RAVE ON

Fifty years ago today, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens played a show in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Their short Upper Midwest tour was billed as the Winter Dance Party and predated the mega-festival super-tour concert scene of today. The lucky few that braved the bitter winter weather to see these young men perform were in the presence of a greatness that was soon to be prematurely snatched away.

Just hours after the show, the three were killed in a plane crash in the early hours of the day that came to be known as “the day the music died.”

Holly was only 22 years old but had already left an indelible mark on the developing rock-and-roll sound. Paul McCartney recalled singing and playing his songs with John Lennon when they were boys. Indeed, the first song the pair ever recorded with a young George Harrison was a cover of “That’ll Be The Day.”

One could speculate that had there been no Buddy Holly, there might be no Beatles. To me, that’s more devastating of a thought than the loss of Holly at such a young age. As sad as his untimely death was and is, at least we can be thankful that he was around long enough to leave a small but lasting body of influential work.

LISTEN TO WORDS OF LOVE, OH BOY!, RAVE ON and MAYBE BABY