Bob Dylan's connection to Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly was a poet. Way ahead of his time ... Read his story. I played with Buddy Holly in North Dakota, South Dakota, ballrooms, youth dances . . - Bob Dylan telling tall tales, March, 1966, from Robert Shelton's book, No Direction Home.

Charles Hardin Holley was born on September 7, 1936.

After a brief time in the spotlight, Buddy Holly left an undeniable legacy. From the Crickets’ two-guitar-bass-drums set-up, to Holly writing his own songs, to his geeky-cool fashion-sense, his influence has lasted more than half a century since “the music died” in Clear Lake, Iowa, in the early hours of February 3, 1959. Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson, all died in a plane crash that morning.

On January 31,1959, a few nights before that fatal trip, a 17-year-old Bobby Zimmerman saw Holly perform as part of the “Winter Dance Party” tour, at the Duluth Armory.

The concert line-up was Buddy Holly and the Crickets (including new members Waylon Jennings and drummer Carl Bunch), Ritchie Valens, the "Big Bopper", Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, and MC Lew Latto. The entire crew traveled over 350 miles from Fort Dodge, Iowa, by bus, to get to Duluth.

In Chronicles, Volume One, Dylan wrote about meeting Carolyn Hester at a recording session soon after he arrived in New York:

Carolyn was eye catching, down-home and double barrel beautiful. That she had known and worked with Buddy Holly left no small impression on me and I liked being around her. Buddy was royalty, and I felt like she was my connection to it, to the rock-and-roll music that I'd played earlier, to that spirit.

Hester told John Bauldie (The Telegraph, 1992):

Bob was really startingly different than most everyone. He hadn't started writing an awful lot, but just as a performer he was so outstanding and magnetic. And afterwards we started talking....We talked about Buddy Holly and I told him that Buddy had actually helped me get recorded originally and he enjoyed that. But of course, I had no idea that Bob would be a rock'n'roll musician eventually.

The Spaniels were a 1950s doo wop group known for their hits "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" (also covered by the McGuire Sisters), "Baby, It's You," "Peace of Mind," and "Let's Make Up". On the premiere episode of Theme Time Radio Hour, Dylan had this to say after playing the Spaniels' version of “Stormy Weather”:

The Spaniels, with their lead singer Pookie Hudson, were on that ill-fated tour with Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Link Wray, and a bunch of others … which means "probably" I saw them. Winter Dance Party, February, 1959. The day the music supposedly died.

According to Robert Shelton in No Direction Home, Dylan visited Wray in 1975, and told him, "Link, I was sitting in the front row when you and Buddy Holly were at Duluth, and you're as great now as you were then."

However, it appears that neither the Spaniels nor Link Wray performed on that tour.

Nine years later, in Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan again commented on Holly, saying, "He was great. He was incredible. I mean, I'll never forget the image of seeing Buddy Holly up on the bandstand."

In 1998, Bob Dylan won multiple Grammy awards for his album, Time Out Of Mind. The ceremony took place on February 25, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. When he gave his acceptance speech for "Album Of The Year," Dylan unexpectedly spoke of seeing Holly in concert:

And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.

In 1999, Dylan elaborated in Guitar World:

You know, I don't really recall exactly what I said about Buddy Holly, but while we were recording, every place I turned there was Buddy Holly. You know what I mean? It was one of those things. Every place you turned. You walked down a hallway and you heard Buddy Holly records like "That'll Be the Day." Then you'd get in the car to go over to the studio and "Rave On" would be playing. Then you'd walk into this studio and someone's playing a cassette of "It's So Easy." And this would happen day after day after day. Phrases of Buddy Holly songs would just come out of nowhere. It was spooky. [laughs] But after we recorded and left, you know, it stayed in our minds. Well, Buddy Holly's spirit must have been someplace, hastening this record.

Dylan has covered some of Holly's material throughout the years:

Bobby Zimmerman and his teenage friends would often crash local parties, and reportedly sing Holly's songs.
Holly opened the Duluth concert with a solo electric version of "Gotta Travel On" on the tour. Dylan later recorded it for 1970's Self Portrait, and revived it on the 1976 leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue.
On February 6, 1986, at the Park Royal Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, Dylan rehearsed "Everyday, " "Not Fade Away," and possibly "Maybe Baby," with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks, and the Queens Of Rhythm.
"Listen To Me," Down In The Groove sessions, May 1, 1987.
Dylan rehearsed "Oh Boy" with the Grateful Dead in 1987, and performed it with "The Dead" on August 5, 2003.
"Not Fade Away" and "Everyday," rehearsal, May, 1989.
"Not Fade Away" has been covered other times as well: With the Grateful Dead in 1989, at a soundcheck in 1997, and live in Hartford (1997) and Vancouver (1998), plus numerous times in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2009. (See next paragraph.)
In 1999, Dylan dueted with Paul Simon on their joint tour, often playing a medley of Holly's "That's Be The Day' and Dion's "The Wanderer."

Adam Selzer noted that 40 years after the “Winter Dance Party,” in February, 1999, Dylan "played mostly smaller markets, covering "Not Fade Away" regularly, with Brian Setzer Orchestra opening. He never SAID that he was commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party by doing one himself, but I'd say he was." Brian Setzer played Eddie Cochran in La Bamba, the 1987 movie biography of Ritchie Valens. Collectors have footage of Dylan live in Duluth on July 3, 1999, at Bayside Festival Park, where he can be seen beaming as he finally gets to pay tribute to Holly by covering "Not Fade Away" in the same city where he once saw the man in concert.

Will Brennan, in Muddy Water, had an interesting interpretation of this lyric from "Standing In the Doorway," saying it related to Holly and the plane crash:

In recent years, there have been a slew of CD reissues and two all-star tribute records, a testament to Holly's ongoing influence on the music world.

Holly's ghost still appears to follow Dylan. At the end of his 2009 tour, he added a special support act - Dion DiMucci, who Bobby Zimmerman saw on stage at the Duluth Armory, on January 31, 1959.

(This article includes material from two previous Bob Dylan Examiner posts. Thanks to Andrea Mortara for additional information about cover versions.)

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