The Day The Music Died

[ODB]

A friend’s family farms not too far from the crash site and I’ve gone and paid my respects.
The dance hall they played their last show is still open.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't looked at those pics a good long time. My heart breaks thinking about them injured and laying out in the cold like that. But I hope their end was instant. Truly tragic.

 

[Customweld]

When you get down to it, air travel has been pretty dang hard on musicians.

 

[Q child]

The worst part of my birthday…tragic.

Well, happy birthday anyway.

 

[Q child]

What's really interesting is how this music is largely unknown by most people today. However, at the time and in the years following, it directly influenced artists that several years to a couple decades later made music that everyone still listens to today.

It is pretty fascinating how music does that. It's all kind of an amorphous blob of influence. Musicians are inspired by other musicians are inspired by other musicians... Some heavy hitters went down in that plane. Pretty big deal.

 

[IW17]

When you get down to it, air travel has been pretty dang hard on musicians.

Statistically safer to fly than drive, but it's odd how so many musicians die in plane crashes compared to bus crashes. I'm sure it has more to do with the driving practices of professional bus drivers vs the average driver.

 

[Customweld]

Statistically safer to fly than drive, but it's odd how so many musicians die in plane crashes compared to bus crashes. I'm sure it has more to do with the driving practices of professional bus drivers vs the average driver.

For sure statistically safer to fly. To be fair to air travel, a lot of these guys were flying in small , chartered planes in less than ideal weather.

 

[DangerRanger]

That’s the problem with vague generic stats.

You're more likely to die of a shark attack surfing in Africa than climbing Everest

 

[AZ Gator]

I appreciate this thread and it has helped expand my own knowledge.

I knew of the plane crash, but it was before I was born, so its significance was lost on me. I was a big fan of the Don McLean song when I was a kid, but was completely unaware of the references and connection.

Thanks @IronNoggin for enlightening me.

 

[omerta]

A very sad day for music!

 

[IronNoggin]

Rather interesting interpretation of the lyrics to American Pie.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-50-q/clip/16210342-why-did-american-pie-drive-chevy-levee

 

[Sandhills]

It's high time JP Richardson ( the Big Bopper) got his own movie. He wrote several songs that became hits for others including White Lightning, Running Bear, and Beggar to a King. He also created the term music video.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Rather interesting interpretation of the lyrics to American Pie.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-50-q/clip/16210342-why-did-american-pie-drive-chevy-levee

The reason he drove the Chevy to the levee? Cuz Chevy ties into the very American theme of the song, and levee rhymes with it. “Drove my Chevy to the dam” just doesn’t have a ring to it….

 

[IronNoggin]

The reason he drove the Chevy to the levee? Cuz Chevy ties into the very American theme of the song, and levee rhymes with it. “Drove my Chevy to the dam” just doesn’t have a ring to it….

Might want to take in the interpretation on the link I posted...

 

[EastHumboldt]

I started listening to the podcast and then got impatient. I went back just now and skipped ahead.

Given all the other cloaked American culture references in the song, it seems quite plausible that Chevy to the levy is a reference to that old commercial. I saw somewhere else on the inter-webs where someone said there was a bar named the levee near his house. IDK that sounds spurious to me.

He was asked if the jester was Bob Dylan, and if the king was Elvis. He flat out said “No… no…there’s only one king that wears a thorny crown, and I’m not interested in making this into a board game. It’s an impressionistic work.”

So it’s a song about how he FELT about all the changes that for him started with that plane crash. And most of us who love music and especially who lived through those same changes could to some extent or another share those feelings. That’s why the song was a big hit. Like any good art it makes the person experiencing it feel something. The combination of those lyrics and that melody got inside a lot of heads and rolled around there. And because it’s impressionistic, it’s not coded history. It’s the directed subliminal spewing, coupled with conscious word choices.

For you, or anyone, its about what ever you want it to be.

And lastly, talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

 

[IronNoggin]

... I saw somewhere else on the inter-webs where someone said there was a bar named the levee near his house. IDK that sounds spurious to me.

Might be "spurious to you, but the fact remains that the local pub was named The Levee, whereas the following reference is inferred to the town of Rye, New York.

Regardless of our individual interpretations, it was and is one hell of a song.

Cheers