Buddy Holly and the Surf Ballroom

 

June 8 2023 Thursday

This morning we drove to Clear Lake Iowa to tour the Surf Ballroom. It has been in operation at its present location since 1948. The Surf Ballroom may have already earned its place in music history in 1959, as any music legends had played there over the years. Back then you weren’t a success until you played the Surf. On February the 9th after the 1959 Winter Dance Party performance at the Surf, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and JD Richardson (Big Bopper) boarded a small chartered plane to fly to the next stop on the tour. The airplane crashed into a farmer’s field shortly after takeoff, there were no survivors.

The present day Surf Ballroom has been restored to its original 1948 design, it still hosts concerts at night, but during the day it is a museum for all the legendary performers who appeared there and a shrine to the three Rock and Rollers. Millie and I were genuinely impressed during our visit; there are many autographed pictures and memorabilia of past performers in the period correct interior of the building.

After the Ballroom visit we cruised around the town square and lake waterfront before stopping for lunch at the American Sports Grill and Pizzeria and the Other Place. Yes, that is the actual name, the food was good.

I don’t know why Holly gets top billing, but the crash site outside of town is marked with a giant pair of his signature plastic framed glasses and is known as the Buddy Holly Crash Site.

The crash site is 1/4 mile down the lane behind me

He is arguably the better artist of the three and is known as a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was both a singer and song writer and has a long string of hit songs to his credit. His music lived on after his death as did the awards he received posthumously for his work. Demand for his songs remained so great that his record label continued to release singles and albums for ten years after his death.

By now you’re probably thinking, well this is really strange. We all know Larry can’t carry a tune in a bucket and probably has misquoted the lyrics to most of the tunes he has tried to sing. Why pray tell is he so keen on the Buddy Holly story.

It is said that the music you listen to when you are young will be the music you listen to your whole life. That’s not exactly true with me, I have an eclectic music taste, but early Rock and Roll is right up at the top of my list of genre’s, but there’s more to the story.

This is going to sound very weird, but I have always felt a connection with Buddy Holly. It doesn’t really make a lick of scene, but he and I both had curly hair and wore glasses. The big difference between us was he wore his curls like a crown and actually started a trend with his big plastic framed glasses. Me, on the other hand hated my curly hair and my glasses. I have no pictures from my youth, but familiarity was there.

Well look at that, in 1969 the army gave me a pair of 1959 Buddy Holly glasses

When we got to the crash site, the little parking area was empty. Right after we parked two more vehicles arrived, a middle aged man in each vehicle. We walked one quarter mile down a farm lane to the site, which was next to a fence separating two corn fields. We took turns snapping pictures with the two men who arrived with us, using each others camera phones so everyone could be in his picture. We then had a very interesting conversation with them. One was a flight crew trainer who was on assignment at the airport and the other was a stunt driver for a movie being filmed in the next town over. During a break from their jobs they came to visit the shrine.

Walking back we passed several couples, a mom and daughter and even an old man on a mobility scooter, all headed for the crash site. I hope the scooter had a good battery. What were we all doing there? Was this a Close encounter of the third kind? Probably not but for a second there you forgot about my foolish story!