Happy Friday!
I hope that you had a good week! I just got back from a very quick (less than 24 hours) trip to Lubbock, Texas to give a few talks. It was my first time visiting Lubbock and you, like me, may be asking, "What's there?". For one, super nice and friendly people. Oil. The most live music venues per capita in the state. Texas Tech (go Red Raiders!) Grapes – 90% of Texas wine grapes are grown in the area. And Lubbock's favorite son, Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences located downtown (I didn't get to go downtown, maybe next time), has 2 theaters, event space and is the cultural center for ballet, the Lubbock symphony and a Broadway series.
Charles Hardin Holley, known by his much cooler stage name of Buddy Holly (Buddy was his childhood nickname) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and rock and roll pioneer. He was born in Lubbock during the Great Depression (1936) and learned to sing and play guitar from his brother. His classmates crowned him the "King of the Sixth Grade" because of his charming personality and scholastic achievement. Influenced by rhythm and blues, he formed a local group that played country western music and was the opening act for Elvis Presley in 1955. He bought a Fender electric guitar and decided to shift to rock and roll after playing with Elvis three times that year. The band opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, where he was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall who helped him get a contract with Decca Records; the change in the spelling of his last name was due to Decca misspelling it.
Holly wasn't happy with the producer there, so he went to Clovis, New Mexico and recorded and demo of "That'll be the Day" and other songs. The independent producer there, Norman Petty, became the band's manager and changed the band's name to The Crickets. "That'll Be the Day" topped the charts in the US and UK in 1957, followed by "Peggy Sue". They appeared on the Ed Sullivan show twice, played on American Bandstand, and began international touring, performing with such greats as Paul Anka and Jerry Lee Lewis.
He met Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist for the executive of Peer-Southern music publishing, while visiting in New York. He proposed to her with a red rose and a ring on their first date and they were married in Lubbock less than two months later. She later toured with him, presenting herself as the Crickets' secretary to hide their marriage (it was a public image thing). Maria's aunt, an executive for Peer-Southern, brought to light that Petty was collecting the Crickets' royalty checks and pocketing the money.
While contemplating legal action against Petty, Holly formed a new band, with Waylon Jenning (Bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar) and Carl Bunch (drums), and went on the "Winter Dance Party tour of the mid-western U.S. to raise money. The tour started in January 23, 1959, and was doomed from the start. It was poorly organized, not accounting for the travel distance between cities. Their unheated tour buses broke down twice and Carl Bunch was hospitalized for frostbite of his toes that occurred while he was on the bus. Holly decided to arrange for different transportation.
After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, he chartered a plane to Moorhead, Minnesota. The pilot was not certified to fly by instruments only and took off in inclement weather. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens "La Bamba"), the Bog Bopper (Jiles Perry Richards, Jr., from Southeast Texas, a disk jockey, musician and composer who wrote "Chantilly Lace" and "White Lightning" among others). He was only 22 when he was killed. Buddy's brother obtained the report from the Civil Aeronautics board and found out that a new gyroscope was installed in the plane that worked differently (essentially backwards) from all other gyroscopes. The pilot likely read it backwards and thought that they were climbing when they really going down.
Holly is credited for defining traditional rock and roll with two guitars, bass and drums. He influenced many artists, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Eric Clapton. He was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986) and a star with his name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on his 75th birth anniversary.
The plane crash was immortalized in Don MacLean's song, "American Pie" – the day the music died (this subject came up when we sang "American Pie" during the Moster, Dinken, et al sing along at the NANOS meeting) . His iconic glasses are on display in Lubbock at the Buddy Holly Center.
And that is what Lubbock, Texas is known for.
Have a great weekend!
Deb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo6sYblL4U4