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The Day The Music Died

The day was February 3, 1959. At approximately 12:55 AM, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, the “Big Bopper,” and their twenty-one year old pilot boarded a small plane near Clear Lake, Iowa, to fly to Fargo, North Dakota. The plane had only been aloft a few minutes when it crashed killing all four persons aboard.

Don McLean was a young boy of thirteen at the time of the crash, but he would immortalize the tragic event some twelve years later in the hit song American Pie: “February made me shiver/with every paper I’d deliver.” The song is a musical chronicle of the decade from 1959 to 1969: “And in the streets: the children screamed,/The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed./But not a word was spoken;/The church bells all were broken.” The song is rich with oblique allusions to musicians and events of the ‘60s. When Don McLean was asked what the song meant, he quipped, “It means I never have to work again.”

In 1978 the movie The Buddy Holly Story was released, winning the Academy Award for best music and garnering Gary Busey a nomination for Best Actor. Rockabilly/blues musician Billy C Farlow had been a popular candidate for the role of Buddy Holly. BAM magazine (Bay Area Musicians) even ran a campaign to draft Farlow for the lead role. The campaign was so successful that the producer flew Farlow to LA to try out for the part. Busey may have beaten out Farlow for the role of Holly, but the attendant publicity, particularly an article in Dead Relix magazine attracted the attention of a Dallas theatrical producer Bill Easley. Easley contacted Farlow and brought him and his band to Dallas to try out for the stage play. Farlow was cast in the lead role of The Adventures of Buddy Holly, a production financed primarily by Holly’s widow Maria Elena.

On opening night Holly’s brother Larry bought over Holly’s Fender Stratocaster that had been on the plane the night Holly was killed for Farlow to play. Billy C Farlow said that playing Holly’s guitar was the thrill of a lifetime, like holding Excalibur and or discovering the Holy Grail. Pictured here with Maria Elena, Farlow is holding Buddy’s Gibson J 200 acoustic guitar.

Before Farlow and his band left Texas, Maria signed a photo of herself and Buddy for Farlow saying “Thanks for bringing Buddy back. Love, Maria Elena.”

---Penne J. Laubenthal

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