The Day The Music Died...50th Anniversary
The Day The Music Died...50th Anniversary
It was 50 years ago today, that the music world was struck with the tragic loss of three icons: Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Big Bopper.
These three helped to shape Rock N' Roll into what we know it today.
Buddy Holly was considered the most complete musician of his time (even more so than Elvis) because of not only his singing and guitar playing ability, but his composing and producing ability. Many believe his singing career may not have soared to new heights, but thought he would be a producer for the ages.
Richie Valens was the first hispanic Rock N' Roll star. He helped, along with other more classical hispanic music, to shape rock n' roll in its chord progressions, new riffs, and infectious hooks.
These are the events thats transpired:
These three helped to shape Rock N' Roll into what we know it today.
Buddy Holly was considered the most complete musician of his time (even more so than Elvis) because of not only his singing and guitar playing ability, but his composing and producing ability. Many believe his singing career may not have soared to new heights, but thought he would be a producer for the ages.
Richie Valens was the first hispanic Rock N' Roll star. He helped, along with other more classical hispanic music, to shape rock n' roll in its chord progressions, new riffs, and infectious hooks.
These are the events thats transpired:
On the afternoon of Feb. 2, while they were all waiting for that night's show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Holly decided he couldn't face one more 300-mile ride on a freezing bus to the next stop, Fargo, N.D.
So he chartered a small plane, figuring that way he'd arrive early enough to get some sleep and do his laundry.
The local charter service assigned the flight to 21-year-old Roger Peterson, a pilot who had little experience flying with instruments in the kind of snowy, overcast skies that descended over Iowa that night. Holly was originally going to take two other members of his band on the plane, guitarist Tommy Allsup and bass player Waylon Jennings.
That way they could split the cost -- $108, or $36 apiece.
But when other performers on the tour heard about the plane, they put in their own bids. Richardson, who was coming down with a cold, asked Jennings if he could take that seat and Jennings, who didn't mind the bus as much as the others, told him sure.
Valens, who thought flying on a small plane sounded cool, had a harder time talking Allsup out of the last seat. Finally Valens proposed flipping a coin and Allsup agreed. Valens pulled out a half dollar.
Allsup flipped it and Valens called heads. Heads it was.
The plane took off about 1 a.m. from the Mason City airport. The best guess about what happened next is that Peterson realized only after they took off that he would have to fly by instruments.
More specifically, he had to fly by a Sperry Attitude Gyroscope, which displays attitude pitch the opposite of the gyroscopes on which he had trained. If he didn't know that, he would have thought the plane was climbing when it was descending. Eight miles from the airport, the plane crashed into a cornfield.
So he chartered a small plane, figuring that way he'd arrive early enough to get some sleep and do his laundry.
The local charter service assigned the flight to 21-year-old Roger Peterson, a pilot who had little experience flying with instruments in the kind of snowy, overcast skies that descended over Iowa that night. Holly was originally going to take two other members of his band on the plane, guitarist Tommy Allsup and bass player Waylon Jennings.
That way they could split the cost -- $108, or $36 apiece.
But when other performers on the tour heard about the plane, they put in their own bids. Richardson, who was coming down with a cold, asked Jennings if he could take that seat and Jennings, who didn't mind the bus as much as the others, told him sure.
Valens, who thought flying on a small plane sounded cool, had a harder time talking Allsup out of the last seat. Finally Valens proposed flipping a coin and Allsup agreed. Valens pulled out a half dollar.
Allsup flipped it and Valens called heads. Heads it was.
The plane took off about 1 a.m. from the Mason City airport. The best guess about what happened next is that Peterson realized only after they took off that he would have to fly by instruments.
More specifically, he had to fly by a Sperry Attitude Gyroscope, which displays attitude pitch the opposite of the gyroscopes on which he had trained. If he didn't know that, he would have thought the plane was climbing when it was descending. Eight miles from the airport, the plane crashed into a cornfield.
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