On Buddy Holly, Story, and Belief

i'm blogging along with Effy Wild on day four and it's been a fun journey getting to know so many artists!

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Have you ever watched a movie that touched you deeply but you weren't sure why?

Last night I watched The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey.  The movie was made in 1978.  I was reluctant to watch this movie.  I usually have to be pulled and pinched to watch movies, then oftentimes find myself absorbed in the story.

And I guess it's about story--that's what touched me.  

This young kid from Lubbock, TX, began to write songs.  He believed in them.  Even when his parents wanted him to go to college in order to have something to fall back on, he said, "I'm not going to fall back."  No one knew when he and his parents were discussing his career over fried chicken and corn that The Buddy Holly was being born.

Soon enough he was discovered and Buddy Holly and the Crickets rose to stardom.  Buddy demanded producing control of his records.  His reasoning was "No one else knows what is in my head but me."  And he was right.  Again he stood up for what he knew was inside of him--what he was capable of doing.

And the whole movie was like that, Buddy barreling his way into Rock 'n Roll, helping to define it.  

Why did it touch me so deeply?

I think it's about believing in self.  When I watched Buddy Holly stand up for what he wanted and believed about his music, I thought of each one of us artists and how we need to stand behind our work fully with such charged belief.  

I wanted to be Buddy Holly.

I wanted to be the one who believes and lives her own work.  Stands behind it.  Carries it forward.

I couldn't imagine as I listened to all his hits on the movie that he had created such a legacy.  But he did.  He did it on faith.

Unfortunately, he died in a private airplane crash heading into an Iowa snowstorm on February 3, 1959.  Don McLean wrote about it in his song "American Pie."  He called it the day the music died.  I felt that last night as I watched.  

I felt the loss of the music from the soul who believed in his songs.

I wanted Buddy Holly to have lived until he was 95 and to have made music for all his life.  I wanted him to be able to carry his dream out longer than just 22 years.

One thing about the tragic loss of Holly reminded me we must do what we know is in us.  We mustn't wait.  

We must create and honor all we do.  We must tell or write or paint or art journal our stories. We must honor our own songs.

Just like Buddy Holly did.

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If you want to remember try you tube for--

"Peggy Sue"

"That'll Be the Day"

"Oh Boy"

"Everyday"

"Not Fade Way"

"True Love Ways"

"Think It Over"

"It Doesn't Matter Any More"