The death just over 50 years ago of Buddy Holly in a tour-plane crash may have marked "the day the music died" as Don McLean remarked the occasion in a hit recording of 1971, but Holly remains a vital and influential figure, nonetheless.
Until fairly recent times, Texas has been lax in chronicling the importance of its indigenous music. Such a responsibility has fallen largely to the scholars and enthusiasts of Great Britain, whose championing of American roots-music phenomena is sharply well concentrated in the catalogue of York, England-based Music Mentor Books.
I had touched upon Holly as a significant figure in a 2006 book for Music Mentor called Daynce of the Peckerwoods (full disclosure, here and particularly so in a chapter discussing my long affiliation with Holly's breakthrough producer of the 1950s, Norman Petty, at Clovis, N.M.). The newest title from Music Mentor, an expanded edition of Alan Mann's The A-Z of Buddy Holly & the Crickets, achieves a deeper scope in tracking Holly's wide orbit.
The scope of Holly's influence becomes patent in this encyclopedic volume. Mann, a Norfolk, England-based banker-turned-musicologist, has devoted many years to the development of a comprehensive view of Holly as a cultural force. The present book saw its premiere edition in 1994, and in 2002 Mann completed a provocative companion volume called Elvis & Buddy – Linked Lives, also for Music Mentor Books.
Mann's masterstroke with the new A-Z is to place Holly in a big-picture perspective with his scope of influence – both the influence of other artists, such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, upon Holly, and Holly's influence, in turn, upon popular music as a class. Don McLean' s epic reminiscence of Holly, the song called "American Pie," has a prominent listing, as do such acts as the Beatles, christened in deliberate emulation of Holly's accompanying band, the Crickets; the Rolling Stones, who owe a breakthrough international hit to a Holly composition; Eric Clapton, whose recording of "After Midnight" connects directly with the Crickets; and the post-Holly Crickets themselves, in various incarnations.
The book is as rich in compelling marginalia as it is in essential information. The pilot of Holly's doomed 1959 fight, Roger Peterson, commands an insightful listing, as does Lubbock-area musician Clyde Hankins, who had found Holly to be an impatient guitar student. The listings are as generous for such provincial figures as "Pappy" Dave Stone – a Northwest Texas broadcaster whose radio stations helped to launch Holly as for such major-leaguers as Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan. Such Holly-come-latelies as Bobby Vee and Tommy Roe, who scored hit records with eerie sound-alike abilities, are discussed to enlightening effect.
By 1959, of course, Buddy Holly had all but parted ways with his Texas-New Mexico origins, never ruling out a reunion with the Crickets but certainly finding his New York prospects more promising than those he had known with the well-connected rock-music entrepreneur Norman Petty in Eastern New Mexico. Holly's death (along with fellow-rocker casualties Ritchie Valens and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson) cut short a performing career that Holly had intended to modify, in any event – given his increasing preference for the record-producing profession over the hardships of touring.
The loss also threatened to deprive the culture of Holly's music as a sustained body of work. "Younger readers," as Alan Mann notes, "might be surprised to learn that in the '50s it was considered ghoulish to champion the music of someone no longer with us." But Holly's relevance persisted over the short term – hence such posthumous hits as "Reminiscing" and "True Love Ways" – on both artistic and commercial grounds.
That bearing remains incumbent. Mann cites one of Holly's signature songs, "Not Fade Away," as both prophetic and symbolic. No disagreement from this corner.
Michael H. Price, Fort Worth Business Press (March 2009)
This is the third edition of an essential work of reference for all Buddyholics. Alan Mann is a veteran fan who began this labour of love upon retiring from his banking career nearly twenty years ago. The first edition of 1994 was self-published but then quickly taken up by a publisher and expanded. Now it encompasses both Buddy and the story of The Crickets since 1959. This means over 300 pages and entries for most of those musicians who have performed or recorded with J.l. Allison and friends. It has been fully revised and enhanced with more black and white illustrations throughout the text, including some photos which have only been unearthed recently. Alan has also chosen an excellent and rarely used colour shot of the group in late 1957 to adorn the front cover. Plenty of record labels and album covers are also reproduced.
The Holly discography has been the subject of much research and debate so it is useful to have some background on every title on which Buddy performed as the major artist, with dates, location and personnel, plus some of his session work. He may have been involved in the recording of 145 different titles (calculation based on the appendix in the Beecher/Goldrosen 'Remembering Buddy' tome). Alan provides an entry for 103 of them. The others are mentioned under other artists' names. So the book provides a helpful commentary for such lists. Indeed the style is very conversational throughout – a little like sitting down with an expert at a fan convention and hearing well told anecdotes and fascinating details...
This is a wonderful resource for fans, even those who have collected a megaload of magazines, records and memorabilia. Most of their answers will be readily accessed in a much more agreeable way than any internet search machine! The book is a triumph of research and remarkable testimony to the fascination and significance which a tall Texan can have on those who have been forever influenced by his music and personality.
Barry Holley, Now Dig This (May 2009)
This is the fully revised and expanded 50th anniversary third edition of a book previously published in 1994 and 1996 (by Sound Of Tex-Mex and Aurum Press respectively) under the title of 'The A-Z Of Buddy Holly', the 50th anniversary being that of Buddy's death in a plane crash in 1959. Through over 300 pages of text and black & white photos the author provides an A to Z guide covering Holly's career, associates and related artists including, most significantly, details of all his recorded titles.
As an example, gathered as entries under "Y" are the songs You And I Are Through, You Are My One Desire, You're The One and You've Got Love. Taking the first as an illustration, the two recordings of this song are dated, located, and the personnel involved listed. The second recording is identified as that used by Norman Petty for overdubbing by The Fireballs and subsequent release on the Holly In The Hills LP and 1979's Complete Buddy Holly boxed set, while both undubbed versions are noted as being available on the Rev-Ola CD Gotta Roll! The Early Recordings 1949-1955. Fascinating titbits abound and one such is that Decca in London added a heavy tape echo to both tracks for their single release of Look At Me/Mailman Bring Me No More Blues, significantly enhancing their sound. There's even an entry under Instrumentals, Holly Hop and Leave My Woman Alone (known as Buddy's Guitar) getting a mention along with his one full-length effort Honky Tonk. Willie Logan is listed for his instrumental Holly album in The Legend Lives series – the only other two instrumental albums worthy of mention in the book being Hank Marvin's Hank Plays Holly and Tommy Allsup's Buddy Holly Songbook.
In his introductory acknowledgments the author credits the John Beecher/John Goldrosen book, 'Remembering Buddy', as the definitive biography and last word on Holly. But this A-Z of Buddy Holly and the Crickets is the ideal companion, a fabulous reference work that aficionados will value as an ever-present next to their collection of Holly recordings. And, despite being fact-filled and presented in alphabetical order throughout, it also makes a jolly good sit down and read.
Alan Taylor, Pipeline (Autumn 2009)
