PORT TOWNSEND — Buddy Holly would be 75 on Wednesday, an event that Barney Burke thinks is worth commemorating.
On Friday, Burke, a host on KPTZ 91.9 FM, taped a two-hour special that included a cross section of Holly’s music, along with the high points of the research Burke has conducted for the last four months, when he first had the idea of marking the date.
The Holly special will air from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on KPTZ 91.9 FM.
It was taped because Burke, a Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioner and former Port Townsend newspaper reporter, will be out of town on PUD business during Holly’s birthday.
He expects that it will be aired only occasionally after its initial broadcast, but thinks it’s well worth the effort.
“It’s the same thing as when I worked for the newspaper and worked for several weeks on an article that was published one time,” Burke said.
“With this show, it will give me satisfaction that people will listen to it and enjoy it just once.”
Holly, who was born Sept. 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
At 22 years old, Holly had released just three albums during a four-year recording career, but dozens of posthumous releases have surfaced.
Burke owns just about every one, and featured a choice 46 songs for his tribute, including an obscure 45 RPM EP he borrowed from Port Townsend resident Leslie Sweeney, who bought the record as a teenager.
This exceeds the average of 37 selections Burke plays during his regular Friday night blues show, because many of Holly’s songs were under two minutes — reflecting how radio in the 1950s forced artists to keep it brief.
Many of the songs Burke plays are alternate versions of what may be familiar, which he determines to be more interesting (although not always superior, he noted).
During the program, he plays the songs more or less chronologically while inserting a healthy dose of trivia, such as how Holly recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of the Crickets, so named after discarding another name, “The Beetles.”
That same name was used by another group with a slightly different spelling, as a backhanded tribute to Holly.
The Beatles cover of a Holly tune is the obscure 1962 “Crying Waiting Hoping” sung by George Harrison and with Pete Best on drums instead of their prominent Holly track, 1964’s “Words of Love.”
During the taping, Burke refers to a lengthy script which he often misreads and re-reads.
“When I am taping and make a mistake I’d rather just leave it in instead of editing it out,” he said.
“When you edit something, it can take hours, but it doesn’t really make it any better.”
While speculation is never definitive, Burke thinks Holly would have continued to evolve as a musician.
“At the time of his death, he had signed up for acting lessons at Lee Strasburg’s Actor’s Studio New York, and said he wanted to record with Ray Charles and learn to play Flamenco guitar,” Burke said.
“Can you imagine how that might have changed the course of popular music?
“Think of all the kinds of music that Ray Charles played and influenced, and the way Bob Dylan still continues to re-invent both his own music and the music that has influenced him,” Burke said.
“Holly was just taking off when he was allowed to, at last, produce his music the way he envisioned it.”
Burke’s enthusiasm for Holly is for both the music and the era.
“I love the 1950s,” he said.
“I was born in the 1950s. My house was built in the 1950s. I drive a car built in the 1950s.
“It was a great time and there was some great music.
“Fifty years after Holly’s death, people still love to play his music, and it continues to inspire new generations of musicians.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
