Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie
Oh my lord - today is the fiftieth anniversary of "the day the music died." That is Don McLean's slightly hyperbolic term, but in some ways, I cannot disagree. There were significant rock-and-roll threads that at the very least were, coincident with that tragic event, dramatically shuttled off-stage.
Personally, I suspect I was just gaining independent access to pop music aside from family sing-a-longs, I guess, gingerly moving beyond stuff like "Cockles and Mussels," "One Fish Ball," and, yes, that Yale tune about sheep.
By my calculations, this was fourth grade and I was probably hunkered down when I could get away with it with a primitive crystal radio. I had undoubtedly enjoyed a few Buddy Holly tunes (a half-dozen or more are crystallized upstairs), and I have the sense I heard of the plane crash with regret, but these things are different when you are eight years old. I wouldn't really be fully awash in rock-and-roll for a couple more years.
By which time those musical threads had sadly weakened. I've always been interested in widening rather than restricting the music I get to hear. My listening in the immediate aftermath of that crash probably included doo-whop, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Patsy Cline, Neil Sedaka, the Four Seasons, Rick Nelson, Gene Pitney, and even folkies like the Kingston Trio ("Tom Dooley" and "MTA," for example) and local favorites Brothers Four ("Greenfields").
It was not long before the "British Invasion" occurred, "corrupting us" (to my total delight) with such as the Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, and Dave Clarke Five wonderfully bowdlerizing new and old American musical themes. "Not Fade Away" hit the charts and I cherished it for a good long time before realizing it was Buddy's tune.
You know, if it hadn't been for Ste. Zimmerman, the man of the hour, those flop-haired music-mis-appropriators might have largely left our country bereft of any role of significance in rock music!
That plane crash was truly crushing in many ways, and, alas, merely a warning of pending tragedies. The subsequent assassination(s) ditto. McLean certainly hit a major chord with his great tune. And some big threads of an increasingly important music that meant a lot to me and many others died 50 years ago.
I'm so glad the music lives on. Many thanks, Bruce, et al.
"Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run . . ."
Personally, I suspect I was just gaining independent access to pop music aside from family sing-a-longs, I guess, gingerly moving beyond stuff like "Cockles and Mussels," "One Fish Ball," and, yes, that Yale tune about sheep.
By my calculations, this was fourth grade and I was probably hunkered down when I could get away with it with a primitive crystal radio. I had undoubtedly enjoyed a few Buddy Holly tunes (a half-dozen or more are crystallized upstairs), and I have the sense I heard of the plane crash with regret, but these things are different when you are eight years old. I wouldn't really be fully awash in rock-and-roll for a couple more years.
By which time those musical threads had sadly weakened. I've always been interested in widening rather than restricting the music I get to hear. My listening in the immediate aftermath of that crash probably included doo-whop, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Patsy Cline, Neil Sedaka, the Four Seasons, Rick Nelson, Gene Pitney, and even folkies like the Kingston Trio ("Tom Dooley" and "MTA," for example) and local favorites Brothers Four ("Greenfields").
It was not long before the "British Invasion" occurred, "corrupting us" (to my total delight) with such as the Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, and Dave Clarke Five wonderfully bowdlerizing new and old American musical themes. "Not Fade Away" hit the charts and I cherished it for a good long time before realizing it was Buddy's tune.
You know, if it hadn't been for Ste. Zimmerman, the man of the hour, those flop-haired music-mis-appropriators might have largely left our country bereft of any role of significance in rock music!
That plane crash was truly crushing in many ways, and, alas, merely a warning of pending tragedies. The subsequent assassination(s) ditto. McLean certainly hit a major chord with his great tune. And some big threads of an increasingly important music that meant a lot to me and many others died 50 years ago.
I'm so glad the music lives on. Many thanks, Bruce, et al.
"Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run . . ."
posted by Sir Gumbo at 9:58 PM
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