Buddy Holly’s music was pioneering but it was not futuristic. He died before he could get his hands on a Moog. It’s one of those great “what ifs.”
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that took Holly’s life.
It’s Holly’s enduring influence as a nerd superhero that I want to celebrate today. Check out one of those blurry black and white TV clips and you see Holly was utterly unafraid of looking like a dork.
The more you read about the Texas rocker the more you begin to wonder if that aw-shucks kid-next-door modesty was a convenient and clever way of covering up ferocious ambition.
Holly proved you didn’t have to look like a Greek god to get up on the world stage. He embraced his inner nerd. It was like Einstein sticking his tongue out for photographers, a way of saying I don’t care, go ahead and laugh at me, I’m following my dream. This is the archetype of tech heroes from Tesla to Jobs.
Buddy Holly cracked the code. It was brain over brawn. He shared that knowledge and assurance with those who followed musically in his wake. Awkward but confident guys like Lennon, Eno and Byrne (not to mention, Joe Meek, who was truly and morbidly obsessed with Holly).
Holly was a modern guy, making his own demos, tinkering with recording techniques, searching for a new sound. “That’ll Be the Day,” the Crickets’ first hit, was rocketing up the charts around the time Sputnik was launched in 1957. With his trusty Fender in hand, Holly provided the soundtrack to a brief promising new chapter in the Atomic Age.
So fifty years to the day let us tip our cap to the man who made nerds look cool. Thank you Buddy.
Addendum: I found this Buddy tribute today on YouTube. It’s so geeky, I love it!
