Lifelong fan here as well.
His music was some of the first I encountered being played live on guitar (by my Dad) and some of the first music I learned to play as a very young boy.
I'd even go so far as to say I learned to sing and play simultaneously from Buddy Holly songs.
His music will always resonate with me.

Cheers,
Jeff

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If you decide to make the trek, don't drink the PBR.

Ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

Eddie that's always a good rule, that stuff is wretched.
Great writer, player and singer. And gotta' be the greatest hiccup singer ever, I'm sure Lux Interior was inspired by the man.
If y'all don't have it, get the CD titled Hollybilly, great stuff.

I’ve been a lifelong fan. Maybe my favorite artist of all time. My first exposure to To Buddy Holly was the same as Ted’s, the American Graffiti Soundtrack. Something just resonated with me. I think it was 1978 when I first saw it, in Anaheim, CA, during a family vacation. My whole life revolves around that memory. Buddy Holly, and then The Beach Boys.

I love the guitar clarity, and I love the way Buddy Sings. I remember asking my mom why he sang “Peggy Sue” the way he did, with a regular voice, then a high voice, then a low voice. I don’t recall what her response was, but I do remember it was quite striking at the time.

I also like how influential he was to virtually everyone. He was a big big deal in England, and influenced everyone, from the Shadows to the Beatles. And, they influenced everyone else. Everyone has a Buddy Holly story.

I also like the Clovis NM/Buddy Holly/Fireball/surf connection. I hear a lot of Buddy in the Fireballs, and I hear a lot of Fireballs in surf. And, in a way, I hear a lot of Buddy Holly in Surf. Super clean and clear guitar.

And I hear a lot of Buddy Holly in music I hear everyday. He’s everywhere.

And. PBR isn’t the worst you could do. Coors Light is the worst you could do. Trust me.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

He definitely advanced the art of Rock n' Roll guitar. For perspective, I did not play Rock in my earlier years, I was almost strictly a Jazz player. Later on, I realized that I needed something which would appeal to a broader audience and I decided to pursue the Rock guitar I liked, which would be roughly defined as early '60s music, before heavy distortion became all but ubiquitous. Since that time, I've been working on that style of guitar and have found that much of what I play seems to have been done by Buddy Holly. His music definitely influenced the world of Rock guitar forevermore.

When Surf music first appeared, Buddy Holly was the state of the art for rock n' roll guitar. The Shadows were strongly influenced by him and snippets of his ideas were just part of the scenery in early '60s rock n' roll.

It's been my observation that most innovations seem to arise in many places at around the same time. Many major inventions were credited to one person, but usually there were a number of people working independently from one another and arriving at the same point nearly simultaneously. I would opine that it's the same with rock n' roll guitar, there is no one single person that developed it, but a lot of players contributed. Was Scotty Moore the first? Cliff Gallup? Chuck Berry? All of these people were major contributors, but but even they had influences from Jazz, R&B and Country artists that are before them.

Buddy Holly, however, seemed to bring the singer/songwriter notion to the mix in a way which was hard to find precedent for. He played out of his chord forms and made it sound deceptively easy. A lot of guitar players wore down the grooves of Buddy Holly singles trying to learn just how he did what he did.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

My father was in his mid-teens in Saskatchewan (prairies) during Buddy Holly's first hits and those songs stayed with him his entire life. He and I didn't see eye-to-eye about music...in fact, he was quite brutal in his view of music I listened to so, in return, I automatically dismissed his Buddy Holly tunes as old man bullsh!t throw-back hillbilly music with a hiccup'ing vocal style.

As I matured, the sheer amount of reverence paid to the music, accomplishments, and short life of Buddy Holly that all my heroes had for him really turned that tide and that crappy, ignorant attitude disappeared.
Leading up to my dad's death in 2010, he and I were able to let down our guards and we kind of bonded in our appreciation for Holly. He may have been from Lubbock, TX but his impact was world wide. I have completely changed my idea of those memories of my dad spinning those 45s on his small console RCA Victor record player/AM radio; I would rather keep the memories of my dad sitting back and enjoying Holly's music than his many faults as a parent. That love of music was probably the only thing my dad and I had in common and could talk about without getting into some heated argument or sore feelings.

A couple of years back, we had a surf/rockabilly gig that happened to be on the death anniversary of my dad. The rest of the guys agreed to add That'll Be The Day and in my own little private moment on stage I paid tribute to my dad. That was a tough moment to get through and it kind of closed the door on the grieving process of losing him.

Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada

Last edited: Feb 06, 2018 10:28:15

When I was about 10 years old, my mum bought me a record player for my birthday. My birthday is in June and I remember it being a hot sunny day. She bought two records, one was a guy called Elvis Presley and one was by a guy wearing big thick glasses and called Buddy Holly.
I remember sitting on the edge of the bed wide eyed as she wired all the speakers up, set up the record player, took the Buddy Holly record out and put on the player. She pushed a button and the needle settled on the record. She turned the volume pretty much all the way up, and Rave On burst out the speakers - the loudest, most exciting thing I'd heard in all my young like. "I'M GOING TO LISTEN TO IT THE GARDEN" she yelled, opened the window and left me in the room with the raw, thumping sound of Buddy Holly. It was love at first listen. And if I ever turned that record player above 3, I was yelled at to turn it down.

Ten years later I'm heading through Norfolk to go surfing. By this time I wear glasses, I'm tall, slim with dark hair. I stop in a gas station and as I go in to pay, Joe Brown opens the door, with Marty Wilde behind him. I know who Joe Brown is - the main that brought the plain G to UK guitarists - so I say, or rather, blurt out: "Are you Joe Brown?!" Quick as a flash he says which his Cockney accent, "Yeh, are you Buddy 'Olly?"

As my life has changed over the years, there's one constant - Buddy Holly's music always has a place in my record collection.

Apparently, his glasses were never found.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

EdRadakovitz wrote:

Hey guys... this tread inspired me... check out my surf version of "Rave On" Rave On by The Surfusions

Rave On!!
Ed

What a great idea! I love the crickets in the middle!

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

I bought a Buddy Holly play along DVD a few years ago. This makes me want to get it out again. What I am really impressed by is his inventiveness with mostly a few simple chords and progressions, and he used them to write so many great tunes. There's sort of a surf connection because Bobby Fuller was hugely influenced and did those surf instros. (I know that's stretching it.)

Anyway Ted had me thinking about it and I'm hard pressed to remember even hearing a Buddy Holly song before that American Graffiti soundtrack. I wore that out along with the Beach Boys (despite what Milner said about that "surf shit".) It probably cemented my lifetime love of oldies.

Most definitely!

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