Frozen Wasteland
Near Clear Lake, Iowa. In this photo the pilot, Roger Peterson, is
still in the plane. Jiles Perry Richardson is lying on the other side
of the fence, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens are equidistant behind the
plane to our right. The plane took off from Mason City at 12:22 AM on
Feb. 3rd 1959, headed for Fargo. It crashed less than six miles NW of
the Mason City airport. Peterson was not instrument rated and the
Sperry Attitude Gyroscope would have displayed the plane's pitch in the
opposite manner from what he had used on other aircraft. The Beechcraft
Bonanza hit the field at 170 miles an hour. The people on board
probably died unaware and instantly. All evidence indicates that the
pilot thought he was climbing and turning. The company, Dwyer Flying
Service, was only licensed to operate under completely visual
conditions. The weather briefings Peterson received did not mention the
increasingly unfavorable developments along the proposed route. He
sounds like a fine young man who got hit with a whole lot of bad luck
all at once, as did all on board.
Pilot Roger Peterson. The plane was found with the nose only slightly
lowered, indicating that Peterson was gaining control when he hit. He
flew head on into a storm front coming his way. He would have had only
seconds to have reacted correctly.
He had 711 hours flight time.
In the middle distance lies the body of J.P. Richardson, testimony as to
how hard the plane hit. (170 mph). There is a left foot in the
foreground belonging to Richie Valens. The living man is standing over Buddy Holly.
The
Big Bopper. He was an army veteran and a
disc jockey in Beaumont, Tx. Jiles was a prolific song writer and in
addition to Chantilly Lace he wrote Running Bear and Little White Dove, a
hit for Johnny Preston, and also White Lightning, a George Jones
megahit. Jones was a friend of Richardson and recorded the song a week
after his death.
In Jones' autobiography I Lived To Tell It All, he tells the
story of the day he went into the studio to record the hit song. He
recalled being so drunk that they had to take approximately 80 takes of
the song before calling quits on the session. Buddy Killen, the upright
bass player on the song, threatened to beat up Jones for having so many
blisters on his hands from playing the song 80 times. After all the
hassle, Jones' producer, Pappy Daily, chose to release the very first
take of the song even though Jones messed up the word "slug" in the last
verse. For the rest of his career, Jones would intentionally mimic his
flub live so that the performance sounded the same as the recording.
Jones sings 's-slug' in that last verse.
Notice the name Frankie Sardo. His hit song was 'Fake Out', the poster
has it wrong. Buddy, J. P. Richardson and Richie Valens had only hours
to live when this concert started. Frank Sardo, aka Frank Avianca was
one of the mobsters in Matilda, the boxing kangaroo picture that is still a byword for disaster.
Frank (Avianca) as Hood #2 on right. Ain't that something? Goddamn right it is!
Organizationally speaking, the tour was a complete catastrophe. The
shows were often scheduled hundreds of miles apart from one another as
they zigzagged through one of the deadliest winters the Midwest had seen
in decades, in the worst possible transportation available. There was no road crew and the bands had to handle their own equipment, 5 different buses were used and they all sucked. The
musicians crammed into a drafty bus to perform in small ballrooms and
theatres and by February 1st, Carl Bunch (Holly’s drummer) had left with
frostbitten feet. This left Richie Valens and Buddy Holly to provide back up for each
other, with Buddy playing drums for Richie and Richie for Buddy’s set.
In an interview, Dion spoke with amazement that this was the night Buddy
Holly became the drummer for Dion and the Belmonts. The Crickets were not on the tour due to money disagreements with their manager. By the time the tour limped into Clear Lake,
Iowa on the evening of Monday, February 2nd, Holly had decided to
charter a small plane for himself, Allsup and Jennings to fly to the
next venue in Fargo, North Dakota following the show at the Surf
Ballroom. At the last minute, Jennings gave up his seat to The Big
Bopper (who had the flu) and Tommy Allsup lost his seat to Ritchie
Valens with a flip of a coin. Valens was 17, Buddy 22, Richardson 28. What an incredible waste.
.January 24: Eagles Ballroom, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Waylon Jennings on the left, Dion next to him with the Stratocaster, Holly on drums in the background.
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