There's a 5 Star 200-page biography buried within this doorstop of a book. It's a treat for serious rock and roll fans with in-depth explanations of the songs, the guitars (Fenders, Gibsons), the riffs--when you have Buddy Holly teaching Roy Orbison the lick that became "Oh Pretty Woman," you have real fun history. It also features lots of anecdotal information about Buddy's musical generational peer group; it explains well the fragile viability of R & R in '57-'58 and how it barely survived. (Chet Atkins and Elvis should get more credit, but there's no question that Buddy Holly and the Crickets begat the Beatles and the Stones.) As expected, we see how young artists are taken advantage of by managers; ex, Norman Petty got to share writing credits on song after song he merely recorded. What hurts is that the author doesn't know how to shut up. By the middle of the book, Buddy has already peaked and established his legacy. But it drones on and on with a cast of thousands, going off on tangents about other people and other quirks that a better publisher would have fixed.
it's a pretty positive review of buddy's life for the most part. as with all biographies, though, one needs more than a single perspective. all i have experienced is this book and the music i have collected.one irony i noted in my personal journal is that i actually read about buddy's death in this book on the anniversary of his death. didn't notice until a day or two later .... wooo WOOOO wooo...i also learned, subsequently, that i'm only one friend/degree away from ben hall, who wrote "blue days black nights."
Do You like book Buddy Holly: A Biography (1996)?
I enjoyed Amburn's Dark Star, The Roy Orbison Story and was happy to see he chronicled Buddy Holly as well. Both books are exhaustively detailed and chronological, but the Holly one is superior. Perhaps this is because Holly was the more prolific and innovative songwriter, an enormous influence on the greats like the Beatles and the Stones.His interviews with Holly's widow Maria Elena and brother Larry are hugely important to the book's success. I ate this book up! So much of why Holly is revered today is well covered here. A masterpiece. Read it if you love Holly's music or his legacy influencing almost anyone who's anyone today inusic.
—Naomi Krokowski
