How might Holly and his peers have accelerated the evolution of American music given more time? (As it was, the Beatles named themselves with a nod to Holly’s band, the Crickets.)Īt first the crash was a scourge on the Dwyers. He watched the crash grow in significance throughout his lifetime and end up in Don McLean’s 1971 elegy, “American Pie." The tragedy still resonates as the post-war template of unfulfilled artistic promise.Ĭonsider that the combined age of all four young men in the plane added up to 88, only a few years more than Dwyer at his death.
3 ended up mangled along a fence line in the frozen field. The musicians had just played a gig at the Surf Ballroom.Īnd don't forget Roger Peterson, the 21-year-old pilot who also died but often is relegated to a footnote.ĭwyer managed the Mason City airport and owned the plane, the 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza that in the wee hours of Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash north of Clear Lake killed influential early rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
You might have heard of Dwyer because of his role in the fabled “day the music died." A Feb.
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