Rave On Buddy Holly

By Audra Tracy

Have a listen to Rave On Buddy Holly and you’ll soon realize that Don McClean was full of crap when he wrote ‘American Pie’. The music didn’t really die with Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper back in 1959! It may have gone on life support a few times since then (see: disco, boy bands, emo), but this new compilation finds rock and roll in fighting form.

Released just weeks before what would be Holly’s 75th birthday (this September 9th), Rave On salutes the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer from every direction of today’s musical spectrum.

Pick this up on vinyl and feel what happens when you put artists like My Morning Jacket, Cee Lo Green, Patti Smith, Julian Casablancas, and Jack White’s latest ex-wife on a record together. You’ll hear Paul McCartney talk trash on ‘It’s So Easy’, Lou Reed get all weird with ‘Peggy Sue’, and you’ll be surprised to find that Kid Rock has got soul to spare on the funked out ‘Well All Right.’

The ladies are no slouches on this record either. The Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead may have been covering ‘Not Fade Away’ for decades, but only Florence and the Machine can turn the Holly classic into sweet, simmering pillow talk. Singing lead and providing the street cred, Rachel Nagy of The Detroit Cobras brings Buddy back to the garage for a retro-rockin’ ‘Heartbeat’.

So be like the cool kids on the album cover and Rave On, boys and girls.