parked running in front of our building. I had the windows open and woke up choking at the smell of diesel fumes. I stuck my head out the window and let it rip in two languages about it. Somebody ran out of the office and moved the offending bus.
    Five minutes later, there was a knock on my apartment door while I am still sporting this righteous indignation and knowing I am about to rip a new orifice to somebody: Surprise! It was Waylon himself who came to apologize.

    Sumbitch won me over right there. He could have sent somebody else, but he chose to do it himself.

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    Replies
    1. That is an awesome story Miguel GFZ. I got to see him once in the late eighties. He was great. I went to college in the Muscle Shoals area. While I was there Colbert County voted to go "wet" (legal sales of alcohol). There was a MGM club just across the river there. We heard stories that Waylon and others would occasionally drop by there. Some of my friends and I would drive over hoping to see Waylon, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, or whoever might be in town recording. I never did. Here is a good story about how gracious and kind Waylon really was.

      https://www.timesdaily.com/archives/he-had-it-all-shoals-musicians-remember-jennings-as-gentle/article_3aaa896c-b57e-57eb-9d36-e7601253cc0c.html

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  2. I was a lonely teenage bronchin' buck,
    With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
    But I knew I was outta luck,
    The Day The Mu-u-usic Died


    That's why.

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