Remembering "The Day the Music Died"

[duhneece]

February 3rd, 2011 marks the 52nd Anniversary of the tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper). The Buddy Holly Center would like to invite the public to an all day event celebrating the lives and legacies of three rock and roll legends. Patrons are invited to the Center FREE of charge on Thursday, February 3rd from 10:00 am-6:30 pm.

http://www.ci.lubbock.tx.us/newsPage.aspx?ID=3173

[elleng]

1. Got it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uEjifqTaI

[SharonAnn]

7. I lived 90 miles away from the crash site. I remember going to school

in the AM and finding out. We couldn't believe it! We were in 8th grade.

[Sonoman]

2. My mother's first husband...

was J P Richardson (The Big Bopper).

He had a show on KTRM, Beaumont, TX.

Along with Gordon Baxter, Billy Sunday, et al.

The Big Bopper.

Nobody new who he was.

The dude rocked.

Sonoman

[southerncrone]

3. Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[duhneece]

6. Yes he did

Chantilly Lace is a classic. He also spent time at Fort Bliss, Texas as a radar instructor...who would've guessed!?

In May 1957, he broke the record for continuous on-the-air broadcasting by eight minutes. From a remote set-up in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, Richardson performed for total of five days, two hours and eight minutes, playing 1,821 records and taking showers during five-minute newscasts.

[abq e streeter]

4. News story about recently found pictures from the Surf ballroom show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gw-bYrlPTc&feature

(edited the above subject line ; realized it sounded like I was claiming to have found them)

I've been privileged to know and have played with, several Lubbock area musicians, including one who performed at the 50th anniversary show. While it is important to remember and honor all those who perished, Ritchie Valenzuela, J.P. Richardson and the pilot ,Roger Peterson.... both in West Texas and here in New Mexico, where Buddy and The Crickets recorded, the legend and enduring influence of Buddy Holly runs deep.

[duhneece]

10. I'd love to be in Lubbock today, neighbor

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Free Admission
Special exhibit from Texas Tech University Southwest Collection’s Crossroads of Music Archive on display

SCREENINGS OF THE REAL BUDDY HOLLY STORY
Produced and hosted by former Beatle, Paul McCartney, this brilliant and enlightening program is the most authoritative biography ever assembled on the life of the American pop icon.
Times: 10:30 am and 2:30 pm

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED RECEPTION
Light hors d’oeuvres will be served
Time: 4:30pm

http://www.ci.lubbock.tx.us/newsPage.aspx?ID=3173

I'm down in La Luz, NM, neighbor, and yes, we honor Buddy and all the musicians who died that day. The video you sent said how bittersweet it was to get photos from their last performance, knowing that these incredible musicians would be dead within hours...made me weepy.

[abq e streeter]

14. That would be a pretty fascinating event to attend

That movie at least, is available on you tube(for the time being anyway), and it's very good IMO. I hope to visit both the Buddy Holly Center as well as make a pilgrimage to the Surf before too long... (have only been through Lubbock once despite knowing several musicians from there, but I know 'em from playing in Albq)...I've also always wanted to tour Petty Studios in Clovis; I'd heard that they used to be open for guided tours during Clovis's "Frontier Days" (or whatever they called it)weekend but don't know if they still are, or even have that event anymore. Probably not all that much to see; not like it was some huge operation or anything, but still would be pretty cool...(although Petty himself appears to have been unscrupulous in his financial dealings with Buddy)
A few years ago, a friend ended up being the broker for some of the original equipment from the studio, which had been bought by some people in Albuquerque who were in turn, then looking to sell them. They were pretty expensive; being marketed as collectibles (which of course they are) and I don't know whether he ever found buyers at the prices those people were asking. I wished I'd had the money. I believe it was a couple of Altec monitors and a Scully mixer, but not sure ,especially about the latter. I'll have to ask him about that next time I see him.
Hi from warm, balmy Albuquerque (we're all the way up to 6 degrees; from 5 below last night).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSDMRjBjKIg

[Odin2005]

5. They were flying to a concert here in Fargo.

:(

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. I remember when I first heard Don McClean's "American Pie"

driving over to Ft McNair in Washington, DC back around 1971. I also remember the day back in Alabama when I heard about the plane crash 12 years earlier. Hard to believe it's been that many years ago.

[Tsiyu]

9. Gotta rec this one

Thanks for the memories duhneece

[LeftinOH]

11. There's an interesting story about Buddy Holly's eyeglasses -not discovered until 1980:

Feb 29, 1980:
Buddy Holly's glasses, lost since his death in 1959, are found in Mason City, Iowa (excerpt)

When the Beechcraft Bonanza carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper crashed outside Clear Lake, Iowa, in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, it struck the ground with such force that all three passengers were killed instantly, and the plane's wreckage was strewn across nearly 300 yards of snow-covered cornfields.

Notably missing from the list were Holly's signature eyeglasses, the most distinctive visual legacy of a man who influenced the sound and style of rock and roll immeasurably. Those famous glasses were presumed lost forever until the announcement on February 29, 1980, that they had resurfaced in Mason City, Iowa.

In the violence of the crash back in February 1959, they were thrown clear of the other wreckage and buried in snow. They were found, along with the Big Bopper's watch, that same spring, when the melting snow made them visible again. Though they were handed in immediately to the Cerro Gordo County Sherriff's office, they sat filed away for the next 21 years in a sealed manila envelope marked "rec'd April 7, 1959." That envelope was opened by Sheriff Jerry Allen on this day in 1980. The glasses were eventually returned to Holly's widow, and can now be seen in the exhibit at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.

...interesting, huh?

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/buddy-holly39s-glasses-lost-since-his-death-in-1959-are-found-in-mason-city-iowa

[duhneece]

12. Yeah, that is interesting

Thanks for sharing. Amazing what treasures can be found among seemingly boring stuff.

[deaniac21]

13. Gonna drive my chevy to the levy....

[blondeatlast]

15. Before my time, but I love the music. Yesterday my son heard "American

Pie" on the radio and asked me about it. I shared what little I knew and when we got home he Go0gled the whole story. He's quite the music fan (on the edge of 14 yo) and prefers old stuff to what he hears now!