THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - BUDDY KNOX AND BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS AND ME (part one)

FROM OUR ARCHIVES OCTOBER 6, 2007  THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

Many of you have heard the song called "American Pie," also known as The Day The Music Died song, performed and written by singer-songwriter Don Mclean. The lyrics which are a bit of a puzzle to the uninitiated are meant to honor three early Rock n' Rollers whose influence was profound, and who were killed in a small plane crash over Mason City, Iowa.

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Knox and I were traveling on tour. After a late night we got up and went to breakfast. I ran to get the newspaper and was shocked to see the headline. Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson also known as JP), and Ritchie Valens had been killed in a plane crash. The three men had been trying to make time on their own road tour. Buddy Knox ran for the men's room and threw up his breakfast.

Buddy Knox and Buddy Holly had been good friends in New York and the had Texas roots and musical influences in common. Buddy Knox had sent the song "That'll Be The Day" over to Buddy Holly rather than record it himself, and was happy when Buddy Holly had a hit with it.

I'd met Buddy Knox and some of the other Crickets in New York City. I thought of Buddy Holly as a zany guy. On this tour he had left the Crickets behind.

Friends, there's no way we can honor all three Rock n Rollers on just one blog entry, so we're going to post separately, one for Buddy Holly, one for JP, and one for Ritchie. Stick with us! We're having a great time posting our blog, we're excited about it, and we know those of you who aren't familiar with my era are getting a real lesson - we hope a fun one - out of it.



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PETE SEEGER : SINGER - SONGWRITER - ACTIVIST WALKED WITH TWO CANES THROUGH OCCUPY MOVEMENT CAMP

SF GATE : PETE SEEGER - SINGER SONGWRITER ACTIVIST

 A portion of the article by MICHAEL HILL and CHRIS TALBOTT, Associated Press.

 

"With his lanky frame, use-worn banjo and full white beard, Seeger was an iconic figure in folk music who outlived his peers. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and wrote or co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer," ''Turn, Turn, Turn," ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his fingers poised over the strings of his banjo.

 

In 2011, the canes kept Seeger from carrying his beloved instrument while he walked nearly 2 miles with hundreds of protesters swirling around him holding signs and guitars. With a simple gesture — extending his friendship — Seeger gave the protesters and even their opponents a moment of brotherhood the short-lived movement sorely needed..."

CHECK OUT OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ON PETE!
 

THIS VIDEO WAS MADE WHEN PETE WAS 74.

(476) BUDDY KNOX BY BRUNO OF HOLLYWOOD

HERE'S BUDDY in HOLLYWOOD

I went on tour with Buddy for a couple years and he made the introductions that got me onto Roulette Records where he was signed. Eventually we made our way to Hollywood, after playing in in the lower 48 states... or was that 47? Well, we didn't play in Utah though I got some press in Utah, and we didn't play in Hawaii, though we wanted to. Elvis loved Hawaii and we all wrote or sang songs with the Hawaiian theme.

Sometimes while on tour Buddy would go off and play with Jimmy Bowen, who he'd had the Rhythm Orchids with, and sometimes I went off to play with Jimmy, who was instrumental in my early career.

I also had my photo taken by Bruno of Hollywood. He was the photographer to go see when you came to Hollywood. So far that picture hasn't made the e-Bay auctions like some of the pictures that my manager took of me when I was at United Artists have. Most of the pictures that hit e-Bay of me were sent out in press kits.

(Want to know more about Buddy or Jimmy?  Check out that Google Search feature embedded in this blog!) 

ERSEL HICKEY : TRYING TO GET TO YOU

OPRAH WINFREY ON FRIENDSHIP

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." - Oprah Winfrey

GOOGLE READER - RSS FEED - WILL GO DOWN JULY 1 2013

Just to keep our followers and other friends and readers up to the latest in Google Blogger History!

Google has announced that the Google Reader, and RSS feed features which some of you use to read this and other blogs, will be history (go down permanently as far as anyone knows) in about 2 weeks, on July 1, 2013.

There are other RSS Readers out there and we will post ON THIS POST if there are any recommendations or suggestions about those products or services. *****

You can always go Old School and BOOKMARK this site.

If you use word search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other SEARCH ENGINE, we are aware of another half dozen or so WES BRYANs out there.  We suggest "WES BRYAN MUSIC" as the best word choice.

WE HAVE BLOGGED USING FREE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FROM THE VERY BEGINNING and we are grateful for the opportunity to do so.  However, even some of the world's richest companies sometimes decide that a free product or service is not worth it to them to continue.

While we're at it, we know we miss - and you probably do too - our wonderful slideshow of stars which was one of the products we have also used for free as provided by PHOTOBUCKET.

Well, we put up the Valentine's version of that slideshow this year, and a week later, when we went in to take down the Valentines there was no longer any EDITING OPTION.  Not only that, there is no longer any option to make NEW SLIDESHOWS!  PHOTOBUCKET IS ALLOWING US TO PRESENT THE SLIDESHOWS (the moving boxes) that we already made and posted.  For this we are grateful!

Hopefully we can soon reinstall a slideshow!

Christine

***** Update : We're being told that FEEDLY and DIGG will have readers.  FEEDLY is an option now, DIGG in the near future.