On 2/3/08, John Hudson <OM4T@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> 3 Feb 2008
>
> With a talented group of listees residing in Iowa I wonder if any of them
> might have visited and photographed the area where on this day in a year
> past the music died?
>
> Don McLean's 1971 tribute song "American Pie" labelled this day in 1959 as
> "The Day The Music Died".
>
> jh
I've never done that, though I could have (if I had any talent that
is). I was born in Des Moines. I think they (Buddy Holly, Big
Bopper, Richie Valens) had just played the Val-Air Ballroom and were
flying to Clear Lake when the plane crashed.
It just seems like a sad and unappealing thing to do. But that's just me maybe.
Also, I'm younger than Don McLean and I could never figure out what he
meant by saying the music died. You'd have to like 50s music better
than I did. I had Dylan, the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Byrds,
Steppenwolf, the Who, Credence, and I just didn't get the nostalgia
for Buddy Holly. As far as I was concerned, Elvis died in 1959 too
(or 1960 -- whenever it was he went into the army). Granted, things
sucked in 1970-71 with all the good bands having broken up and all the
group members putting out second- and third-rate solo albums. If
that's what was bugging him about contemporary music in 1970-1, I get
that.
It was a sad day to be sure, to be repeated, over and over in the 60s
and 70s. And McLean was able to make a 16 minute song about it
courtesy of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" (or Sgt Pepper,
generally) which broke the 3-minute limit for a pop song.
I suppose my date for when the music died was 1980 when John Lennon
was assassinated. I like Paul Simon's "The Late Great Johnny Ace"
better than "American Pie" too.
Joel W.
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