Published: February 04, 2009 07:56 am      

RANDOM THOUGHTS: "The day the music died"

In Lubbock, TX, there is a sculpture of an oversized pair of black rimmed glasses. In a cornfield near Clear Lake, IA, is another sculpture of a stainless steel guitar with three names, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper and the date 2-3-59. Above the guitar are three 45 records titled "Peggy Sue," "Donna" and "Chantilly Lace." Scattered on the ground are plastic flowers, student IDs, business cards, even a toy car left by visitors to the site.

Now, fifty years later, these two memorials kindle warm memories of the 22-year-old Buddy Holly. This young musician fit the description of a geek with his distinctive glasses but he introduced a young generation to rock and roll and although he performed for a short eighteen months his fame never died.

This week fans gathered at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock to be part of many different events planned in his remembrance. Other fans attended events at the Clear Lake Surf Ballroom in Iowa where Holly and his band gave their last performance on February 3, 1959. Bitter cold weather didn’t stop the tribute concert from being sold-out.

Twelve years after the plane crash that snuffed out the lives of Holly, two of his band members and the pilot, songwriter/folk singer Don McClean introduced the song “American Pie” and the words in it “the day the music died” immortalized that plane crash for the ages.

Born Charles Hardin Holley he spent his early years playing country music. Early in his career the "e" in Holley was dropped in a contract and he decided to change the spelling to simply Holly. By 1955 his band opened for Elvis and that experience changed his approach to the kind of music he wanted to play. Success came rapidly and soon he was a star appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show and touring across the Midwest.

In January 1959, the band began a winter tour of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa traveling in broken-down old buses. Several times they nearly froze when a bus failed. By the time they reached Clear Lake, Holly inquired about a plane and made arrangements for a four-seater. Holly planned to take Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup in the plane but in one of those strange twists of fate lives were changed forever.

Jiles “Big Bopper” Richardson was fighting a flu bug and he asked Jennings if he would change to the bus. Jennings agreed as did Holly. Richie Valens had never been in a plane and he kept asking Allsup if he would give up his seat but Allsup kept saying no. At the last minute when Valens asked again Allsup said, “I’ll toss a coin” and Valens’ fate was sealed. Allsup still has that coin.

Waylon Jennings lived with his final joking conversation with Holly for many years. After he gave up his seat Holly told Jennings with a laugh, “I hope your bus breaks down,” and Jennings replied, “I hope your plane crashes,” and even though it was all in good fun those words hurt each time he remembered them.

My life was not touched by the Buddy Holly legend. By the time he was a star my teen years were long gone and our four children were too young to be interested in rock ‘n roll music. As I thought about the many ardent fans caught up in this phenomenon after 50 years I realized my teen years had been touched by another musician of the Big Band era.

Glen Miller was another four-eyed idol but his career covered years, not months, and he lived 40 years. His music and name are still magic and his songs are as popular today as they were in the beginning. "In the Mood," "Moonlight Serenade," "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and so many more of his arrangements lived on after his mysterious disappearance in a flight over the English Channel during WWII. Dec. 14, 1944 was the day my generation’s music stopped, but only briefly.

Each generation’s musical taste helps define the mood of that time but it lives on. Poet Percy Shelley expressed it this way, “Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.”