'The Day the Music Died' goes on 64 years later
Clear Lake's Surf Ballroom attracts new generations of fans every February
Madonna Brue was thrilled to attend her first rock ‘n’ roll concert on February 2, 1959, at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
The next day, the innocence of her childhood was shattered.
Three music stars and the pilot of their tiny place had crashed in a corn field north of town.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) were killed, along with pilot Roger Peterson.
It became known as “The Day the Music Died,” in songwriter Don McLean’s 1971 rock masterpiece.
“It was such a significant event to go to a concert, and the next day, they were gone,” Brue said.
Lois Hackbarth, left, and Madonna Brue were Thompson High School students when they attended the Surf Ballroom concert February 2, 1959. They attended this year’s Winter Dance Party together. (Photo by John Naughton.)
In one moment, Valens, just 17 at the time, kept smiling on the Surf’s stage after a guitar string broke. When Brue heard the news the next day, she wept.
“Every time I heard ‘La Bamba,’ for the next two years, I cried,” Brue said.
One of the most mythologized events in Iowa history has taken on an annual music afterlife. The Winter Dance Party — named as a tribute to the ill-fated 1959 tour — has been held every year since 1979.
For three days this past week, women and girls wore poodle skirts, saddle shoes and ponytails. Men and boys sported 1950s letter jackets, ducktail haircuts and spectator shoes.
The music didn’t die. The memories live.
For hundreds of fans who trek through bitter cold and snow, the lights are still on at the Surf.
The Surf marquee welcomes visitors to Saturday’s concert. (Photo by John Naughton.)
Brue and her cousin, Lois Hackbarth, were students at Thompson in northern Iowa. They attended the three-day concert together, driving from the Rochester, Minnesota, area.
Hackbarth said she and her high school friend Juanita Wirth were told they couldn’t attend the 1959 show. They begged and pleaded until Wirth’s older brother agreed to drive them to the concert, which was held on a school night in freezing weather.
“It’s remembering those three guys,” Hackbarth said. “It’s a remembrance weekend.”
Today’s tribute contains a rather surreal twist on the past. There were oldies performers like Gary U.S. Bonds and revival acts like John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party. Senior citizens mingle with youngsters wearing vintage clothing.
Artwork of Valens, Holly and Richardson adorns the Surf high above the dance floor. (Photo by John Naughton.)
It is an odd mix of nostalgia — both real memories and artificial trappings — that keep flooding back at the ballroom on the first weekend of February every year.
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