That'll be the day

I love Buddy Holly! I listened to the Greatest Hits CD I have the other day, which got me thinking about this post. For a bit of a background, I, like a lot of others my age, enjoy a wide variety of music styles, or genres if you will. More explanation than that really deserves it's own post, and I'll add it to my notes for future reference. I also discovered in college that I very much prefer to see a great band in a club setting rather than in an arena. This led me to follow closely a few bands that produced several great records, but never made it "big." This is also a subject for a future post, perhaps in the same one as above. But, what I realized is that sometimes it is difficult, if not downright impossible, to capture the energy and sound a band has on stage when recording in the studio. It'll turn out to be a washed out, less heavy sound, more on the pop side than anything recorded live by the same band.

Which leads me back to my love of Buddy Holly. My wife kind of makes fun of me, and I think she mainly hears the songs as bubble-gum and dismisses them as such.* But I listen to the songs, and I picture Buddy and the Crickets in my head. I can see Buddy up there with his Strat, his Fender Pro or Bassman or Twin Amp sitting behind him. Those amps are LOUD, to say the least. I can envision those guys playing a live show, with that equipment turned up, getting all of the distortion we're used to hearing today. I bet those shows were full of sound and energy, which would explain all of the screaming teenagers and the complaining parents. :) I would like to talk to someone that attended a show all of those years ago to see how they remember it.

On top of that are the great songs. Buddy's country roots shine through and his minimalistic riffs and hooks are just catchy. Add to that songs like "Everyday" with the celeste (xylophone sounding thing) and Jerry Allison slapping his knees for the percussion, and it just becomes brilliant.

There are many acts that I'd love to time-travel back to see perform live, The Who (with Moony of course), Elvis, Buck Owens with Don Rich, The Beatles to name a few; but I believe Buddy would have to be up there in #1 or 2, possibly only behind The Who.

This made so much more sense in my head than it does here in print. Hopefully some of you music enthusiasts get what I'm saying. Right?...

* - Not that I'm accusing her of being the only one in the house that's ever done that. The biggest example I can think of offhand is "No Rain" by Blind Melon. I saw the video a couple of times and heard it on the radio and dismissed it as pop drivel and quit listening to it. Many years later, I watched the "Behind the Music" on Blind Melon. And just seeing some of their live performances and getting a personal insight into the band kind of opened my eyes to them. Now when I hear that song, I turn it up instead of turning the station.