Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A Record a Week: Buddy Holly - A Rock and Roll Collection



















SIDE 1.
RAVE ON
TELL ME HOW
PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED
SLIPPIN' AND SLIDIN'
OH BOY!
NOT FADE AWAY

SIDE 2.
BO DIDDLEY
WHAT TO DO
HEARTBEAT
WELL ALL RIGHT
WORDS OF LOVE
LOVE'S MADE A FOOL OF YOU

SIDE 3.
REMINISCING
LONESOME TEARS
LISTEN TO ME
MAYBE BABY
DOWN THE LINE
THAT'LL BE THE DAY

SIDE 4.
PEGGY SUE
BROWN EYED HANDSOME MAN
YOU'RE SO SQUARE
CRYING, WAITING, HOPING
READY TEDDY
IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE

Boy, I should really get an autochanger. Back-to-back weeks of having to switch records four times to hear them in sequential order (big problems, I know).

This record has a good deal of the songs recorded in Holly's very short career. The most amazing thing to me is that the quality of the recordings seem to vary greatly, despite the fact that they must have taken place in a relatively short span. These recordings, among others, retain everything that he would record prior to the fateful plane crash killing him and other musicians. Throught the record it's easy to see his influences, as well as those he influenced. His sound is not unlike Elvis, with his own flair thrown in. It's clear that he came out afterward, but is certainly not a clone at all.

It's amazing to imagine a time when 'black music' and 'white music' were something that needed bridging (though hip-hop in the '80s and '90s was largely considered such.) In that time, though, there were many discriminations by race that we've only really begun to overcome. Holly was part of that movement to bring that style to a larger white audience (though one might argue that has only minimally increased the exposure of african-american musicians when compared to the positive effect it's had on white rock musicians.)

It's always really interesting to listen to the foundation of the music I've listened to my whole life. Over time, I plan to chip away at the building blocks of modern music until I end up back in the wax cylinder days.

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