Keeping the music alive

Poster for the Winter Dance Party tour
featuring the ill-fated Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper

Last week's session was billed as having the dual theme of rugby, for the start of the 2018 Six Nations Championship, and the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly. Well, we didn't get much rugby but we did make a fair stab in before the break at "The Day The Music Died", hence the title of this report. And yes, the report doesn't mention much "real" folk music this week but I hope you find it interesting and there's still plenty of the "real drop" if you follow the "a selection" link at the bottom of this account.

Colin was MC and he started off the session with Sting's Fields Of Gold. much later in the evening, Simon suggested pairing that with his Sailing To Philadelphia (Mark Knopfler), both songs being written by rock musicians from the North East of England. Derek recalled a local singer when he was based in the North East himself who often sang the songs of Graeme Miles, a Middlesbrough man. One of the songs he sang was Fields Of Gold and with Derek's knowledge of modern popular music being limited, he assumed for a long time the song had been written by Miles. Colin too was surprised to learn that it was by Sting since he associated it with Eva Cassidy's enchanting version.

Given that it was Geoff's mention of Buddy Holly at the end of the previous week's session that prompted the mini-theme, Simon was embarrassed to be first on to it with Oh Boy (Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty). Geoff himself followed on with Don McLean's cryptic masterpiece on the subject, American Pie. The second Buddy Holly hit of the evening came from Mike with Raining In My Heart (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant).

Simon reminded us that Buddy Holly wasn't the only one to die near Clear Lake, Iowa on 3 February 1959. Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the "Winter Dance Party" tour across the United States Midwest. Rising artists Ritchie Valens and Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson Jr (The Big Bopper) had joined the tour. The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite. After stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by such conditions, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, who had the flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss. Soon after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson, lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield. Everyone on board was killed.

Simon pointed out that Ritchie Valens' most famous song, La Bamba, is a folk song but that he hadn't practised it enough. And while he does sing The Big Bopper's biggest singing hit, Chantilly Lace at home, it wouldn't sound too good without the instrumental backing. Therefore he borrowed a song sometimes sung by Colin and written by JP Richardson for Johnny Preston, that being Running Bear.

Henry joined us in the second half of the evening, singing two of his own controversial songs - we're always up for a bit of controversy being the origin of a lot of folk music. The first of Henry's songs was Lynndie, Won't You Please Come Home, addressing Lynndie England, a former United States Army Reserve soldier who served in the 372nd Military Police Company and became known for her involvement in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. She was one of eleven military personnel convicted in 2005 by Army courts-martial for mistreating detainees and other crimes in connection with the torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during the occupation of Iraq. She was sentenced to three years in prison and dishonourably discharged from the Army. England served her prison sentence from 2005 to 2007, when she was released on parole.

Henry's second song which finished off the evening, was inspired by his discovery among some old things of a copy of the children's reading book The Story of Little Black Sambo. This book is controversial for its supposed stereotypical portrayal of South Indian characters. Following some research, Henry contended that, despite some unfavourable aspects to the way Sambo's parents are depicted, the boy himself may represent the first example in European children's literature of a positive portrayal of a non-white hero-figure. Henry took this a stage further in his song They Called Me Little Black Sambo by following him through a successful political career and in the chorus triumphantly declaring "I'm big black Sambo now!" He mentioned the song to some musical friends who implored him to destroy all evidence of it. By chance he had recently reacquainted himself with an old friend of Nigerian origin, Dillibe Onyeama who wrote the book Nigger At Eton, and is now a publisher. Henry asked him what he thought of the song, and his friend asked whether he had any more like that. It seems that Henry may now have a contract to publish a book of his songs. Well done Henry!

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6, of whom 6 performed)