The Day the Music Died

1959

Yes, they need to correct the date.

It's not all that complicated. Somewhere along the line the parasites and misfits in America recognized that the federal government had enormous amounts of money to finance their pet projects and even their entire lives. No work involved, just become victims. The government, beginning with LBJ, invested in these misfits with money used for buying votes redefined as aid and support for aforementioned parasites. The results? Every headline in the Must Reads today involves serious government corruption that the Left demands because they know that the democrat party is valuable in only one way, the money that it can steal from all productive citizens to support the self-proclaimed victims. Given human nature, the parasite class is growing while productive citizens assume the minority.

It took me 40 years to find out the name on the nose of the plane was "American Pie", thus the song title.

I credit the movie Selina starring Jennifer Lopez and what happened to the actual singer in my finding out about Ritchie Valens. Then I finally watched the DVD movie La Bamba with an equally great performance by Lou Diamond Phillips. I also read that country music star Waylon Jennings escaped death by giving his seat on the plane that crashed to The Big Bopper because the latter was ill. Afterward Jennings said that extreme guilt over what happened to his good buddy Holly and the others lead him to abuse drugs and alcohol.

For me, the critical point was 9/22/1963. I didn't realize until much later how everything changed. It was not just a massive expansion of the federal government. I have often wondered what we lost in music with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valenzuela, the Big Bopper or what we would have lost if Waylon had been on the plane.

Many of us have at least a few songs or melodies that revolve endlessly in our mind. American Pie might be one of the most often heard, at least in people of my age range, and always brings a sadness.

re #4 - I have never heard that the plane was named 'American Pie'. Is there any reference? This from wikipedia "A popular misconception, originating from Don McLean's song about the crash, was that the plane was called American Pie; no record exists of any name ever having been given to N3794N."

Not sure if the plane was had a name but as I got older I equated the term "Miss American Pie" with American innocence.

#6, I think you mean 11/22/63.

I always thought “American Pie” was a pretty stupid song (and way too long). The music didn’t die that day; it just changed its tune. Waylon Jennings, one of Buddy Holly’s guitarists, gave up his seat on the plane to Ritchie Valens, who had a cold. They were trying to get Valens to the hotel at the next venue earlier so he could get some sleep before he performed that night. Waylon went on to have a stellar career in country music, lasting several decades. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. A few years later, in 1963, Patsy Cline was killed in another plane crash, at the age of 33. One of the young women she performed with was able to rise to fame in her absence: Loretta Lynn, another Grand Ole Opry member and Hall of Fame honoree. The faces come and go, but the music goes on. At least country performers got smarter about traveling in single-engine aircraft. Mickey Gilley used to fly his own airplane to different gigs, but Mickey had an instrument rating and his plane was a full-IFR Cessna Turbo 210 with oxygen.

Thanks, folks. MAGA