This cover band does a very good job. But as an imitation of the original it fails. And always will.
Fails> I wonder..
For me it told a story. One that can only be told in the retelling as Buddy can't be here to say.
So what remains is this.
In the mist of nation wide racial strife A white group from rural Texas came to New your city.
and played for the quintessential Harlem black audience An Audience renown for it's unwavering critical
review. a Review that was instantly known by their response.
This was a"fan base" that would pay newspapers to have printed obituarys of acts they didn't think would make the grade.Prior to their appearing!!
Dumping on acts was a sport at the Apollo..
What isn't made clear is how often they booed and catcalled acts off the stage..The Apollo was where bad acts went to die.
Mean while in the rest of the country MOST venues where closed to black acts. A miss by a booking agent could easily end lives.
So curtain goes up and it goes up on all the abuse whites have heap upon them.
Now here's their chance for payback!
This is where they can get even.Here's an unknown white act they can humiliate with impunity.To tell white they aren't good enough.
A white act that stands before them and has the audacity to ask:
How will you receive us?
But there was a second group that made a judgement in that moment.
The black acts who had directly suffered white abuse on tour.
The same black guys that joined them to give them street cred.
When Sammy Cook gives you the nod...everyone nods.
So in that moment a black audience showed America the way we must go.
All this because Buddy Holly was mis booked into a black theater whose audience was 50 years ahead of their time..
Buddy's music reached them. Because they had hearts that were open to him and a deep desire that we should live together in peace.
They wait for us you know. They wait for a change in the hearts of men.