Blogtrek

The Day La Bamba Died

Today is 2004 February 3, the forty-fifth anniversary of the day that La Bamba died. Some would say that it is the day that music died, but music continues to be played all over the place. In fact, La Bamba has been played many times. It is the favorite song of the summer camp I go to, SUUSI, where it used to be that every night right at midnight, the DJ at the Serendipity dance hall would play it, and we would all dance free-form and in conga lines. I have not heard much La Bamba at SUUSI recently; maybe it did die. But I had heard it many times in the 1990s.

No what I am talking about is an event that took the life of the author of La Bamba, Ritchie Valens. He along with Buddy Holly and two other people died on 1959 February 3 in a plane crash. As I heard the story, the band was going from Iowa to a place in North Dakota. They were traveling by bus, but it was a cold night, and the bus' heating system was not working. So they stopped at an airport and arranged to get a plane to fly them north. Four people were on the plane including the pilot, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens. The plane took off and five minutes later it crashed into a field. There were instrument flight rules (IFR) at the time, and perhaps the pilot did not have the proper training in flying with IFR.

The moment has been celebrated as an event which killed off a lot of music that could have been written and played. It was the subject of many essays and tributes, including American Pie, a tune part of whose lyrics ran, "singing this will be the day that I die; This will be the day that I die." But before that time, Ritchie Valens, a Hispanic who bought much Mexican music into the mainstream, had written La Bamba, and it has been performed frequently since. It is fortunate that it did, because when I hear "Baile baile baile La Bamba" and "un poca de gracia", I know it is time to get out into the dance floor and grab onto some conga line. So even though it may have been the day that music or La Bamba died, the tragic event of 1959 February 3 did not prevent me from enjoying the music of those who died that day. May their music be played forever more…