When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, “Well, I hope your old bus freezes up!” Jennings responded, “Well, I hope your plane crashes!” This friendly banter would haunt Jennings for years. Dion was supposed to be on the plane rather than Valens, but balked when he heard that his share would be a whopping $36 - the exact amount of his parents' monthly rent back home in the Bronx. Jennings and Allsup gave up their seats to Richardson and Valens. Holly chartered a plane to fly him and his band to Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorhead. listen' - y'know, he was recruiting people - 'Let's fly out and we'll just split it.' But you think of a 22-year-old chartering a plane, that was his kind of personality.” Well, he rented a plane! At 22 years old, 'O.K. I don't know if it was his upbringing, but I couldn't make decisions that fast. He had hoped to get to their next stop with time to rest and do his laundry.ĭion says that the time he spent with Holly has left a deep and lasting impression on him, and he remembers him as a man wise beyond his years: “I spent two weeks with him. When the tour finally arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2nd, 1959, Holly had made plans to fly out to the next city directly after the show, rather than brave the unheated 430-mile bus trip to Moorhead, Minnesota. At one point, it was so cold that the tour's drummer developed frostbite, resulting in the Belmonts' Angelo D'Aleo - as well as Valens - serving double-duty by filling in on drums. Throughout the tour, the musicians' bus was either breaking down or often without heat. You talk about tapes - I wish there was a tape going on.” But we would rock in the back of the bus. The Big Bopper didn't join in, he sat in the front with his beer. Holly, who had parted ways with longtime backing group the Crickets the previous year, was backed up by a then-unknown Waylon Jennings on bass, Carl Bunch on drums, and Tommy Allsup on lead guitar.ĭion DiMucci says that although the shows were always hot, his favorite moments from the tour were jamming on the near freezing bus on the way to the next town: “Well, we used to play in the back of the bus - Ritchie Valens, myself and Buddy Holly. The three had been performing along with Dion & The Belmonts as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour, which would cover 24 cities in a short three-week period from January 23rd to February 15th.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa.
It was 64 years ago today (February 3rd, 1959) that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P.
0 kommentar(er)
