FEBRUARY 3 "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED"
RIP BUDDY HOLLY
RIP RICHIE VALENS
RIP BIG BOPPER
"Myth sees in them only the same raw material; their unity is that they all come down to the status of a mere language. Whether it deals with alphabetical or pictorial writing, myth wants to see in them only a sum of signs, a global sign, the final term of a first semiological chain. And it is precisely this final term which will become the first term of the greater system which it builds and of which it is only a part." roland barthes
of course, no one wrote a song about sam cooke in that motel room or otis' plane ride or hendrix's overdose. somehow those moments escape the process that transforms them from wholly mundane & senseless to transcendent, even tho their music, their output as artists, easily outstrips individually the sum of the collective myth mclean contrived.
still, as barthes taught, myth IS contrived. mclean disses post crash white music while ignoring the origins of his guy's sound. it's not like holly was the grass roots or the association or the guess who. now THAT is white music. holly co-opted bo diddley but that's really the history of rock music: innovative, exciting sounds initially perceived as dangerous due to source or reaction ultimately homogenized into palatable, acceptable products for mass consumption. myth tends to gloss over that process of homogenization; it is, in fact, part of the process. as mircea eliade said a long time ago, "myth eats history."
the music didn't die that day; it can't. cobain proved that &, unfortunately, someone else will come along to reinforce the lesson & fall headlong w/o choice into the depths of myth.
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