Tuesday, May 17, 2011

La Bamba...

(this post is not about the Mexican restaurant in Greensboro)



I recently watched the movie La Bamba, which tells the story of Ritchie Valens. Lou Diamond Phillips played Ritchie and did a great job. Ritchie Valens died at the age of 17 in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Ritchie Valens had a lot of hit songs in a short period which included Donna (written for his girlfriend), La Bamba, Come on, Let's Go, and We Belong Together. It was a pretty good movie, I only recommend it if you enjoy history and oldies music. Something interesting I did learn from the movie though...

Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly.

Waylon Jennings was in Buddy Holly's band as a guitarist and the two were good friends. Waylon was supposed to be on the plane that crashed but gave his seat up to the Big Bopper because he was sick with the flu. Basically the whole reason they took the plane was because the heater on their bus had broken. A lot of them were getting sick, etc. and it was dead winter in the mid-west. Anyway, Waylon gave up his seat on the plane....So when Buddy found out he jokingly said "So you're not going with us on the plane, huh? Well I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Waylon responded to this by saying "I hope your plane crashes." Unfortunately both ended up happening that night. Apparently Waylon struggled for a long time over what he said, and blamed himself for the accident.

The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly.

Later on Don McLean wrote the song American Pie inspired by what is now known as "The Day the Music Died".....

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