ALBUMS: Buddy Holly Lives — 20 Golden Greats (1978 compilation)
MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$
I used this formula in a previous review and it is simplistic. Great artists are more than the sum total of who they listened to. But my lttle equation is: Chuck Berry + Buddy Holly = Beatles. It’s not an equation of who is best, it’s an equation of influences.
I tried to mess around with the Rolling Stones which might be Chuck Berry + Howlin’ Wolf = Stones? Didn’t work for me really. The Beatles clearly were taking in everything Holly was doing. “True Love Ways,” sounds like the Fab Four.
Listen to ‘Rave On‘ with your eyes closed and you can practically see the Beatles up on stage singing that song. Same with ‘Words of Love.’
The Beatles named themselves in homage to the Crickets.
Of course most are familiar with the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. It was the Day the Music Died as proclaimed by one of rock’s great songs, ‘American Pie.’
You can get a modern version of Holly in Marshall Crenshaw — who seemed to channel Holly on some very good records in the 1980s. But had Holly lived, he would have probably been pioneering in a way beyond Crenshaw — like the Beatles were. Though intriguing, we’ll obviously never know what kind of music Holly would have brought us.
And with all due respect to Don McLean, musicians die, but the music, when it’s really really good, lives on.
Rave on, Buddy Holly.