The Music Died 50 Years Ago Today

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). Here is Buddy Holly and the Crickets playing the Holly classic Peggy Sue on the Arthur Murray Dance Party on December 29, 1957.



Here is the Grateful Dead playing the Holly classic Not Fade Away at the Oakland Coliseum on New Years Eve 1985. Many people under the age of 50 only know Not Fade Away from the Grateful Dead, as you can see it was often a sing-along.




Here are the Rolling Stones playing Not Fade Away in 1964.



Hat Tip: Lin Bremer on WXRT radio.

Happy Birthday Jerry Garcia

Copyright: Richard Blair
Jerry Garcia plays at the Greek Theater in Berkely, Ca. - 1976


The late great Jerry Garcia would be 66 today if he had not died nearly 13 years ago. The leader of the seminal San Francisco rock band the Grateful Dead was a profound influence on American rock and popular culture. This month's Relix Magazine has as their cover story How Jerry Got Hip (Again), it covers an emerging appreciation for the music of the Grateful Dead among younger people today, 13 years after the Dead finished leading their vagabond fans, known as Dead Heads, around America on their various tours. Many think of the Grateful Dead's music as the experimental music that they played during their early years in the '60s and during what became known as "Drums and Space" an experimental jam they played during every concert. The years of 1970 - 1974 the Dead was the most prolific band out there releasing 7 albums (four 1 record sets, two 2 record live sets and one 3 record live set), the final one being the single studio album Mars Hotel released on their then new record label Grateful Dead Records. All of that recording was in addition to near constant touring.

The Grateful Dead was considered an American roots band after releasing American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, albums that could be considered country if they didn't contain the patina and the sound of the Dead. Garcia also recorded and toured with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and Old & In the Way, a bluegrass band featuring Vassar Clemons and David Grisman.

Bertha Don't You Come Around Here...

...Anymore. The season's first named Atlantic hurricane has been names after relatively popular Grateful Dead song, Bertha.


I had a hard run, runnin from your window.
I was all night running, running, lord I wonder if you care,
I had a run in, run around, and run down.
Run around the corner, corner, lord run smack in to a tree.
I had to move, really had to move,
Thats why if you please, I am on my bendin knees,
Bertha dont you come around here anymore.
Dressed myself in green, I went down unto the sea.
Try to see whats goin down, try to read between the lines.
I had a feelin I was fallin, fallin, fallin,
I turned around to see,
Heard a voice al callin, lord you was comin after me.
I had to move, really had to move,Thats why if you please, I am on my bendin knees,
Bertha dont you come around here anymore.
Ran into a rainstorm, I ducked back into novato.
Its all night pourin, pourin, pourin,
Lord but not a drop on me.Test me, test me,
Test me, test me, test me,
Why dont you arrest me? Throw me in to the jailhouse,
Lord until the sun goes down, till it goes down.
I had to move, really had to move,
Thats why if you please, I am on my bendin knees,
Bertha dont you come around here anymore.
I had to move, really had to move,
Thats why if you please, I am on my bendin knees,
Bertha dont you come around here anymore.

Bo Diddley Dead at 79 - RIP Bo

 
Bo Diddley from the Big TNT Show in 1966 with the Bo-ettes

The pioneering guitar player Bo Diddley has died in his family home surrounded by 35 family members while listening to gospel music. Seems appropriate. The song Hey Bo Diddley was occasionally sung by the late great Jerry Garcia in the middle of the Grateful Dead's version of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. Bo Diddley, Rest In Peace.

Sheryl Crow: Artist as Her Own Blonde Joke

Sheryl Crow has had one doozy of a week, first she blogged about the possibility of people using one square of toilet paper per visit (hello Lance?), then she and Laurie David got into a spat with Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Sheryl can also be seen on a billboard ad for a Revlon hair coloring at the Jackson Blvd. stop in the Red line subway here in Chicago. The subway ad and the television ad linked to are for a Revlon product and something called the "Not Fade Away Tour". Okay, it's a catchy play on words for Sheryl and the Revlon product but come on, Buddy Holly and the Crickets did Not Fade Away 50 years ago (next month). The Stones did it over forty years ago and this Wikipedia post states that the Grateful Dead played the song during 530 concerts; now that last factoid is one that I can believe. This self described "angry hippie" from New York City takes a much dimmer view of Ms. Crow's appropriation of Not Fade Away and I will not argue with her.

Sheryl Crow has not asked me for any advice, nor frankly is she likely to ask me for any in the future but what the heck, here goes:

Do not discuss your bathroom habits in public.
Do not talk about politics or religion at parties.
Get new friends.

The first suggestion should be obvious but if the habits happen to be bizarre or unbelievable then you should be doubly reticent about airing them out in public.

The White House Correspondents Dinner falls under the long standing (it predates your mother) rule to avoid politics and religion at parties. You and Ms. Laurie allegedly attempted to discuss religion with a politician.

The third suggestion is related to the first two. You need some friends who can pull you aside to tell you, "honey, cut it with the bathroom crap, you sound like a nut."

Muslim “Leaders” Attend Dead Concerts!

How else to explain all of the hallucinations that some Muslim leaders have had? First there was the Big Kahuna, Mohammed, whom it is said repeatedly soared into space to have the conversations with the Angel Gabriel; those conversations later became the best seller the Qur’an. This talking to other beings thing has been catching on in the Muslim world of late, first there was the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad who has been hearing voices concerning the end of the world and some taxi driver who would come down to earth to proclaim it as such. Strangely the leader of “the soldiers of Heaven” terrorist group heard basically the same thing when he planned his ill fated attack on Muslim worshippers last week. The Gateway Pundit has a rundown on these two nutjobs and their talks with God. I must add that after twenty years of seeing the band the Grateful Dead in concert that the average Dead show had more talking with God going on during Drums/Space - Sugar Magnolia than in the entire Muslim world during the previous two millenia. It is sad but maybe if the Muslims go to school and study hard enough they can catch up with those aging hippies.