I still cry for Ritchie Valens
They don't make teenagers like Richard Valenzuela anymore. He wasn't half-starved, slicked up or spray tanned. No hovering, facelited, fake tittied stage mom either. He was a poor kid from the L.A.'s sweltering step-sister, the San Fernando Valley. He taught himself to sing and play guitar and his style lives on. In May of 1958, he was discovered by Bob Keene of Del-Fi records. Keene hauled Ritchie (Bob added the "t") into his basement studio and knocked out a few demos. Literally several days later, "Let's Go" was climbing the charts. Saturday nights would find Ritchie playing Legion Stadium in El Monte, a sign that said "Dancing every Saturday night!" behind the stage. It was the only place in the whole L.A. area where kids under 18 could attend a public dance, as everywhere but El Monte forbade it. Kids poured in from everywhere, even Beverly Hills.
In Los Angeles in the 50's, racism was alive and well. Ritchie's name was shortened from Valenzuela to Valens so for greater acceptance. No other Latino recording artist had crossed over. Ritchie was the first. Many who heard his music on the radio were surprised to see him live, discovering he was Latino. Ritchie was so poor and his family home so small that he slept on a sleeping bag on dirt under the house.
Ritchie was the first Chicano rocker, put on electrifying live performances, and affected his fans deeply, as he continues to do. One listen of "Cry, Cry, Cry" has me going for the rest of the day, the guitar riff on a constant repeat. There's nothing like a young man singing and playing his heart out. Ritchie was the real deal. I love him and always have, even though I was born 10 years after he died. He was a beautiful spirit, and it shone through his music. Untrained, he sparked a bunch of garage bands coming on the scene.
The Day the Music Died refers to the plane crash Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper were killed in. The 21 year-old pilot of their rented 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza made the fatal decision to launch their journey in a near blizzard, not knowing how to read the instruments, slamming the plane into the frozen ground after having lost sight of the horizon. The upside is that none of them knew what hit them. One freaky piece of trivia, one day when Ritchie took a day off from school to be with his grandmother who was having an operation, two planes had a mid-air collision over his school, killing a few of his classmates who were on the playground. Contrary to legend, Ritchie's mother insisted he was not afraid of flying, and did it every chance he got as it wasn't common in the 50's.
A coin toss lost Ritchie his life, and won fellow rocker Tommy Allsup the rest of his. When Buddy Holly found out Waylon Jennings wasn't going to fly (he'd given his seat up to The Big Bopper), Holly said "I hope your bus freezes up," to which Jennings replied, "I hope your plane crashes." Please, don't click on the next link if you're sensitive, it's the aftermath of the plane crash set to the beautiful, haunting "We Belong Together." The Day the Music Died
Ritchie and his music will live on after all the rest of us have been forgotten. Personally, I'm not sure why I attached to him and from such a young age...but I love him and always will. Many get what I just said, others can leap. I'll always think of him like this:
Ritchie Valens Cry, Cry, Cry
In Los Angeles in the 50's, racism was alive and well. Ritchie's name was shortened from Valenzuela to Valens so for greater acceptance. No other Latino recording artist had crossed over. Ritchie was the first. Many who heard his music on the radio were surprised to see him live, discovering he was Latino. Ritchie was so poor and his family home so small that he slept on a sleeping bag on dirt under the house.
Ritchie was the first Chicano rocker, put on electrifying live performances, and affected his fans deeply, as he continues to do. One listen of "Cry, Cry, Cry" has me going for the rest of the day, the guitar riff on a constant repeat. There's nothing like a young man singing and playing his heart out. Ritchie was the real deal. I love him and always have, even though I was born 10 years after he died. He was a beautiful spirit, and it shone through his music. Untrained, he sparked a bunch of garage bands coming on the scene.
The Day the Music Died refers to the plane crash Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper were killed in. The 21 year-old pilot of their rented 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza made the fatal decision to launch their journey in a near blizzard, not knowing how to read the instruments, slamming the plane into the frozen ground after having lost sight of the horizon. The upside is that none of them knew what hit them. One freaky piece of trivia, one day when Ritchie took a day off from school to be with his grandmother who was having an operation, two planes had a mid-air collision over his school, killing a few of his classmates who were on the playground. Contrary to legend, Ritchie's mother insisted he was not afraid of flying, and did it every chance he got as it wasn't common in the 50's.
A coin toss lost Ritchie his life, and won fellow rocker Tommy Allsup the rest of his. When Buddy Holly found out Waylon Jennings wasn't going to fly (he'd given his seat up to The Big Bopper), Holly said "I hope your bus freezes up," to which Jennings replied, "I hope your plane crashes." Please, don't click on the next link if you're sensitive, it's the aftermath of the plane crash set to the beautiful, haunting "We Belong Together." The Day the Music Died
Ritchie and his music will live on after all the rest of us have been forgotten. Personally, I'm not sure why I attached to him and from such a young age...but I love him and always will. Many get what I just said, others can leap. I'll always think of him like this:
Ritchie Valens Cry, Cry, Cry
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