Plane Crashes!

West R Lee

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Just heard on a TV show that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. I guess it was before my time or I've just missed that. It got me thinking, Rick Nelson, John Denver, Jim Croce.........how many other great musicians died in plane crashes. Maybe we should all stop flying before the world misses out on some music?

Any other musicians that you can think of? I think Glen Miller is thought to have died in a plane crash, but it's still a bit of a mystery.

West
 

Graham

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Little Richard, The Big Bopper, killed with Buddy Holly
Richie Valens, same as above
SRV, helicopter
Patsy Cline
Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Steve Gaines, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Otis Redding
Randy Rhoads
 

guildzilla

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Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in the crash with Holly. "The day the music died" in the song "American Pie."

Damn, West, these were Texas boys (I think). Did you know that Waylon Jennings was one of the Crickets? If not, go directly to Trivia School.

Part of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, also died in a place crash.

This is not a coincidence. It's a government conspiracy. Missile attacks to kill off liberals. Made to look like accidents. :lol:
 

Cypress Knee

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West, I am shocked, stunned, totally out of it.

Even I, the naivest of geezers, knew that American Pie was written about Buddy Holly's death in a plane crash.

Jim Croce crashed thirty miles north of my home when his plane went down after a concert in Nachitoches, LA. I still remember that.

And I was lurking on the Dead Runners Society list when someone from Monterey wrote that she was walking on the beach that morning and saw a Search and Rescue team on the water, and another bystander told her that John Denver had just crashed a plane into the bay.

I thought the Buddy Holly crash was well-known musician lore.

Did you know that Waylon Jennings lost a coin toss with someone (I think Richie Valens) for the last seat on the plane? I'm sure it was Valens, who proclaimed it was the first time he ever won anything in his life.

If I can find the history behind the Buddy Holly plane crash, I will re-post it here.

"I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The Day the Music Died..." -Don McClean

CK
 

coastie99

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West R Lee said:
Just heard on a TV show that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. I guess it was before my time or I've just missed that. It got me thinking, Rick Nelson, John Denver, Jim Croce.........how many other great musicians died in plane crashes. Maybe we should all stop flying before the world misses out on some music?

Any other musicians that you can think of? I think Glen Miller is thought to have died in a plane crash, but it's still a bit of a mystery.

West

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

West R Lee

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:lol: :oops: Hey, forgive me guys, I guess I've lived a sheltered life. I've really never been exposed to Buddy Holly music come to think of it.

And Coastman, how in the world could I have forgotten Lynard Skynard?

Cyp, I do remember Jim Croce's crash near Nachitoches (home of Grits Gresham). It seems like he had just played, or was getting ready to play a small college down there or something.

Hoboken has a good friend that flies a similar plane to the one John Denver crashes in. His has some type of modification in it as I recall. The lack of that modification is what was ruled to have cause Denver's crash. The man is a huge Denver fan and it hit him pretty hard knowing that modification could have saved his life.

And Graham, they still wire messages in Upshur County, either that or use carrier pigeons. Every now and then the covered wagon rolls through with some mail.

My gosh at the music we've all missed out on!

West
 

GardMan

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Add Stan Rogers to your list of musicians lost to airplane accidents/incidents, with an asterisk. Technically the Air Canada plane didn't crash... it caught fire mid-air and 23 passengers (including Stan) died of smoke inhalation and toxic fumes before it was landed and was evacuated in Cincinatti.
 

West R Lee

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Man, that's crazy.

I suppose the two I personally miss because of their music would have to be Jim Croce and John Denver. Both so talented, both so acoustic.

If you've ever watched the bio of Croce on A & E or PBS it is very moving. The most memorable part to me was when he had been touring so much, been getting screwed by his management out of all he had made, came home and he and his wife had a disagreement. After she went to bed that night, he stayed up and wrote "Had to Say I Love You in a Song".

And Denver....I never REALLY had an appreciation for him until he died. I guess one of my favorites of his has to be "You Fill Up My Senses". I've often wondered how many family members of his lose it when they hear it.

West
 

GardMan

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One version of the Glen Miller ending claims that his plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time, flying underneath a British bomber squadron jettisoning their bombs over the channel...and getting hit. I don't remember if it was a training mission, or a flight coming back from an aborted mission over Europe.

My best friend in college was a big Croce fan. The house I lived in on campus was a haven for Deadheads... so I was considered pretty "square" for preferring PP&M, Denver, Lightfoot , Loggins and Messina, Seals and Crofts, etc. Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger entered my realm of awareness in grad school.
 

West R Lee

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I guess I've always liked all types of music. From rock to country to what we called progressive country, folk and easy listening to big band and some classical.

The only music I've never been able to listen to are punk rock....and rap! But I don't consider rap to be music so it doesn't count.

West
 

Jeff

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big Croce fan

I've always been a big Jim Croce Fan. As much for the acoustic picking as the songs.

"One Less Set of Footsteps" has some good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23XQIVRqO5w

[img:198:198]http://www.jimcroce.com/images/disc-faces-b.jpg[/img] I found this two LP set in Vinyl in a used record shop many years ago.

Some cool songs, "Stone Walls" is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard & "Big Fat Woman" is priceless.
 

dreadnut

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Notice SRV's F-512? :D

I play a lot of Croce, I bought the "Life & Times" complete songbook years ago with photos and stories. Listening to him and Maury do fingerpicking duets really inspired me to try fingerpicking, you just can't do justice to Croce's music with a flatpick.

I wrote a little note on the Croce website last year, and Ingrid Croce actually took the time to write me back! She has a restaurant in LA I believe, said to stop by next time I'm in the neighborhood.
 

Graham

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RussD said:
Does anyone know the words to Denver's "Thank God I'm an Ocean Bouy?"

ROTFL.gif
 

Clem

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Little Richard did not die in a plane crash, he is still alive and well.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Al Dronge in this thread.
 

Jeff

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Clem said:
Little Richard did not die in a plane crash, he is still alive and well.

Half the statement is true, Little Richard is alive, I don't believe he has ever been well.
 
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