TommyK Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Americans awoke to the news that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP "The Big Boppper" Richardson, died over night in a plane crash in rural Iowa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninblack Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 February 3rd always feels special/different to me than any other days of the year. I feel small and quiet. When we lost Buddy we really lost one of the greats. Rave on, y'all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acousticat Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 The day the music died. Yes, that was a sad day, but their music lives on. Long may you live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodehopper Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 What a lesson in fate.....I forget who it was but they flipped a coin to see who would "win" and get a seat on the plane. flip of a coin...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumps Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 What a lesson in fate.....I forget who it was but they flipped a coin to see who would "win" and get a seat on the plane. flip of a coin...... seems like it was Richie Valens who "won" the coin toss with Tommy Allsup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgTime Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Yeah man, why do all good guitarists die on a ****ing plane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodehopper Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Yeah man' date=' why do all good guitarists die on a ****ing plane?[/quote'] yah...if I were to ever make it big-time I would stay off planes, never sit on the toilet or in the bath tub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eltonwce Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Actually it was Waylon Jennings who gave up his seat on the plane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumps Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Actually it was Waylon Jennings who gave up his seat on the plane. don't know about Jennings (wasn't he playing under Sun Records at that time) but I do know that Allsup lost the coin toss to Valens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWilson Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Actually it was Waylon Jennings who gave up his seat on the plane. Yep' date=' it was Waylon. I believe he had a bad cold or the person who got on the plane had a cold and they traded. Fate can be cruel. All to young to go. R.I.P.[/color'] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumps Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 here's a quote from buddyhollyonline... I found the same thing on a few websites with information about Allsup... "The tour featured other artists Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper - it was Allsup who flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens for a seat on the Beechcraft Bonanza that would crash less than an hour later. " what I didn't know (learn alot by digging around some!) is that Allsup had a wells fargo wire from his mother waiting for him at the next stop, and since he lost the coin toss Allsup gave Buddy Holly his wallet so he could use his ID to pick up the telegram. At the crash site, Allsup's wallet was recovered, so the early reports had Allsup as one of the dead... who knew! And yeah, good Ole' Waylon was part of Allsup's crew (that man played with everyone) that doesn't mean that Waylon voluntarily gave up his seat, but the coin toss with Valens was Allsup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWilson Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Thanks, stumps. I stand corrected. I knew Waylon was in there somewhere but had it a bit mixed up in this old brain I am stuck with using! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumps Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Thanks' date=' stumps. I stand corrected. I knew Waylon was in there somewhere but had it a bit mixed up in this old brain I am stuck with using![/size'] Ok, it looks like we're BOTH right! (don't ya love with that happens?) Allsup and Jennings were a team traveling as backing musicians (again, Waylon played with everyone, what a career) Allsup lost the famed coin toss to Valens, Waylon volutarily gave up his seat. Apparently, Buddy Holly, giving him a hard time about it, said to Waylon that he hoped his bus froze up, and Jennings quipped back that he hoped his planed crashed.. apparently this stuck with Waylon for years afterwards, but I don't know if this is just internet rumor or fact. I didn't know we had two people who got a whole second half of life due to a bit of chance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliangirl Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 What a lesson in fate.....I forget who it was but they flipped a coin to see who would "win" and get a seat on the plane. flip of a coin...... Not to change the subject, but didn't something similar happen to SRV? I think his brother was supposed to be in his seat but SRV decided to get back early (after a concert) and the helicopter went down. Tragic. Buddy Holly was only 22 years old. My car is older than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 Valens won the seat in a coin toss. Big Bopper Richardson, had contracted the flu. Jennings gave up his seat so Richardson would be able to ride more comfortably and get to the hotel sooner. Holly, wanted to get to Minnesota sooner.. partially, because he was out of underwear. He needed to do laundry and the laundromats were all closed when they got there. Get this... During that tour, their regular drummer missed their last gig because he was in the hospital. He got frost bitten toes while riding the bus... Nice guys these concert promoters, eh? I know busses weren't what they are today, but gimme a break! The plane went down because the pilot was not certified to fly at night. The same thing that brought down John F. Kennedy, Jr. (the president's son) in 1999. Kennedy, the pilot was not yet experienced enough (qualified) to fly at night on instruments. The brain gets lulled into believing what it feels. The plane goes into a slow bank, in a downward direction. The brain believes it is flying dead nuts level.... until you hit the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickax Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Waylon volutarily gave up his seat. Apparently' date=' Buddy Holly, giving him a hard time about it, said to Waylon that he hoped his bus froze up, and Jennings quipped back that he hoped his planed crashed.. apparently this stuck with Waylon for years afterwards, but I don't know if this is just internet rumor or fact. I didn't know we had two people who got a whole second half of life due to a bit of chance...[/quote'] I saw an interview on TV (not long before he died) with Waylon Jennings and he was talking about that last night with Buddy Holly. The night they played the Surf Ballroom, in Clear Lake, it was very cold. Buddy told Waylon that he hopes he freezes on the Bus and Waylon shot back saying I hope your plane crashes. He said this remark to Buddy stuck with him for many years. I remember he was still shook by that exchange all those years later as he spoke about it in the interview. Love Buddy's music and I am a huge fan of Waylon. May they both rest in peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaster Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I was disappointed that there was very little coverage of this tragedy by the media; after all it was the 50th anniversary. Of course, the newspapers managed to update the latest hip/hop-rapper nite club shootings, but completely forgot about the plane crash that affected American Rock music. At least J.P. Richardson Jr managed to have his famous father exhumed to follow up on a long standing rumour that Buddy Holly shot the pilot during the first few moments of flight causing the plane crash. The "Big Bopper" was found some 40 meters from the crash site, while all the others were right next to the plane. The rumour had the "Bopper" crawling for help. Macabre but interesting.... http://tnjn.com/2007/jan/24/48-year-old-mystery-uts-bill-b/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I've always liked Buddy's music even though he died a year before I was born. Right after I graduated in '78 I bought a re-release of his best called "Buddy Holly Lives" which I wore out in the first six months. In late 1978 a local radio station had somehow gotten a single of what was reported to be a duo between Jerry Lee lewis and Elvis, which was so fake it was laughable. it was an Elvis imitator singing along with an old JLL song. I called the station and ended up on the air with him, basically ripping it apart and stating why. In our conversation we chatted about the upcoming 20th anniversary of Buddy's death and he stated I should come back on the air with him on that date and talk about Buddy's life and music. Well, Gee Whiz, I'm no Buddy expert but at that time there was much LESS information out there! So at that time I only knew what the average rock history buff would know nowadays, common knowledge stuff, but back then it appeared I knew more than many. We never did do anything on that anniversary and I didn't really get any 'new' info until 1989 when Paul McCartney hosted a TV special and they interviewed Vi Petty, JI Allison, Joe B, the guy who wrote "Blue Days, Black Nights", Sonny Curtis, et al. I took that info as gospel and have no reason to doubt any of it now. I may have known more than the average person back then, but I consider myself to be behind the curve now! In 1984 I bought a double album called "The Great buddy Holly" which had some great music... sort of..... Come to find out a lot of it was what we now know as the "Apartment Tapes" which they layered with the The Three Suns or the Jordannaires or something... and some icky guitar work. I recently bought the cd release of the Apartment tapes and it's great stuff. Of course I typically like the unplugged versions of songs more anyway, and this just drove it home. Sometimes it's fascinating and sometimes disconcerting to hear a song in the larva stage... a couple songs on the cd 'may' have ended up being Buddy Holly classics if he had made it to the studio with them but we'll never know. And after the mid 60s release of the posthumous stuff (the double album I bought for a quarter in 1984) that they destroyed by adding too much to, we really shouldn't be trying to fill in the blanks for Buddy..... it don't woik! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWilson Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 FYI: There's a story on "The Day The Music Died" in a recent Rolling Stone Magazine. (The one with Springstein on the cover.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Tear the cover off and I'll buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWilson Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Tear the cover off and I'll buy it. Ha! Hell, I'll tear the cover off and send it to you. A guy I work with gave it to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brundaddy Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 At the STAX Museum in Memphis, (an awesome experience) there is the gleaming, flawless tenor sax from the Bar-Kays that miraculously survived the crash without a scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninblack Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Tear the cover off and I'll buy it. I'll take the extra cover. (though I already have 3 copies). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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