The Day the Music Died-February 2, 1959.

[Condem]

A cool story. The Cedar Rapids Gazette is searching far and wide for anybody who was at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa the night of February 2nd, 1959. The great Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper's last show before they took that plane ride to eternity. Contact [e-mail]. http://www.gazetteonline.com/ . I know it's a reach but maybe somebody knows somebody. History.

[happyiowan]

1. Thanks.

One of my retired professors who I stay in contact with was there. He'd appreciate knowing that. 50 years. I think I'll play American Pie.

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. Where were you

when American Pie was first released? I was at a friend's apartment in Washington, DC and heard it on an FM station he had playing. We both went out and purchased the LP. I still have the early pressing of Don McLean's classic "American Pie" and still play it today.

[Condem]

4. Elwood.

My apologies for the Sports forum posts. ANYBODY who digs college football, Don McLean and the great Buddy Holly is a fucking god in my eyes. Ahem. 1971?
I was 12 years old. To this day, I still google the words and what it all meant. You made my night, Elwood. After all these years, I still love "Vincent(Starry, starry night") better.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. Don't forget Till Tomorrow, the cut after American Pie.

I was 24 in 1971 and stationed in Washington with the Army, but I was your age when the plane went down. I also still have my Ritchie Valens 45 on Del Fi - Donna 1058119 and La Bamba 1058118. Over the past 50 years I have purchased a few thousand LPs & 45s but had to sell all but a few hundred for financial reasons.

[Condem]

7. Elwood.

There are not many of us here with your age or experience. Please share. From "Diner". What's the flip side of "La Bamba"? I thought "La Bamba" was the flip side. Born in 1947. We have lots to learn from you.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Donna was one side and La Bamba the other.

At least that's the way it is on my old copy. One side was numbered 118 and the other 119. I have forgotten so much shit from back in those days that I might or might not be of any help.

[Condem]

9. Elwood. How did you feel when you heard the news of the crash?

It must compare to my feelings on John Lennon's death. No?

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. It's been so long and I was only 12.

I remember taking my allowance money and buying the Valens 45 and Holly's Peggy Sue 45. I actually liked listening to Valens as much as Holly when I was a kid. At night, I remember listening to WLS in Chicago about the crash. They were the biggest and most popular of the AM flame throwers back then, and we could pick them up clear as a bell down here in Alabama.

[Condem]

14. Man , the memories,

I can hear it, Elwood. Like listening to a Detroit Tiger game when I was a kid. You don't ever forget it.

[Elwood P Dowd]

15. Detroit Tigers?

Then you remember Ernie Harwell. Do you remember the year, 1968, when Denny McLean won 30 games and the Tigers beat the Cards in the World Series? I saw Denny pitch for the Washington Senators in 1971. He was only a shell of his former self by then.

[Condem]

19. Born in Birmingham, Michigan, Elwood.

Bill Freehan. Mickey Lolich. Earl Wilson. Willie Horton. Ray Oyler. Norm Cash. Dick MaCauliff. Al Kaline. Mickey Stanley. Jim Northrup. Yeah, I remember. What a year. I visited Tiger Stadium many times that year.

[Elwood P Dowd]

22. But,

do you remember Rocky Colavito?

[lib2DaBone]

3. I wish we knew more.... the day that music died....

I had the same feeling when I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

On display there, is a part of the actual aircraft that Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays were riding in when they crashed into the lake in Madison, Wis. on Dec 10, 1967. You can almost reach out and touch it..almost...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On December 9, 1967, Redding and his backup band, The Bar-Kays, made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local "Upbeat" television show. The next afternoon, Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays were killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967. The two remaining Bar-Kays were Ben Cauley and James Alexander. Cauley was the only person aboard Redding's plane to survive the crash. Alexander was on another plane, since there were eight members in Redding's party and the plane could only hold seven, and it was Alexander's turn in the rotation to take a commercial flight. Cauley reported that he had been asleep until just seconds before impact, and recalled that upon waking he saw bandmate Phalon Jones look out a window and say, "Oh, no!" Cauley said the last thing he remembered before the crash was unbuckling his seatbelt. He then found himself in the frigid waters of the lake, grasping a seat cushion to keep afloat<6>.

Redding's body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined. He was entombed on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of Macon.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UlQVhMAbwg
(I believe this is his actual last performance at the State Theater for Channel 5 in Cleveland, Ohio, with host Don Webster?) Listen as the drummer hits the woodblock double-time while Otis drifts in and out of the slow melody for contrast. A true artist.)

[Condem]

5. Otis, lib

and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Madison. The midwest has been tough on the greats. Poor Otis dead and gone, left me here to sing this song. Pretty little girl with the red dress on. Poor Otis, dead and gone.

[lib2DaBone]

21. So True. Aircraft have been very hard on Rock and Roll Stars...

[Individualist]

10. I was 15 when that happened

and felt crushed when I learned Buddy Holly had died. I still like his music.

[Condem]

12. notsodumb. The guy wa just getting started.

I LOVE his music. Lennon and McCartney idolized him. Why? Because he wrote his own tunes.

[Individualist]

13. That's the real tragedy

We can only wonder what more he would have written. :(

[Condem]

16. A tear, notsodum.

The man was better than Presley.

[Individualist]

17. Absolutely!

One of my favorites was Everyday, not one of his better known songs. http://www.last.fm/music/Buddy+Holly/_/Everyday

[Condem]

20. Well.....Allright, Fools Paradise and Crying, Waiting, Hoping.

[Elwood P Dowd]

18. I agree with you on that.

So was Roy Orbison...well, at least I thought so back in the day.