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Liner Notes, sb0019
Buddy Holly (born Charles Hardin Holley in 1936) was one of the most influential of the early rock pioneers, and we thought it appropriate to remember him on his birthday, September 7. Most of the music in this program was originally performed by him, along with our usual mixed bag.
"Not Fade Away" was an early single for the Rolling Stones. They jumped up the tempo on this Holly cover; the original had a slower Bo Diddley beat, and appeared on the first Buddy Holly and the Crickets LP, and as the B-side of "Oh Boy!" This was the first Stones single to chart in the U.S., a year before "Satisfaction."
"Over, Under, Sideways, Down" comes from the summer of 1966, and was the last Top Twenty single for the Yardbirds. But no matter; the record business was beginning a shift to LPs at the time, and the 'birds made this LP their first U.S. release in discrete stereo. Jeff Beck plays lead guitar, here.
The Hollies - in addition to being named after Buddy - was one of many British bands that covered Holly's material. Buddy was a bigger star in England and the rest of the commonwealth than he was in the U.S., which is just one more case of Americans not understanding - or appreciating - their own folk artforms. (This is why many American Jazz musicians found it more lucrative and pleasant to live in Europe, our racial problems aside.) We hear the Hollies doing "Take Your Time," in their trademark sound: jangling guitars, and harmony like a sonic pinprick. Graham Nash later left the band and formed one-third of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but we're getting ahead of ourselves...
"I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" was a single from the first Byrds LP that stiffed nationally. But like the Yardbirds, the Byrds were beginning to plumb the LP market. We love to play these kinds of songs on The Scream: They're too old to be "Classic Rock" fodder, and weren't big enough hits to be played by oldies stations. Fine, we'll take 'em. David Crosby came from the Byrds, of course, and we'll hear him two cuts later in CSN.
The Buffalo Springfield was a band that was too good to last. The group included Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay (later of Poco). Jim Messina was frequently in the booth as producer. With this much potential star power, it's obvious why they only lasted for three LPs. From "Last Time Around" we hear "Pretty Girl Why," which is a jazzy Stills comp, as are most of the tunes on this last outing. (The Springfield's second LP, "Buffalo Springfield Again" is one of the finest rock LPs of the era, and highly recommended.)
I remember reading an article in Rolling Stone which referred to CSN as a "formidable" supergroup. Not far off the mark. The band lived up to its hype with performances from their first LP like "Wooden Ships," and one of their first public gigs was at
Woodstock! (Unfortunately, they didn't harmonize that well, there.) David Crosby recently remarked the band is even better than it was at the beginning, so they must be something to see on tour.
Our Buddy Holly feature begins here. We wanted to present Holly's music in all its variety and creativity, and also point out that Buddy was - like the best rock and rollers - extremely precocious musically. It's hard to believe his records were done by a young man in his early twenties, something he shares in common with Paul McCartney and his Beatles compatriots. McCartney, by the way, now owns the Holly catalog in the same way Michael Jackson owns
his, and sponsors an annual appreciation festival in September. Note to new Holly-files: Many cuts that appear on Holly collections - particularly those in discrete stereo -- have posthumous overdubs by Holly's original producer Norman Petty. Some are quite tasteful and enjoyable ("Slippin' and Sliding," "Brown-eyed Handsome Man" as they appear on the reissue LP "A Rock and Roll Collection" come to mind). Most feature fine guitar work by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs ("Sugar Shack", "Bottle of Wine"), but one can't be sure they were what Holly intended.
After the first flush of Beatlemania subsided both here and in the U.K., the Beatles repaid their musical debts by covering some of the best tunes by rock pioneers. There was practical value in this: The group was very busy touring and making movies, so songwriting must've taken a backseat, but it was also a very classy thing to do, as it put large sums of songwriting royalties into the hands of Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and the estate of Buddy Holly at a time when these artists were at a commercial nadir. From "Beatles VI"* we hear the Fab Four's version of "Words of Love".
Among the U.K. artists who were influenced by Buddy Holly was Herman's Hermits. "Can't You Hear My Heart Beat" was original material, but the beat, vocal arrangements and lead guitar were straight out of Lubbock, Texas. (Or, as "The Chirping Crickets" original liner notes said,
"Bullock," Texas. It seems Brunswick Records didn't know the hometown of their own artist, and neither do the compilers of some present-day foreign Holly collections.)
"I'm Gonna Love You Too" from the Hullaballoos takes Holly's sound to it's furthest extent. The lead singer of this minor British Invasion group stretches Buddy's idiosyncratic vocal style to the nth degree, and the tight, fast arrangement is so stiff it utterly lacks a backbeat. Could this recording be a "roots of techno-pop" gem? Just asking.
We are always pleased to read your comments or questions about the music we play. Email us at:
johnnyrockin@hotmail.com
Copyright, 2000 John Wisyanski. All rights reserved.
*We referenced this catch-all U.S. release because the mixes are substantially different from the U.K. releases of many of the early Beatles recordings, and these U.S. mixes are no longer in print. Capital records added heavy reverb to many of the middle-period recordings appearing on "Beatles '65" and many earlier singles as well. (Compare "She's a Woman" or "I Feel Fine" from Beatles CD's with the versions that appear on "'65.")
Capitol Records obviously felt these records needed the Phil Spector "Wall-of-Sound" approach to be more commercial-sounding in the U.S. It may be heresy, but I agree. More to the point, these versions were what we bought and heard at the time. British invasion recordings by the Hollies, Manfred Mann and others were given the same treatment by their U.S. labels, too. These U.S. remixes are also ignored by most oldies stations who are using new CD versions. So I'll put an end to this revisionism and give these pseudo-originals a blast when I can.