Good Buddy

It's a Holly day, since his music did not die--with (among others) Beatles, Dylan, Ronstadt, Stones, Springsteen, Modest Mouse, The Band, even Weezer.

It was 63 years ago today that his, if not the, “music died,” in that gruesome plane crash in Iowa that also took the lives of Valens and Bopper. So here are tributes to Bud in the form of covers by others who came along later. On an earlier anniversary, back in the mid-80s, I chatted on the phone with his mom, who was still listed in phone book for Lubbock under the family’s real name….Holley. But first, the usual political cartoons, enjoy then subscribe please, it is still free. And don’t forget you can now view my award-winning 2021 film Atomic Cover-up for free here at its 16th and current festival, third from the top, and then vote for it for the Audience Award, thanks.

Buddy’s Buddies

First, the poster for the fateful concert:

Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away”

Modest Mouse, “That’ll Be The Day”

Waylon Jennings, who famously gave up his seat to Buddy for the fatal flight, hails “Peggy Sue”:

Fiona Apple, “Everyday”

Bob Dylan & George Harrison: Rough and little-seen live duet on “Peggy Sue,” 1987. Of course, Bob has testified to a kind of mystical experience seeing Buddy live up close shortly before his death.

The Band, “Slippin’ and a Slidin’ 1970 (I saw them do this live a few months earlier in Buffalo)

Linda Ronstadt, “It’s So Easy”

The Beatles, 1963 (so influenced by Buddy they modeled their name on The Crickets), here with “Crying, Wishing and Hoping.”

John Lennon noodling around with “Maybe Baby”

Sandy Denny, “Playing the Game”

Springsteen and E Streeters live, 1978, “Rave On”

Blind Faith, “Well All Right” (yes, I also saw them do this live in 1969, in Toronto)

John Doe with strange but moving “Peggy Sue Got Married”

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, just had its world premiere and is drawing extraordinary acclaim. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.