Posts From The Road: The Day The Music Died

24.05.2021
Posts From The Road: The Day The Music Died

Submitted by Carol A. Clark




Surf Ballroom: The exterior of the Surf Ballroom looks very much like it did Feb. 2, 1959 when J.P. Richardson ‘Big Bopper’, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly played their last performances. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com



Memorial: A memorial to the three stars and the pilot stands outside the entrance to the Surf Ballroom ‘in memory of Rock ’N Roll Legends’. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com



Crash Site: After driving almost 5 miles on a rural highway and another mile down a dirt road, visitors see the crash site. The black framed glasses are similar to those worn by Buddy Holly at the time. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos

Feb. 3, 1959. For many, that was “the Day the Music Died” as referenced in Don McClean’s 1971 hit “American Pie”, which is about this tragic event that killed three prominent rock and roll stars of that era.

J.P. Richardson “Big Bopper”, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on the evening of Feb. 2, 1959. Their performances that evening proved to be the last for the three legends.

Due to a hectic concert schedule and the cold and snowy winter weather, the three chartered a plane to their next venue in Moorhead, Minn., rather than taking the bus. However, due to snowy conditions and low visibility, the plane crashed in the middle of a farmer’s cornfield only five miles after takeoff killing the three performers and pilot Roger Peterson.

This tragic crash on that cold February night is still considered the worst in rock and roll history. Sixty-two years later, the three stars are remembered in many ways, especially in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The Surf Ballroom is still in operation and the facility was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Department of the Interior Sept. 16, 2011. The Surf also has a memorial that stands near the entrance to the facility honoring the three stars and the pilot.

Seeing the Surf Ballroom and then driving the short distance out of town and down a dirt road, which runs through miles of farmland and walking another half mile to the middle of a corn field to see the memorial at the crash was very touching. I have wanted to see this for a long time, but I had never been to Iowa before this week. The visit was worth the wait.

Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country and he shares his photographs, which appear in the ‘Posts from the Road’ series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.



Crash Site Memorial: About a half mile walk into the cornfield is the metal memorial shaped in the form of a guitar and list the three performers by name and the date 2-3-59. Above the guitar are three records the top being ‘Peggy Sue’ (Buddy Holly), the lower left reads ‘Chantilly Lace’ (Big Bopper) and the lower right is ‘Donna’ (Ritchie Valens). The memorial on the right side of the image is for Roger Peterson, the pilot. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com


New Crop: While the memorial at the crash site sits in the middle of a corn field, the tiny sprouts of this year’s crop are just coming up out of the ground, the sign of a new season. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com


Music Lives On: The Surf Ballroom looks at the plane crash not as the day the music died but instead ‘The Music Lives On’ referring to today’s performers as well as the music of Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly lives on today. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com



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The Day the Music Died
https://sites.psu.edu/knnpassionblog/2016/02/04/the-day-the-music-died/

Growing Old Ungracefully: The Day the Music Died
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2021/may/2/growing-old-ungracefully-day-music-died/

The Day The Music Died Memorial
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-day-the-music-died-memorial-clear-lake-iowa 


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