Saturday Morning Soundtrack -- "That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly

Right now, in our rock and roll writing class my students are finding rock music that inspires them and creating flash nonfiction pieces we are calling "Liner Notes" where they try to capture their elusive, sometimes visceral reactions to the music, using lyrical language, a critical eye, and vivid imagery. I'll be joining them in this project over the next few months, posting video links to a few of my favorites and my responses to them. Some of these songs will be recent, some I'll be revisiting from a far way off. I don't claim to be a music critic, just a diehard fan. Hope you enjoy!

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"That'll Be The Day" -- Buddy Holly & the Crickets (1957)

Buddy Holly was the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll. He was among the first musicians to combine rockabilly and blues, and one of the first to write, produce, and perform his own songs. His work has influenced countless artists, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Don McLean, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, and others. He is also the reason that you--when you formed your garage band in your friend's basement next to the water heater--most likely started with a standard lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. In 1986, he was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

What's most impressive about Holly is that he managed to accomplish all of this in a ridiculously short time span. as any rock scholar knows, on February 3, 1959, Holly died in a plane crash. At the time, he was 22 years of age and had recorded over sixty songs (some counts going as high as 200+). His total career as a professional musician lasted only 18 months.

Think about that for a second.

What have you accomplished in the last eighteen months? (Or by the age of 22, for that matter?) Holly is the kind of artist that reminds me just how little I manage to get done at any given point in my life. Fortunately, he does it in a way that makes you want to drop what you are doing and sing along. 

Possibly, Holly's best known tune, "That'll Be The Day" is an empowering song, calling the bluff of a young lover who has gotten into a habit of making empty threats to get what she wants (e.g. "If you don't do X, I'm leaving.") The story goes that Holly wrote the lyrics to this song after watching the John Wayne film The Searchers, inspired by Wayne's character's catch-phrase (you guessed it) "that'll be the day." It was a big hit not only for Holly, but also for Linda Ronstadt, whose laid-back countrified version helped propel her album Hasten the Wind to a Grammy win.(There's also a much-hushed Modest Mouse cover that is a far cry from either Holly or Ronstadt--taking the song and putting a unique multi-tempo, off-kilter cover, spin on it; in that version, we get the impression that our singer guessed wrong: called his paramour's bluff only to watch her get in her car and take off in a cloud of dust, and now that she's gone, he's in a little bit of denial.)

The cover versions are interesting in their own right, but none of them really compare to Holly's quintessential rockabilly cut with its two-chord galloping guitar line leading the way. It's a track that set the mold for so many guitarists to come, and even though the band's style is dated now, there remains a timeless quality to the song.

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Love the song? Hate it? Think I've got it all wrong? Please, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.