”Holly and Elvis Presley are the two seminal figures of Fifties rock ‘n’ roll, the place where modern rock culture began. Virtually everything we hear on CD or see on film or the concert stage can be traced back to those twin towering icons – Elvis with his drape jacket and swivelling hips and Buddy in big black glasses, brooding over the fretboard of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
But Presley’s contribution to original, visceral rock ‘n’ roll was little more than that of a gorgeous transient; having unleashed the world-shaking new sound, he soon forsook it for slow ballads, schlock movie musicals and Las Vegas cabarets.
Holly, by contrast, was a pioneer and a revolutionary.
His was a multidimensional talent which seemed to arrive fully formed in a medium still largely populated by fumbling amateurs.
The songs he co-wrote and performed with his backing band the Crickets remain as fresh and potent today as when recorded on primitive equipment in New Mexico half a century ago: That’ll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Not Fade Away.
To call someone who died at 22 “the father of rock” is not as fanciful as it seems.
As a songwriter, performer and musician, Holly is the progenitor of virtually every world-class talent to emerge in the Sixties and Seventies.
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Bruce Springsteen all freely admit they began to play only after Buddy taught them how.
Though normal-sighted as a teenager, Elton John donned spectacles in imitation of the famous Holly horn-rims and ruined his eyesight as a result.”
