Winter Dance Party: The 1959 tour that led to ‘The Day The Music Died’
The Day The Music Died is quite possibly the most mythologised – and romanticised – piece of music history ever, an event that marked the tragic deaths of three of music’s most significant and legendary names, which many people connect with a much bigger loss: the loss of traditional rock and everything it once stood for.
The plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper is tragic enough on its own, but the symbolism around its events appears far more poignant, representing a moment in time when things irreversibly changed forever, and in the moments leading up to the crash, the trio had been on the road for their Winter Dance Party tour, enduring terrible conditions and long distances, all in the name of art.
Cold tour buses and low temperatures caused some of the musicians to get the flu (and even frostbite), meaning that, when the opportunity arose to take a different mode of transport, Holly and the others didn’t have to think twice, but instead, they decided to take a plane, which was scheduled to take them to Moorhead, Minnesota, but shortly after taking off, they crashed into a field, killing all three, as well as the pilot.
The Day The Music Died is one of those pivotal moments in history, a phrase that still sends shivers down people’s spines, partly due to its inclusion in the Don McLean classic ‘American Pie’. In the song, McLean frames it as a major shift that changed American culture, suggesting that the loss of some of America’s finest musical heroes ultimately threw society into a spin, with most traditions – like rock ‘n’ roll – dissolving along with the plane in the field.
The Winter Dance Party tour was additional fodder for such a mythologised event, scheduled as an extensive, 24-date run across the Midwestern US, with no nights off. Many of the locations also seemed to be at opposite ends of their map, which understandably irked Holly, as it meant long, arduous distances and constantly coming back on themselves.
However, when he tried to contest it, he was refused by the organiser, and, given that he was already up against it when it came to financial strain, he ultimately agreed. This also did little to help the conditions they faced on the road, meaning that, once they finally made it to the stage, they often felt burned out and sleep-deprived, despite audiences showing up in their hundreds.
That said, along with the crowd energy, things weren’t all bad on the road – as Dion later recalled to Uncut, who’d gotten a space on the road partially following the success of his hits ‘I Wonder Why’ and ‘No One Knows’, there was a special camaraderie on the tour bus and during their shows that was lightning in a bottle. So when his fellow musicians died in the crash, he realised just how lucky he’d been.
As a 19-year-old whose “world was opening up”, he recalled how wonderful it was to get the chance to play alongside such fleeting musical heroes, which was “interesting”, especially with the lasting memories of them jamming in the back of the bus and experimenting with new Stratocasters “to see who could make them ring the loudest”. According to Dion, it was magical, and so, after the crash, he really developed a deeper relationship with “life and people and music”.
The Winter Dance Party tour and The Day The Music Died are two of the most dramatised events in history, but clearly, there’s an undeniable element of truth in the embellishments. After all, this tragedy really did mark the end of an era, with a supporting tour that can quite literally never be forgotten, defined by its own uniqueness and magical energy, even though things got rough.
