Artists like the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Ricky Nelson, Jan and Dean, and Little Richard all took the stage here. The Surf Ballroom was one of the first ballrooms in the state to feature rock 'n' roll, and the big name rock acts featured here made it a "must play" venue on the performance circuit. This was the case on February 2, 1959 when Anderson brought in the famed Winter Dance Party featuring Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper and Dion. It was this fateful show that made the most lasting mark on the Surf Ballroom.It's been fifty-five years since February 3rd, 1959, the day day the music died, when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper died in an airplane crash near Mason City, after playing a gig at the Surf Ballroom. Waylon Jennings was new to the band, and didn't fly as there was no room for him on the plane.
The Surf hasn't changed. Here's how it looks today; the same way it looked in February, 1959.
Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Were you even alive when they played? I was, and I was just old enough be captivated by the new music coming out of the Philco radio in my bedroom. The signals from WCFL in Chicago had just enough reach to penetrate my bedroom walls late at night. To understand how revolutionary Buddy Holly was to the music world at the time, just look at the person who introduced him, and at the others in the background.
The Big Bopper. Hellllllo baaaaby! If you weren't alive back then, you've heard the Big Bopper anyhow, at every school dance, and on every oldies program on FM radio.
Richie Valens. Valens was slick, and was one of the young Italian crooners venturing from the standards into rock and roll. EDIT: Sixty Grit points out that Valens was not Italian, but was Mexican. Thank you, Senor Grits.
February 3, 1959. The Day The Music Died.
22 comments:
Great video about the ballroom.
How did that get started in teeny-tiny Clear Lake? Population, about 8,000.
I was 9 years old in 59.
Big Joe bought a beautiful Martin D45 from Don McClean. Still his principal acoustic guitar.
McClean used to play regularly in Woodstock at the now defunct Joyous Lake. Haven't seen him around town in a couple of decades.
I listened to Buddy Holly heavily when I was in high school in the 1970s. Later, a movie about him came out and his work was easier to find.
His "Love is Strange" is haunting piece.
ST:
Here's a history of the Surf Ballroom.
It is an interesting story, but it doesn't offer much insight into the reason why it was built in Clear Lake, other than the original owner had other venues in Minnesota.
Clear Lake: the Hamptons of north-central Iowa.
It's what passes for a resort town in these parts, which might explain the ballroom.
If by Italian you mean Mexican, then there you go.
Sure, Spanish and Italian are the same language, I get that. But Richie was from San Fernando valley and his last name was Valenzuela.
What I am waiting for is the Big Bopper movie. We've had the Richie Valens and the Buddy Holly movies, why no love for the Bop man?
If by Italian you mean Mexican, then there you go.
It's all red sauce, so no big deal.
It looks like a Big Bopper movie may be a brewin'.
Well now that's just unfortunate. I was just kidding!
How much longer will we have to wait for a movie about the pilot?
"Imagine a land where a young man yearns to fly, only to die with a planeload of celebrities. In Iowa. Death Flight, 1959!"
Make it stop!
They already made the movie about the pilot. But by the time the Hollywood producers finished a few minor plot adjustments, the movie involved Goose and Maverick.
Someone once told me that Bruce Springsteen would psych himself up before every concert by listening to some Buddy Holly.
I was skeptical of that claim.
De nada, signore Hazzo.
Someone once told me that Bruce Springsteen would psych himself up before every concert by listening to some Buddy Holly.
The Beatles and Stones, when they would get together, would often spin Buddy Holly records. Both were heavily inspired by him.
I'm a huge fan of Buddy Holly's, but I find this hilarious.
I remember watching "American Bandstand". Dick Clark read the story when the news broke about the plane crash.
Very terse, but a stunner.
EDIT: Sixty Grit points out that Valens was not Italian, but was Mexican. Thank you, Senor Grits.
I thought Valens was American. He was born in L.A.
EMD: That video was funny but cruel. We shouldn't laugh like that.
Those deaths did set back rock and roll. But they also allowed a brief window of other American sounds to emerge and to flourish until The Beatles arrived.
Someone once told me that Bruce Springsteen would psych himself up before every concert by listening to some Buddy Holly. I was skeptical of that claim.
I'm not. "Not Fade Away" was a regular part of the set list on the Darkness tour, and was the only non-Springsteen song included. They used it as a lead-in to "She's the One". So it certainly seems plausible that he warmed up by listening to Holly.
On later tours they also added Little Richard tunes.
About the comedy bit. Was Buddy Holly known for being arrogant?
Yes, I was alive when they died. I recall it as news over a big Chicago AM station late on 3 Feb 1959...I was 16. I was also walking in the dark up the back stairs of the old Homestead Building at the small school I attended to the laundry room, to do my laundry of course...and the guy there before me had his radio on. Seemed unreal.
It was 1959, and yes we did dance exactly like those shown in Richie Valens video clip (co-ed school) shown here. All three performers were popular with us...Richie Valens the most of all to me. Seems like yesterday. Damn I am old.
Recently discovered that an old girlfriend of mine, from that period, now lives in Colorado, and is an author, pilot, and educator. Good for her. She might remember the times we spent at the Walled Lake Casino dance pavillion here in those days...we liked big bands. She was a special girl that I will never forget...last seen in 1969, in Washington DC, before I shipped out. Then life happened.
Like the Russians launching Sputnik two years before, the death of Buddy Holly was something teenagers would remember from that era. I was 14 and listening to my AM radio less than a hundred miles from Clear Lake when they announced the crash that cold February night.
There's a monument in a corn field where the plane crashed. People are moved to leave all sorts of things there, incl spare change.
Seems like those old Rock and Rollers either ended up dying young, or living to ripe old age and enjoying their millions of $$$.
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