Posted by Martyn Day
on February 4, 2009, 12:48 pm, in reply to "'The day the music died'"
83.104.36.134
There is no doubt that Buddy Holly knew about Cajun music. He probably first heard the music at home in Lubbock from his brother Larry who had a collection of Cajun records. Tommy Allsop, a friend and occasional guitar player with the Crickets, said that Buddy particularly liked the country/cajun records of Rusty and Doug Kershaw and was considering spending some time in Louisiana to learn something about the music at first hand.
The first record that Buddy produced with Waylon Jennings was a cover of the Harry Choates hit “Jole Blon”, a song that some say he was thinking of recording himself. The plan was to give this cajun classic a rockabilly feel – but first they had to learn the words! Buddy and Waylon spent a couple of days trying to decipher Harry Choates cajun lyrics which were in a language neither of them understood.
The record – a strange mix of East Texas rock ‘n’ roll and garbled lyrics - was recorded in Norman Petty’s studios in Clovis, New Mexico on September 10th 1958 with King Curtis on saxophone and Buddy on rhythm guitar. It was finally released in 1959 and flopped badly. As Waylon said…”A lot of people who heard the results got a lot of laughs out of it.”
For a taste of what a Buddy Holly cover of a cajun song might have sounded like take a listen to Paul McCartney’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” with our own Chris Hall on accordion. It is a belter!
Don Maclean was wrong – Buddy may have died but his music does live on.
"We will remember.....Buddy Holly!"
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