HI Everyone,

So the most recent Buddy news from Lubbock is that the Hi-D-Ho, where Buddy and the Crickets would stage roof-top performances is closing down forever in late May! Check out the article. What do you think about this? Does anyone have any stories about the beloved Hi-D-Ho? How can we say good-bye to this historic landscape?

i visited lubbock in 1992 and i got to meet bill griggs and larry holley. i met bill at his home - i called him, and he invited me over.
but the way i met larry was pretty interesting. i stopped at the HI D HO, and saw their holly memorabilia display, which was very cool. and i asked the lady who appeared to be the manager about buddy, and she said she remembered him very well. she told me 'you should call up larry - he's in the phone book'. and i did, though never believing anything would come of it. but lo and behold, he answered the phone. and i explained that i was a huge fan, just passing through, and that i was at the HI D HO. i also mentioned something about one of the booklets in the display cabinet, and he said he thought he had one he could bring for me. he said he could stop down there for a bit and talk. i was impressed, and sure enough, about 20 minutes later, there he was. i bought him a coke, and we discussed buddy and related matters.

he was such a gracious man, and the view i'd always had, that mr. and mrs. holley had raised some fine children, was thoroughly vindicated.

"Will use it as a used car office"?!?! Just more proof that no one appreciates good music anymore. Where's the petition to get this named as a national historic spot!! I mean, I always knew Lubbock grudingly acknowlegded Buddy Holly as their native son (ie letting his birth house falling to ruin and then being taken away and just lately condemning Jerry Allison's house) but I thought we were over that. Even in the last couple of years, can't we move on people? Closing the Hi-Di-Ho is just one more thing that's burying Buddy forever more in that Iowa cornfield, forgotten. Why are we doing that?

quote:

Originally posted by buddy_blue:
"Will use it as a used car office"?!?! Just more proof that no one appreciates good music anymore...

Heh, maybe just proof that no one appreciates greasy food any more?

I agree it's sad that a landmark like this will close -- I guess there's just not enough local business and Buddy-Tourism to make it attractive for someone to come along and buy it.

It would take a fairly rich fan to turn it around and make it into an historic site.

john

i agree with you, however, i think buddy blue's lament, and i'd have to agree with her on this point, is that several lubbock landmarks have either been torn down or moved or turned into some other business - the skating rink where buddy played is now the warehouse for a dairy company, and the house where buddy was born has been relocated. ironically, and sadly, the city gave the order to demolish buddy's birthplace, of all days, on feb 3rd, 1978. instead, it was apparently moved and the land used for something else. and the house they rehearsed in quite a bit, that of JI's parents, is now gone, the victim of a redevelopment project. while it's admittedly expensive to buy these type of buildings and preserve them, lubbock has not been very sensitive when it comes to the memory of buddy holly. and that kind of dullness is inexcusable, in my view.

the basic problem has always been that lubbock has never really learned to appreciate their most famous son. i remember when i passed through there in 1992, i was amazed at how little recognition there was for him. and i wrote the mayor and a city council member to complain about that. apparently, many other fans did as well, because they eventually took some steps to recognize buddy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry,

But yet they wrote on his gravestone..."Our own Buddy Holley."

buddy blue

my understanding of a gravestone is that the engraving on it is chosen either by the deceased, through his/her will and testament, or by the family, which would've been ella and lawrence (and by marriage, maria elena). i don't think the city of lubbock had any say in the tombstone.

i may be wrong about that - perhaps one of us could check with bill griggs. but i've never heard of a situation where a city is allowed to place certain wording on anyone's tombstone.

Yeah Jerry, you're certainly right about the gravestone -- highly unlikely the city would have much to do with that.

I hadn't realized the city of Lubbock was so poor at recognizing Buddy -- that's really too bad. It would pretty much fall to some rich fan then, if the city is going to blow it again.

I read a while back that the city tried to blame Maria Elena for asking for too much money to use Buddy's name on a music festival -- one article I read said that it was more to do with city councillors dragging their feet on the decision, and wanting to cash in on Buddy's name, though it's more popular to blame Maria Elena.

Who knows though, I guess we'll never really know why such decisions are made.

BTW, who is Bill Griggs?

john

bill griggs is considered by many to be THE buddy holly historian. he was once president of the buddy holly international fan club, and he did much to help buddy's family and keep his memory alive. he still does today, as a matter of fact.

i think he's got a link on this site to his own website - buddy blue, where are you when we need you? (just kidding!)

here's at least an article about bill - http://www.globegazette.com/sitepages/photo/buddyholly/pages/outplay.php

by the way, i agree that it's easy to blame maria elena for certain decisions. i think she's torn between keeping his name alive with as much respect as possible, and simply selling out to make a dollar. and from all i know, she prefers to err on the side of keeping his name and memory intact, which is admirable. she could sell the rights to anyone and everyone and make more money, but then buddy's memory would be cheapened, i think.

for instance, there's no more important person that fender has to thank and honor than buddy. without him playing the strat, they would've likely been little more than a footnote in guitar history. but they won't pay the holly estate anymore than they do say, eric johnson or yngwie malmsteen. and holly's contributions dwarf any of the others - including clapton or hendrix - because he popularized the strat when it first came out. and of course buddy's contributions to music, in the words of paul mccartney, 'cannot be overestimated'. so i think fender should ante up and pay maria elena more than any of the others, because without buddy, clapton and the others would've been playing gibsons or something.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry,

Thanks Jerry, good to know about Bill Griggs.

Regarding Maria Elena, I agree she probably is torn -- anyone who says she has sold out bothers me though, because if that were the case she could have done all kinds of tasteless things to make a buck, but instead she has held out and protected Buddy's name.

john

it's too easy to pick on maria elena - i actually believe that she's got buddy's memory and reputation foremost in her mind. she may be a bit eccentric in some ways, but she's been through a lot, and there are few people who could handle the pressure of being the widowed bride of the biggest thing that's ever happened to rock music, without going absolutely bonkers. especially with the animosity and confusion that existed between all the other parties when her husband died.

as a matter of fact, i think buddy's death was hard on everyone who knew him - not just in the way of bereavement, but also from a business standpoint. because no one generally has a will at 22, and so there were lots of entanglements that took years to unravel, and many of them have STILL not been unravelled. it's kind of sad if you think about it too much. i prefer, like a lot of fans, to focus more on the wonderful legacy he left behind, than on who's to blame for this or that.

quote:

Originally posted by jerry:
buddy blue

my understanding of a gravestone is that the engraving on it is chosen either by the deceased, through his/her will and testament, or by the family, which would've been ella and lawrence (and by marriage, maria elena).

I understand that, but when the original gravestone was stolen (an upright stratocaster) I just find the choice of words they decided to replace it with was ironic. Of course the thought struck me after I posted that the city of Lubbock doesn't care now, why would they care then that Buddy's headstone needed to be replaced, but it still stands that the wording can be looked at in two different ways: The Holleys are proud of Buddy ("We always though he was good, and once he did get good we really thought he was good. But we never thought he'd make it-not from here."-Larry Holley) and claim him as their own, no matter what Lubbock says, or, in a brief instance of sanity, Lubbock has realize what they 'been a-missin' for so long.
Bill Griggs is amazing. I don't know how he does it, but he knows everyone and everything that was ever associated with Buddy, and often sees articles, such as home videos and the like that we're never going to see. He has a website called the rockin 50's and crazy_for_buddy has linked it somewhere on here, but if you just google Bill Griggs I believe it's the first hit that pops up. He has his own message board there, but it tends to get a little bit more catty than this one does, not saying this one doesn't. He is very good about responding to emails, from what I've heard.
About Fender, there is actually a clause in the contract of Hendrix and Clapton that states no artist who has their own signature guitar produced by Fender will recieve more than the 8% that Hendrix and Clapton recieve. I believe Maria Elena is asking for more than that. The most important question is though, would Clapton and Hendrix have picked up a Strat had they not seen Buddy using one? Hendrix for sure I know names Buddy as one of his influences, I wouldn't be incrediably shocked to see Clapton naming him too. We'll give it a 50/50 chance. Speaking of half chances, we'll also give it a 50/50 chance that Fender wouldn't have survived through the 50s had Buddy not picked up the Strat, their newest model, and used it as his signature.
I do feel bad for Maria Elena, in that she lost her husband and baby, the last part of her husband she had left, in one go. But does she fully intend to keeping burying her husband in that frozen Iowa cornfield where he was left 46 years ago? Because by the looks of things, her and Lubbock are doing a pretty good job.
Sadly, there's so much bad blood in the Holly estate. I don't believe Jerry or Joe B speak to Maria Elena, although I heard that Tommy Allsup works very closely with her. We won't bring Norm Petty into this. There is no love lost between Carl Bunch and Jerry Allison, as Allison is not happy with Carl calling himself a Cricket. Carl defends himself by saying that that's the way Buddy told him to sign his autographs-the frostbitten cricket. In my eyes, Jerry and Joe B are the Crickets. They were childhood friends, and believe me, music bonds you in a way like no other. But without Waylon and Carl and Tommy, Buddy wouldn't have gone out doing what he loves the best. Maybe a good thing when you really think about it, that if he hadn't had Waylon, Tommy and Carl maybe he wouldn't have gone out at all, but this is Buddy Holly we're talking about. I don't believe anything could keep him from music. The guy recorded music in his apartment cause he couldn't get to a studio.

buddy blue

here's the clapton info:
http://www.fendereurope.com/players/ERICCLAPTONINTERVIEW.asp

regarding the headstone, i believe it's a duplicate of the one that was stolen. let's check with bill griggs to be sure. but even if buddy had been a nobody and died young, the phrase "our own buddy holley" would've been appropriate, in my view. his family loved him dearly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry,

quote:

Originally posted by jerry:

regarding the headstone, i believe it's a duplicate of the one that was stolen. let's check with bill griggs to be sure.

Bill Griggs has never seen the original headstone, as it was stolen a month or two after Buddy's burial. The part of the cemetary that Buddy is buried in, however, did not allow upright headstones at the time, although there are some there now. Bill has asked Buddy's mother about the original headstone, and it was not a duplicate of the one that is there now but there was a motif of a guitar on it. Nevertheless, it was flat, my bad. The way he makes it sound, however, seems like it was in the shape of a guitar and not a rectangle or what have you at all. I could be reading that wrong though, but that's what I get.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: buddy_blue,

you know, i hope God has a special place in hell for the jerk who stole the headstone off buddy's grave.

thanks for clarifying that bit about the original vs. replacement.

quote:

you know, i hope God has a special place in hell for the jerk who stole the headstone off buddy's grave.

Amen.

Does anyone know if the restaurant really closed today? I was hoping somehow that it might be saved ...