Started this morning by visiting the Buddy Holly Centre in Lubbock. Some fascinating exhibits such as the acoustic guitar he recorded his final set of songs on in a New York Hotel room. The exhibition gave a detailed chronology of events in his life, and brought out really well his innovative approach to his music - he wrote, recorded, and played on all his records and the Crickets were probably the first modern rock'n'roll band. All the Liverpool bands such as the Beatles and the Searchers covered his material extensively, and the Stones, of course, broke through with their cover of "Not Fade Away". There would have been so much more from him had his plane not crashed in 1959. Had a very nice chat with the person in the gift shop, who came from near Austin and talked about my drive yesterday.
After that I drove the 400 miles to Albuquerque via Amarillo (no-one asked me the way). You don't want to do that too often - the drive was very demanding. The scenery was flat and bleak for the first couple of hours. Then I left Texas and got into New Mexico, which was full of red sand, cacti, and the occasional hill. The view coming into the City, however, was very spectacular - a bit like Matlock in the Peak District but with parched red sand. Having reached Albuquerque, I had quite a bit of trouble getting into the hotel. Also their PC crashed while I was writing this, so I had to finish it the next day in an Internet Cafe near Grand Canyon.
The music I played was a 2CD set of Buddy Holly which I'd got at the Centre. Then it was Johnny Cash ("American Recordings"), Doug Sahm (Mendocino), following by The Byrds live at the Fillmore West, "Hendrix In The West", and finally "Full Moon Fever" by Tom Petty. Particularly loved the Johnny Cash - he's becoming a keynote figure for this holiday. His mixture of dark American gothic, country themes, and gospel very much reflects my pre-occupations.
One slight downer - I have a slight cold. Just a head cold - nothing to hold me back - just makes me a bit more tired at the end of the driving than I would otherwise be.
No comments:
Post a Comment