[On July 6, 1925, Bill Haley was born. So for that
centennial I’ll share blog posts on Haley and other rock ‘n roll pioneers,
leading up to a crowd-sourced weekend post featuring recent rock recs!]
On two
ways to separate a forever-linked
pair, and one non-tragic way to pair them.
The first
way I’d separate Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens is found in a prior post: this one, where I
argue that the prominence given to Holly and not to Valens in Don McLean’s
iconic song “American
Pie” (1971) is due, at least in part, to the former’s whiteness in
contrast to the latter’s Mexican American heritage. I stand by that argument,
and would ask you to check out that prior post before I say a bit more about
this famously tragic pair of pioneers.
Welcome
back! Whether you agree with my take on McLean’s song or not, there’s no
disputing that these two young musicians came from profoundly different heritages,
not only ethnically but also and even more relevantly musically. Buddy Holly (1936-59)
was born into a musical
family in Depression-era Lubbock, Texas,
and grew up influenced by the country
music world that they were part of, including listening to the Grand Ole
Opry radio program. Ritchie Valens (1941-59) was born into a Mexican American
family in California’s San Fernando
Valley, and grew up listening to and making with his community traditional Mexican
mariachi music, as well as learning the flamenco guitar that had made its
way from Spain to Hispanic America. As that last hyperlinked piece puts it, those
influences made Valens a pioneer of Chicano rock, while Holly might best be
described through the country-rock hybrid known
as rockabilly. Both of those heritages and influences were unquestionably
part of early rock, but, to echo and extend the point of my earlier post, I
believe that our collective narratives have tended to prioritize country/rockabilly,
making it that much more important for us to add Valens and the legacy of mariachi
music in this era (and beyond).
Despite
those important differences, however, there are also important ways to link
Holly and Valens, even if we leave aside their shared tragic endpoint. To cite
one striking example: Valens’s youthful successes are well known, as he signed a record deal
just after his 17th birthday and by the end of that year was performing
on the Dick Clark Show
and at the Apollo
Theater; but Holly was an equally impressive teen prodigy, starting his first band
at the age of 17, opening
for Elvis Presley while still just 18, and signing his
own record deal at 19. Popular music has long been defined by teen idols, but
I feel that sometimes the narratives suggest that that trend evolved over time,
or at least became more pronounced in eras like the 80s
(for example). But in truth, some of early rock ‘n roll’s most prominent and popular
artists were teenagers, immediately establishing this evolving genre as not
only directed at teen audiences, but frequently created by teen artists as
well. A story that we can’t tell without the forever linked pair of Buddy Holly
and Ritchie Valens.
Next
groundbreaker tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
recent rock would you recommend for the weekend post?
