Moms Music - Buddy Holly

How about another round of #momsrecords. Mom is a huge Beatles fan and a huge Buddy Holly fan I have gone back and forth with Holly’s music. He certainly influenced everyone. I particularly find my love of Holly in his influence on cult musician Roky Erickson. But of course, whether British Invasion or garage rock or power pop, it starts with Holly. It’s hard not to picture Elvis Costello on the sides of his feet banging at “Pump it Up” and not see the obvious Holly influence. I acquired the now iconic self titled 1958 album where Holly on the cover could pass for a young John Lennon -which got the reissue treatment in 1988-the last album released by Holly before his death. I suspect most people’s experience with Holly begins with 20 Golden Greats- another iconic record, this one with the graffiti Buddy Holly Lives on the cover. Granted, that’s a good suggestion but “Buddy Holly” is a nice start too - there’s “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On”, and “I’m Gonna Love You Too” which are all great must haves. The latter as good as a rock song ever- covered by Blondie, the 13th Floor Elevators and others. But there is a nice mix of songs- slow and fast as well as songs made more famous by others- Lieber and Stoller’s “You’re So Square” popularized by Elvis and “Ready Teddy”, an early hit for Little Richard. As an aside, I have now lived in Iowa for 20 years and one thing I have yet to do is to visit the Surf Ballroom the site of the last concert. It often comes up what Buddy Holly would have done if he had lived. It is one of the all time great music questions that gets applied to Hendrix, Lennon, Janis, Cobain, Otis Redding, the original Lynyrd Skynyrd and countless others. This one is tough because I take a pessimistic view. Elvis and the British Invasion changed everything. Would he have became a “nostalgia” act? This seems a likely answer. We know how the careers of the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson played out. That seems like a likely path Yet, you never know. He was beloved by the Beatles. I am sure he would have been given similar treatment as Lennon would give to Chuck Berry. We saw Berry and Roy Orbison get huge, star-studded tributes in the 80s. The likelihood of a latter years Holly revival almost seems assured. I would surely be wrong if I compare him to musicians like Bobby Vee and Frankie Avalon. That's got to be underrating his sizable talent and influence, right? Between the 70s variety shows, the ascent of various neo rockabilly and traditional rock acolytes and late 90s/early 00s Rick Rubin makeovers - someone would have lifted Holly’s star again. Springsteen, U2, Robert Gordon, the Clash, Costello, the Ramones, The Rolling Stones and most obviously Lennon and McCartney -without a doubt, someone would have found tour support and album appearances for Holly as they did for his contemporaries (Note: I typed this out and forgot all about the Weezer hit. Definitely was in the cards for him to get his heyday again, and though I didn’t plan on writing on it- clearly between “American Pie”, the Gary Busey biopic and “La Bamba”, America still had cravings for early rock n roll)