Bob Dylan grew as a musical talent…thanks to Buddy Holly

When Bob Dylan, legendary American singer-songwriter (who is now 82 years old) won the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, he paid tribute to the music of the late Buddy Holly and its influence on him as a youth.

 

Dylan, who was born as Robert Zimmerman, attended a Winter Dance Party tour concert at the National Guard Armory in Duluth, Minn., on Jan. 31, 1959. Dylan traveled about 75 miles from his home in Hibbing, Minn., to see, hear and experience Buddy Holly’s performance that night. 

No one knew the end was so near. Holly died in a tragic airplane crash after the Winter Dance Party show on Feb. 2 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Also killed were artists Jiles Perry “The Big Bopper” Richardson Jr. and Ritchie Valens as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. 

“Dylan was part of a generation that Holly greatly inspired, and he’s never forgotten his integral impact,” wrote Joe Taysom of Far Out magazine, based in London, England.

 

“Despite having an incredibly short career, Holly’s impact changed the music industry forever, and Dylan was one of many who was greatly inspired by his output,” Taysom said. (Holly’s first major hit, “That’ll Be the Day,” wasn’t released until May 1957, but Buddy Holly and the Crickets was a prolific group, turning out dozens of songs in the next year and a half.) 

Dylan was an aspiring artist who wanted to follow in Holly’s footsteps.

 Dylan told the Nobel Foundation that the dawn of his musical identity began with Buddy Holly. When Holly died at age 22, Dylan was 18. Dylan said: “From the moment I first heard him…I felt related, like he was an older brother. I even thought I resembled him. Buddy played the music I loved – the music I grew up on: country-western, rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues.”

 

“Three separate strands of music that he intertwined and infused into one genre. One brand. And Buddy wrote songs – songs that had beautiful melodies and imaginative verses. And he sang great – sang in more than a few voices,” Dylan said. 

Indeed, Holly “was powerful and electrifying and had a commanding presence,” Dylan continued. 

At the Duluth concert, “I was only 6 feet away. 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…and he filled me with conviction.” 

“Then, out of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened,” Dylan said. “He looked me right straight dead in the eye, and he transmitted something. Something I didn’t know what. And it gave me the chills.” 

The Nobel Foundation’s announcement of Dylan’s selection as the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature was a bit unconventional, and it drew some criticism from those who lack appreciation for American songwriting as a legitimate form of “poetic expression.”

 

The Nobel spokesperson said: “Bob Dylan’s songs are rooted in the rich tradition of American folk music and are influenced by the poets of modernism and the beatnik movement. Early on, Dylan’s lyrics incorporated social struggles and political protest.” 

“Love and religion are other important themes in his songs. His writing is often characterized by refined rhymes, and it paints surprising, sometimes surreal imagery. Since his debut in 1962, he has repeatedly reinvented his songs and music.” 

That is so Buddy Holly-like…and extends over Bob Dylan’s musical career – more than 60 years and still counting. Buddy might sing: “Rave On.”

True love has twists and turns, bumps and grinds

Charles Hardin Holley met Echo Elaine McGuire when they were classmates in the fourth grade in Lubbock, Texas. They stuck and became high school sweethearts, graduating from Lubbock High School in 1955. 

They were an interesting couple, noted William Kerns of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Holley stood a gawky 6-foot tall and was a so-so student. McGuire was a 5-foot tall dynamo and an “all-A” student. One of their favorite dating venues was the Hi-D-Ho Drive-In.

 

After graduation, Holley stayed in town, pursuing a career as a rock’n’roll artist. His stage name became Buddy Holly.

McGuire went off to college at Abilene Christian University, about 160 miles away from Lubbock. She and Buddy struggled to maintain a long-distance relationship. For her sophomore year, Echo McGuire transferred to York (Neb.) College, located about 665 miles north of Lubbock. 

The additional miles only magnified the challenge, but Holly continued to faithfully send her love letters, sealed with a kiss. 

But one day it happened. On the York campus, McGuire met fellow student Ron Griffith from Thayer, Mo. They began to see one another. McGuire said they “shared many ideas, goals and Christian interests.” She broke things off with Buddy Holly. 

McGuire said: “Buddy and I were headed in different directions.” 

Buddy Holly biographer Randy Steele of Fort Worth, Texas, commented: “Echo was devoted to the church and Christian causes. Buddy was into country and rock music.” 

Echo McGuire and Ron Griffith were married on Valentine’s Day in 1958. 

Nearly a year later, they were crushed to hear that Buddy Holly perished in a tragic airplane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa. 

Buddy Holly’s music really didn’t die that day.

 

Julian Lloyd Webber of The Daily Telegraph in London, England, said one of rock’n’roll’s “great discoveries” were the Buddy Holly “apartment tapes” that were made in New York City in December 1958, just prior to his departure on the fateful “Winter Dance Party” tour.

Most of the tracks are “themes of lost love” and “clearly reveal that Holly may have never lost his affection for Echo,” Webber wrote. 

There were six new songs on those tapes that were released in June 1959 by Coral Records. All could be attributed to a lovelorn songwriter. 

In 2024, we will observe the 65-year anniversary of those recordings.

 

In the song “Peggy Sue Got Married,” Holly reveals that the girl from his 1957 hit “Peggy Sue” has married someone else. It was one of the first sequels of the rock era. 

In “What to Do,” the break-up is haunting, and Holly knows his “heartache is showing.” The song “That Makes it Tough” reflects the challenges of carrying on and picking up the pieces “when you tell me you don’t love me.” 

Webber said: “The longing continues in ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’ that you’ll come back; you’re the one I love; and I think about you all the time.” (This song was covered by the Beatles in 1962 and represents one of George Harrison’s finest vocal performances.) 

The tune “That’s What They Say” refers to love that will come your way…but clearly, that’s not what was happening for Buddy Holly. 

Webber said: “The last tape, ‘Learning the Game,’ sees Buddy resigned to his fate: ‘Hearts that are broken; and love that’s untrue; these go with learning the game.’” 

Vicky Billington Pickering, a Lubbock classmate friend of Buddy and Echo, once commented: “It is interesting to read the lyrics to Buddy’s apartment songs and ponder to whom they might apply.” 

We remember the greatness of Buddy Holly

Hard core Buddy Holly fans celebrate Dec. 28, as the date that the iconic rock’n’roll singer wrote his last song, “You’re The One,” to win a friendly bet.

It all took place on Dec. 28, 1958 (65 years ago), when Buddy Holly was back home in Lubbock, Texas, visiting his parents during the Christmas holidays.

 

Musician JP McDermott of Orange County, Calif., who is a Buddy Holly disciple, tells the story: “Buddy went down to the local radio station in Lubbock – KLLL (96.3 AM) – to hang out with friends Waylon Jennings, who was a DJ at the station, and Ray “Slim” Corbin, one of the radio station owners. 

During a live broadcast, Holly was commenting about how easy songwriting came to him. Jennings and Corbin challenged Holly to write an entire song from start to finish in less than half an hour, “and bet he couldn’t do it,” McDermott said. “Holly returned 15 minutes later with the lyrics and tune of ‘You’re The One.’”

 

Waylon Jennings

“The three of them recorded the song in the KLLL studio, with Holly singing and playing acoustic guitar. Jennings and Corbin accompanied Holly, softly hamboning and clapping as a substitute for drums. 

During that session, Holly revealed that he had been selected as the headliner for an upcoming “Winter Dance Party” tour. He was only 22 years old, but already a rising star in the music business. 

He recruited Jennings to accompany him as bass guitarist on the tour that intended to crisscross six upper Midwestern states – in the depths of winter. 

Holly also lined up Tommy Allsup to play lead guitar and Carl Bunch as drummer. The brutal schedule called for 24 concerts in 24 cities in 24 days. The tour launched Jan. 23, 1959, in Milwaukee.

 

An unheated bus kept breaking down, and the weather throughout the region was bitterly cold. 

After playing on Jan. 31, in Duluth, Minn., the performers and crew had to be “rescued” by authorities after getting stuck in a blinding snowstorm that blanketed a stretch of highway between Hurley and Pine Lake, Wis. 

Sources said the temperature was “at least 20 degrees below zero.” Bunch suffered frostbite on his feet during the ordeal and was admitted to a community hospital in Ironwood, Mich., just across the Montreal River from Hurley, so he was sidelined for a time.

Drummer Carl Bumch

 

Weary from the unpleasantries of bus travel, Holly decided to charter a small airplane to transport himself and band members Jennings and Allsup from the airport serving Clear Lake to the local airport in Fargo, N.D., separated by the Red River from Moorhead, Minn., which was the next stop on the tour. 

Holly said he wanted to get there, do laundry and get some rest…instead of shivering all night long on the rickety bus as it was plodding along the route – about 365 grueling miles to the Moorhead armory – for the Feb. 3 concert. 

When the other performers got wind of Holly’s plan, Jiles Perry “The Big Bopper” Richardson Jr., who complained of flu-like symptoms, persuaded Jennings to give up his seat on the flight. 

Ritchie Valens pestered Allsup for his seat on the plane. Although annoyed, Allsup agreed to let a coin toss settle it. Valens won. 

Roger Peterson, the 21-year-old pilot of the 1947 Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, departed from the municipal airport in nearby Mason City, Iowa, about 12:55 a.m. with “light snow and winds from 20 to 30 mph.” 

The plane smashed into the ground in Albert Juhl’s cornfield within a matter of minutes. All aboard were killed instantly, according to the coroner’s report.

 J.P. Richardson

Ritchie Valens

Incredibly, the Winter Dance Party organizers didn’t cancel or at least postpone the remaining 13 tour stops. The tour rolled on. Here’s what happened next: 

Jennings agreed to step up to fill the void as lead singer, and other artists who were part of the show – Frankie Sardo and Dion & The Belmonts – would assume larger roles in the concerts. 

Radio stations in the Fargo-Moorhead market put out an alert asking for local talent to volunteer for the Feb. 3 concert. 

Teenager Bobby Velline raised his hand and cobbled together a band of Fargo schoolboys to fill the bill. They came up with the stage name of “Bobby Vee and the Shadows.” Modeled on Holly’s style, the group was good and was asked to continue on the tour as the opening act.

 

Bobby Vee

Frankie Avalon and Jimmy Clanton were brought in to join the “Winter Dance Party” lineup on Feb. 4. Carl Bunch was released from the hospital and rejoined the tour on Feb. 5. Avalon came down with pneumonia on Feb. 9; Paul Anka and Fabian were brought in as his replacements. The tour ended on Feb. 15 in Springfield, Ill. 

Everything’s set for the return of the “Winter Dance Party” to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake – a big three-day event Feb. 1-3, 2024.

 

It’s going to be a special tribute to the musicians who performed their last show in Clear Lake 65 years ago: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. 

We’ll check in at the Surf closer to the date.

 

 What else do we know about JP McDermott?

 “I love Buddy Holly’s music,” says musician JP McDermott. “There are so many great songs. This is one of the main reasons I play music. 

“At some point, I have played almost all of the 100 or so songs that Buddy recorded. I love diving deep into the history of the music, and the stories behind it.”

 

“I came to be interested in Buddy Holly through a very fortunate misunderstanding,” McDermott said. “Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area in the 1970s, I was exposed to a lot of ‘fifties music.’”  

“One of my favorite songs was ‘Runaround Sue.’ Browsing through some re-issue 45s in a local store, I happened on ‘Peggy Sue,’ confusing it with the other record. When I took it home and listened to it, I was surprised, but I was hooked. I’ve been a devoted Buddy Holly fan ever since.” 

Pause to consider the irony. “Runaround Sue” was released in 1961 by Dion (and co-written by Dion DiMucci and Ernie Maresca). It was Dion’s first song after breaking away from The Belmonts. 

Dion & The Belmonts survived the aforementioned 1959 Winter Dance Party Tour. Dion would say later that his “Runaround Sue” was a “compilation” of some of the girls he knew about while growing up in New York City’s Bronx neighborhood. 

On the other hand, Peggy Sue Gerron of Lubbock, was about the sweetest girl you’d ever want to meet. She was the girlfriend of drummer Jerry Allison, who was one of the original Crickets band members (along with Buddy Holly, Joe B. Mauldin on bass and Niki Sullivan on lead guitar).

 

Allison and Holly co-wrote the song in 1957. Originally, it was titled “Cindy Lou,” after Holly’s niece, the daughter of his sister Pat Holley Kaiter. Allison convinced Holly to switch the name of the song to “Peggy Sue,” as an expression of Allison’s love and affection for Miss Gerron.

 

The tune featured Allison, playing paradiddles on the drums throughout the song; the drums’ sound rhythmically fading in and out, a result of real-time engineering techniques by record producer Norman Petty.

 

Peggy Sue Gerron was impressed. She and Allison were still teenagers when they were married in 1958. The relationship dissolved six years later, however. 

Back to McDermott: “In college, I played in a New Wave band. I was playing a show at a little dive bar (The Gentry) in Washington one night in early February 1982 when it occurred to me that it was the anniversary of the plane crash. I stopped the set, and we played the only the Buddy songs we (barely) knew – ‘Oh Boy,’ ‘Maybe Baby’ and ‘Slippin' and Slidin’.’” 

“Soon after, I stopped playing in bands for a while – marriage, job, kids, etc. But I kept playing guitar in the living room and kept listening to Buddy’s music,” McDermott said. “Around the turn of the century, I really got the itch to play live again and started up a band. What to call it? Western Bop, of course, after Buddy’s early business card advertising both kinds of music – ‘Western and Bop.’” 

“Over the years, I have gotten so much joy out of playing this great music. We play pretty much everything Buddy ever recorded. There is just so much music, of such high quality, recorded so well, and with such variety that it never grows old.

 

“I’m sure I’ll be playing it as long as I live, and hopefully keeping it alive and fresh so that people hear it, and get interested, and learn more for themselves,” McDermott said. 

That may be a consideration for a New Year’s Resolution.

Who knew? Mr. Grinch and Tony the Tiger are ‘almost kin’

While bass vocalist Thurl Ravenscroft will forever be remembered for his 1966 Christmas song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”…his voice is also eternally associated with one of the most popular cereal brands produced by Kellogg’s. 

For more than 50 years, Ravenscroft was the official voice of “Tony the Tiger,” the beloved mascot of Frosted Flakes who would roar the catchphrase: “They’re g-r-r-r-eat!!!!” 

Sources said the advertising agency that was tasked with introducing Tony in 1952 was “looking for a big tiger’s voice – unusually rich, warm and deep – and thought of Thurl immediately.” He had begun working in Hollywood as a singer and voice actor in the late 1930s.

 

Ravenscroft was still doing the Tony the Tiger commercials into his 90s. He died in 2005 at age 91. After his death, Kellogg’s ran an advertisement in Advertising Age magazine commemorating Ravenscroft. The headline read: “Behind every great character is an even greater man.” 

Thurl Ravenscroft was born in 1914 in Norfolk, Neb. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles in 1933 to study at the famed Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design). 

In 1937, Ravenscroft joined The Sportsmen Quartet, performing on Jack Benny’s popular radio show. The Sportsmen also worked with George Burns and Gracie Allen, Rudy Valle and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. 

Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen in 1942 to enlist in the U.S. Air Transport Command, serving five years as a civilian navigator. 

During World War II, he spent most of his time flying courier missions back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. Although Ravenscroft trained to become a commercial airline pilot, he returned to Hollywood and formed a new quartet in 1948 known as The Mellomen.

 

The Mellomen croon for Walt Disney.

The group built a fine reputation, contributing to many hit recordings, from the Big Band era forward. The Mellomen sang backup for artists such as Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine, Spike Jones, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Arlo Guthrie, Peggy Lee and Elvis Presley. The group performed songs for several of Presley’s movies as well. 

The Mellomen were hired to provide vocals for many popular Disney films including “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp” and “The Jungle Book” as well as numerous animated short film projects.

 

Aside from crooning with The Mellomen, Ravenscroft did some solo voice-over work and singing for Disney movies, including “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “The Sword in the Stone,” “Mary Poppins,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “The Fox and the Hound” and many others.

Additionally, Ravenscroft did voice-over work for several Disney theme park attractions, including The Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Mark Twain Riverboat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland Railroad and Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. 

The ultimate honor for any Disney contributor is to be selected as a “Disney Legend,” a hall of fame of sorts that began in 1987. Ravenscroft was included in the “class of 1995.” 

His musical accomplishments were diverse. For example, Ravenscroft sang bass on Rosemary Clooney’s “This Ole House,” which went to No. 1 in 1954. One of his personal favorite recordings was the 1963 version of “Mr. Bass Man” sung with the Andrews Sisters.

 

Ravenscroft’s distinctive bass voice can also be heard in the chorus on 28 albums that were released by The Johnny Mann Singers during the 1960s and ’70s. 

In June 2023, Kim Carpenter of Omaha Magazine spoke to Keith Scott, an Australian voice actor and animation historian, about Ravenscroft’s success. 

Scott said: “What made Thurl a legendary voice actor…was his gift for comic or dramatic interpretation. He was chosen to narrate or play characters at Disneyland attractions because he was flexible beyond his marvelous singing gifts.” 

“Thurl’s legacy is his outstanding one-of-a-kind vocal delivery. He was unmatched – a bass man who could do any assignment.” 

“He should be acknowledged for his incredibly long career and his unique voice, which is known throughout the world,” Scott said.

Looking forward into 2024, ‘no grinching’ allowed!

Before Christmas 2023 arrives, here’s one more song to sing….

Can you put the name of Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft with his popular holiday tune? Here’s a hint: Go low...deep into the bass range. Great name. Great voice.

 

Ravenscroft was the bass soloist who performed the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” The tune was composed by Albert Hague and recorded in 1966 for the animated television special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”

 The project was based on the popular children’s book of the same name written in 1957 by the legendary Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel).

 

The magically distinctive, deep-throated voice of Ravenscroft was perfect to define the persona of that dastardly and vile scumbag Mr. Grinch. Here are a few snippets from the song:

 

You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch

You really are a heel

You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel…

You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel.

 

You’re a nasty-wasty skunk

Your soul is full of gunk…

 

Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots

 

You’re a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich

…with arsenic sauce.

 

Keith Scott, an animation historian based in Sydney, Australia, told Kim Carpenter of Omaha (Neb.) Magazine: “The Grinch is ‘spooky yet humorous.’”

 

“It was Ravenscroft’s most distinctive role,” Scott said. “Thurl’s bass voice was not only meant to be creepy, but it also had to have a subtle comedic twinkle in it.” 

In the story, the Grinch is annoyed by the sounds of Christmas merriment that waft up from the village of Whoville to “pollute the air” around his chateau on the peak of Mount Crumpit, towering about 3,000 feet above the valley. 

The Grinch schemes to spoil Christmas by stealing gifts, food and decorations from people’s homes in Whoville on Christmas Eve, while disguised as Santa Claus. While the families are sleeping, the Grinch loads all the stuff on his sleigh, which is pulled up the mountain by his super-strong dog Max.

 

When morning arrives, the Grinch expects to hear the Whos’ bitter and sorrowful cries, but instead he realizes that they are joining together in a joyous Christmas song…despite the fact that their homes have been robbed and their gifts are all gone. 

The Grinch is shocked and puzzled. A jolt to his system gets him thinking:

 Maybe Christmas…doesn’t come from a store.

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say

That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!

Feeling a twinge of remorse, the Grinch returns all the things he stole and arrives just in time to participate in the Whos’ Christmas feast. 

Thanks to Dr. Seuss, the word “grinch” has entered the popular lexicon, first as an informal noun, defined as a “killjoy” or a “spoilsport.” In other words a “grumpy person who spoils the pleasure of others – especially during Christmastime.” 

Writing for the Grammarist, a unit of Found First Marketing, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, Danielle Mcleod tells us more about the word “grinch.”

First of all, she says it is perfectly OK to use “grinch” to describe a “reprehensible, crabby, holiday-hating fiend.” Mcleod says she knows about a “Grinchmas gathering every year where family isn’t invited; only non-grinchy old friends can show up.” 

As a verb, “grinch” can describe an action of being cranky. You could also say somebody is behaving ‘grinchily.” Or they have a “grinchy” attitude.

A great New Year’s Resolution for all of us would be: “No grinching allowed in 2024.” Let our hearts grow three sizes.