Thursday May 5, 2022 “Words of Love” Buddy Holly (Rhythm Guitar)
So the band is starting to fill out and our next stop is rhythm guitar. A good rhythm guitarist provides all those accents and backgrounds that you may not initially hear but that create the setting and mood for a song. As such the perfect rhythm guitarist should be someone with a knowledge of how music works so he can provide those perfect inflections where they need to be on every song.
So we’re going to recruit legendary singer/songwriter Buddy Holly who also played some amazing guitar as part of the Crickets which were originally a three piece outfit, drums, bass and guitar. And Holly carried the tune as well as the rhythm along with the vocals .
Our new rhythm guitarist’s debut album had four top ten ten hits in just six short months and then he died in a plane crash as his star was just beginning to rise. Only the Beatles could match that kind of chart dominance and it took them several years of touring and songwriting before they came close.
Was Buddy Holly influential? The Hollies named their band after him; John Lennon named the Beatles based on Holly’s band, the Crickets and the Beatles recorded six of his songs; the Rolling Stones first hit was a Buddy Holly tune “Not Fade Away”; Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer wrote a song “Buddy Holly; Don McLean’s iconic song “American Pie” is about the day Buddy Holly died; in 1976 Paul McCartney purchased the rights to all of Buddy Holly’s songs.
Still wondering if we’re making the right choice here? The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame said "Rock & roll as we know it wouldn't exist without Buddy Holly." and their opinion is widely shared. Bruce Eder, writing at AllMusic.com, called Holly “the single most influential creative force in early rock & roll.” In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked him 13th on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”...even more extraordinary when you consider that he died at age 22, after a recording career that lasted less than two years.
Stay safe and well…and it won’t hurt that Buddy Holly is an accomplished piano player and songwriter as well.
"Words of Love" is a simple three chord song, A D E unless you want to play it like Buddy Holly then you will need to put in some work.