{"id":1982,"date":"2009-02-03T00:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T05:22:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-01-25T10:16:11","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T15:16:11","slug":"rock-town-hall-celebrates-the-day-the-mu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-town-hall-celebrates-the-day-the-mu\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock Town Hall Celebrates The Day the Music Died"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"357\" height=\"224\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"data\" value=\"http:\/\/rocktownhall.com\/musicdiedbig357x224.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/rocktownhall.com\/musicdiedbig357x224.swf\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"357\" height=\"224\" src=\"http:\/\/rocktownhall.com\/musicdiedbig357x224.swf\" data=\"http:\/\/rocktownhall.com\/musicdiedbig357x224.swf\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p>Tuesday, February 3, 2009, marks the 50th Anniversary of <strong>The Day the Music Died<\/strong>, that is, for those of you&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Too young to have grown up with <strong>Don McLean&#8217;s &#8220;American Pie&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Too sober and reasonable to have ever been at a &#8220;normal person&#8221; bar with patrons drunkenly singing along to said song as an acoustic cover duo signals <strong>Last Call<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Blessed enough to have missed <strong>Madonna<\/strong>&#8216;s atrocious cover of said song from its brief appearance on the charts a few years ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;the day an airplane carrying <strong>Buddy Holly<\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ritchie_Valens\" target=\"_blank\">Ritchie Valens<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong>The Big Bopper<\/strong> went down near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing the three early rockers and the plane&#8217;s pilot.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/tdtmd_trio.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"359\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">(Holly&#8217;s the guy who looks kind of like Gary Busey.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If the sentiments of McLean&#8217;s song and rock criticism are to be believed, this momentous event &#8211; together with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.morethings.com\/music\/elvis\/pictures\/elvis_presley_army_underwear.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Elvis Presley<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s induction in the U.S. Army, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emarketingmag.com\/B6_Portu\/R2\/News8_4.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Jerry Lee Lewis<\/a><\/strong>&#8216; marriage to his 14-year-old cousin, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.afrobella.com\/wp-content\/afrobella%20images\/little-richard-penniman.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Little Richard<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s swearing off of rock &#8216;n roll in favor of The Lord &#8211; would set the stage for a few years of mostly wimpy rock &#8216;n roll and indirectly lead to John F. Kennedy&#8217;s assassination and England&#8217;s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Profumo_Affair\" target=\"_blank\">Profumo Affair<\/a><\/strong>, the latter a sexual scandal involving a politician that would provide a slap to the butt of the newborn Beatles, reawaken The Power and Glory of Rock, and many years after the fact introduce me to the cute-as-a-button screen presence of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sxzNWP5H2T8\" target=\"_blank\">Bridget Fonda<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The small plane was supposed to have carried only Buddy Holly and two bandmates, including future country music icon <strong>Waylon Jennings<\/strong>, but Valens and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Big_Bopper\" target=\"_blank\">JP Richardson<\/a> (ie, Bopper) subtly pulled rank and took the Crickets&#8217; seats. Bad move for the opening acts, but a boon of varying degrees for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0765605\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gailard Sartain<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0577666\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gilbert Melgar<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0001617\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lou Diamond Phillips<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0498280\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stephen Lee<\/a>, among other actors who&#8217;ve had the honor of portraying these artists in films, telemovies, and stage plays.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/tdtmd_poster.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"387\" height=\"505\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Dion would live to jam with Lou Reed<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Dion DiMucci<\/strong>, of <strong>Dion and the Belmonts<\/strong> fame, was also approached to purchase a seat at $36, but thankfully the stress he&#8217;d absorbed growing up with hothead, skinflint Italian parents bickering over their family apartment&#8217;s $36 rent scarred him, and he happily hopped on the free bus with the common backing musicians.<\/p>\n<p>Rock &#8216;n roll revived for at least 20 years following the arrival of The Beatles, but on this mournful anniversary we&#8217;ll be reviewing &#8211; and celebrating &#8211; what may have been lost forever, what may have been gained, and where rock &#8216;n roll may yet be headed in the post-Holly\/Valens\/Bopper landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday, February 3, 2009, marks the 50th Anniversary of The Day the Music Died, that is, for those of you&#8230; Too young to have grown up with Don McLean&#8217;s &#8220;American Pie&#8221; Too sober and reasonable to have ever been at a &#8220;normal person&#8221; bar with patrons drunkenly singing along to said song as an acoustic <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-town-hall-celebrates-the-day-the-mu\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[578,148],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}