Saturday, February 23, 2008

Rave On

I was just sitting here watching The Buddy Holly Story again. Y'know, I've watched this flick literally every time it's been on one of my TV stations. I cannot begin to say how much I love it, or just how good it really is. Gary Busey never has, and probably never will, give a performance as amazing as this one (although his reality show, Life with Busey, was a pretty sublime experience, with Gary delivering such Buseyisms as " Fear is the dark room where the devil develops his negatives"). Even more to his credit, Busey does all his own singing (which helps keep the film from turning into the travesty that Great Balls of Fire was). Let's take a look at a clip. Here Buddy has just been booked to play the Apollo, where the all-black audience is hardly expecting him:




Y'know, next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of Buddy's death, which a lot of people call "the day the music died." That's a lot of B.S. though. Buddy's music is as fresh and relevant and ahead-of-its-time now than it ever was. Nobody rocks harder. Buddy's still here, and the music just goes on and on...

2 comments:

NuclearToast said...

I've never seen The Buddy Holly Story, but based on that clip, now I want to.

Although I still think Gary's best "work" is Life with Busey. It was like watching a famous train wreck!

Troy Hickman said...

Agreed. I want to spend a week or two with Busey myself.