The music died.
A long, long time ago... I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance,
That I could make those people dance,
And maybe they'd be happy for a while.
But February made me shiver,
With every paper I'd deliver,
Bad news on the doorstep...
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.
I was five years old and in Kindergarten. I sort of remember and I sort of don't but I sure do recall hearing his music on the old AM car radio from '57 to '59. It stuck with me, sort of forgotten all those years until the revival of the mid-70's and it all came back and has been in my head ever since.
Everyday it's a-gettin' closer, goin' faster than a roller coaster. . .
I remembered the Beatles' covers of some of his songs but I never put it together back in the 60's that had there been no Holly, there probably would have been no Beatles and no Beatles? Who knows how long the pop music industry would have been moribund in the corporate manufacturing of "teen idols" along with the insipid music so many of those acts fronted.
Holly pretty much popularized the four man rock band ensemble, a rhythm and a lead guitar, a bass and a drum kit along with the harmonies from the various players and it was the Beatles who cemented the format in stone. It's still with us down to this day. Doesn't every suburban high school still sport a local band like this among its students?
And the name "The Beatles"? That was inspired by Holly's band, "The Crickets".
Not a bad catalogue of achievements for a guy who died tragically at the all to young age of 22. Had he lived, Buddy would have been 70 years old last September. And as what was once the recent past, recedes further and further until all who remember it are in at least their sixth decade of life then finally we too will be gone, Buddy remains 22 forever while his music and his legacy are immortal.
My love a-bigger than a cadillac
I try to show it and you drive a-me back
your love for me a-got to be real
for you to know just how I feel
a love for real not fade away
Now a love for real not fade away. . .