MUSIC HISTORY
Buddy Holly Stories and Links
What follows is a list of links to blog posts I’ve written about Dylan and Buddy Holly, or about the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and the pilot Roger Peterson in 1959.
The reason I assembled this listicle is because my Ennyman’s Territory blog was banned on Facebook in the spring of 2021 and I’ve occasionally wanted to share various links about the crash on that social media site. But can’t. Fortunately, it dawned on me that I can share a Medium link on FB and this post can serve as a springboard to the real content about Buddy Holly.
The ill-fated Winter Dance Party “road trip from hell” passed through Duluth a couple days before. Young Bobby Zimmerman was there at the Historic Duluth Armory with his friend Louie Kemp, standing at the edge of the stage taking it all in. It was a night to remember, one he has referenced several times since. Here’s a segment from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in June 2017.
“If I was to go back to the dawning of it all, I guess I’d have to start with Buddy Holly… He was mesmerizing. I watched his face, his hands, the way he tapped his foot, his big black glasses, the eyes behind the glasses, the way he held his guitar, the way he stood, his neat suit. Everything about him. He looked older than twenty-two. Something about him seemed permanent, and he filled me with conviction. Then, out of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened. He looked me straight dead in the eye, and he transmitted something. Something I don’t know what. And it gave me the chills.” — Bob Dylan
I myself grew up elsewhere but have lived in Duluth since the Spring of 1986, the Duluth where Dylan was born. He lived upstairs in a duplex on Duluth’s Central Hillside till he finished kindergarten. For the past dozen years Duluth has celebrated its Native Son with a weeklong event called Duluth Dylan Fest which I have had the privilege of being a part of as chronicler, occasional host, performer, poet and artist.
Here’s a collection of blog posts related to these events:
