Spin This: June 28
Rave On Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly would have been 75 this year, and it’s hard not to wonder about all the music he could have created had his life not been cut tragically short by that plane crash on February 3, 1959. A flurry of British Invasion bands owe their sounds and careers to Holly’s inventive mix of rockabilly, pop, and rock and roll; in short, the ’60s would not have happened without some musical vision out of Lubbock, Texas.
Holly’s music is still an influential strain in some indie circles as a number of bands have borrowed his crystal-clear pop sense. Rave On Buddy Holly collects a who’s-who of contemporary acts (as well as a few dinosaurs) and gives them the daunting task of finding their own spins on some of Holly’s iconic tracks.
And daunting it is. Because the songs are so iconic, only a handful are able to break away from Holly’s shadow. The Black Keys turn the apartment demo of “Dearest” into a minimal soul groove, but Cee Lo Green does them better with his fiery take on “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care.” My Morning Jacket captures the magic of the soaring ballad “True Love Ways,” and Justin Townes Earle finds the menace in “Maybe Baby.” The rest stay true to the original formula, but that’s hard to fault: That original formula was so strikingly original. Take a listen to “Dearest,” by the Black Keys.
The Black Keys – Dearest
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