THE NIGHT WHEN BUDDY HOLLY BLEW ED SULLIVAN OFF THE STAGE

https://youtu.be/1kGqv96RJKo?si=o-JDfkbTRejL6eZJ


Buddy Holly needs no introduction. He revolutionised popular music in the shadow of the much more popular and showmanlike Elvis Presley, to this day some view Holly as being nothing more than a squeaky voiced wannabe who never had what it took to steal the limelight and momentum off off Elvis by citing that he had many singles which flopped in comparison to the few that stormed to the top of the charts. 

This may be true,none of Buddy`s greatest songs ever, `It`s So Easy`, with the accompanying classic B-side `Lonesome Tears`, is one of the most famous flops in
the history of rock`n`roll. 

And there are at least half a dozen more in
the same sort of category - great rock`n`roll which for whatever reason went absolutely nowhere in Holly`s artistically best but commercially worst year of 1958. 

He certainly had a better year commercially speaking in 1957, with the mega-hits `That`ll Be The Day` and `Peggy Sue`.

Ironically Ed Sullivan, who was the man who on one hand gave Buddy a go and allowed him to appear on his show twice and on the other hand had his studio lacky pull the microphone from Holly`s amp while performing `Oh Boy`, was one of many ultra-conservatives in america who pulled the rug from underneath the populist culture of rock`n`roll in general because of their over-reactionist personal dogmas about rock`n`roll being `the devils music`.

Listening to Holly`s rollicking but innocent rock`n`roll anthems, it is hard to comprehend now how Sullivan and a swag of other bible bashers ever got the idea that Holly or Elvis were immoral and evil role models for the millions of people who looked up to them. 

Buddy Holly was simply the best ever guitarist as far as downward strums go, he extracted an extraordinarily heavy and

dense sound out of his Fender Stratocaster because he didn`t use any picks and he just played so hard and fast downwards and not upwards, which was so much unlike Chuck Berry. 

Lyrically Holly was innocent as could be, but he was damn heavy for his time, maybe the volume was what got under the nose of Ed Sullivan and all the other rock haters of 50`s America. 

If Elvis hadn`t swung his hips and thrown
in some pelvic thrusts on stage, then he wouldn`t have been nearly as controversial. 

This is classic footage of the famous and in-
famous performance of `Oh Boy` on the Ed Sullivan Show. 

Look closely and you`ll work out the very moment when Buddy had his amp pulled out, there is a brief look of bewilderment on his face and then he tears into the rest of the song with even greater ferocity.