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That's so frustrating!
It is and "Not Fade Away" is real frustrating for me because I've seen it quoted a lot. For example, one verse where I wrote the whole thing is "My love is bigger than a Cadillac. I try to show it but you drive me back." Buddy and I just sat there and wrote the whole song and I didn't get my name on it.
It's a damn shame.
Crickets |
I sort of don't say that because there's so many opportunities to lie. I'm not here to bitch about Norm Petty. We were very lucky that Norman Petty had a good studio and he was a good manager and got us started. Tonio K's version on the new record is one of my favorite versions.
He and Peter Case [Plimsouls] are a good match with the Crickets. Do you have any favorites of other people doing your songs?
I love the way Linda Ronstadt did "That'll Be The Day" and "It's So Easy."
She's a great interpreter of other's songs especially during that period in the '70s.
Oh, I think so, too. And Peter Asher was a great producer as well. Let me think, oh, Blind Faith did "Well Alright" which Joe B., Buddy and I wrote. And I liked Leo Sayer when he did "More Than I Can Say." I liked the record but I especially liked the money at the time because I'd just moved to Nashville and bought a farm and things were just a little bit slack [big laugh].
That's always nice when it works out [laughs]. I'm a big Grateful Dead fan and it always brought out good things in them when they played "Not Fade Away."
People like that recording. Talk about compliments, that one's a real compliment. And somebody said they went to see Bob Dylan and whoever he was touring with and he closed the show with "Not Fade Away." Somebody called me from backstage on a cell phone and said, "Listen to this!"
I think it taps into something real pure about rock 'n' roll. This is why rock is still here, this is why we love it like we do.
Jerry Allison |
That's great! That's very nice of you. I think the first song I ever heard the Rolling Stones do was "Not Fade Away" and I think it was their first hit, at least in America. You talk about feeling bad, that would have been great to be able to say that's a song Buddy and I wrote but at the time I didn't dare. Because people would have said, "I bought that record and your name isn't on it!" So, I kept my mouth shut.
It's one of those lessons you learn. You have to be practical to be a working musician.
That's very true.
Frustrating but it's a life lesson. Do you ever get frustrated that a lot of the time people give ALL the credit for the Crickets music to Buddy Holly?
It does get frustrating. Back at different times, when "That'll Be Day" said it was a Crickets record. It didn't say anything about Buddy Holly. I think the credit said "Charles Hardin" because Buddy Holly was Charles Hardin. But Buddy and I had written that song before we ever went to Norman Petty's recording studio and all of the sudden it said Charles Hardin, Jerry Allison and Norman Petty writers. I didn't like that because I wanted my mom to see that Buddy and I wrote it. Then after Buddy was killed they put out "That'll Be The Day" and "Oh Boy" and didn't even mention the Crickets. And the [Rock And Roll] Hall of Fame, when they inducted Buddy didn't even invite us. Buddy and I were best friends so I think he would have sort of said what are y'all talking about here?
It never seemed to me he wanted to take all the credit.
Well, that's the way he was. Anybody who does any sort of entertaining has to have some kind of ego but as far as wanting all the money or anything Buddy just wasn't like that. I don't stay depressed about that but it has bothered me over the years when we couldn't get work. If they'd have put those records out, sure mention Buddy Holly, but also say the Crickets because they were Crickets records. They used to get played on the oldies stations more than they do now and it would have helped our attendance at gigs if the Crickets had been mentioned. Everything worked out all right as it was. We might have had too much work and couldn't have stood it [both of us laugh hard].
The Crickets play what could be called truly classic rock, an original form of rock 'n' roll. Have you guys ever toyed with the idea of modernizing your sound, adding in heavy metal or some of the other strains that have come along since you first started?
Crickets |
In the '60s we went out to L.A. and tried to do surf music and we sort of tried to be trendy. In fact, we were so far behind that before The Beatles did any good in the United States we knew about them from England and so we covered a whole bunch of their stuff like "From Me To You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand." We did a whole album like that and it was really embarrassing when it came out and The Beatles were such a big hit. We listened to ours and said, "Ooooh, we should have stayed away from that." We've tried this and that like orchestras but we find we have the most fun as a three piece. Just Joe B. and Sonny and I go out now and it's so uncomplicated.
The trio setting is about one of the nicest formats in any music, rock 'n' roll or jazz or whatever. There's just something real honest about three instruments communicating with each other.
Well, thank you, Dennis. I really agree. The old three piece is a really good number for rock 'n' roll.
What are your hopes for this new record? This is a pretty big project for you guys so what do you hope comes out of this?
Well, I'm already satisfied. I don't know how many it's sold so far but we did a lot of it in the studio behind my house. I've done many things that I didn't get my studio time paid for so I'm happy with that. And a lot of the time you get people to do you favors but we were able to pay everybody for what they've done. It's a record we're really proud of and we hope it will be around for years. It would be fun if someone said this is great and it went to the top of the charts. But I don't want to be flying all over the place and doing TV shows or whatever. I got on Social Security at the end of August because I turned 65 and Sonny's 67 and Joe B. will be 65 next summer. It's fun to get on the bus but it's not fun to get on the plane particularly. I would love for it to do well but not so we'd be required to work all the time.
There's a fine line between doing what you love and doing too much of what you love.
Exactly! You can learn to hate it. We have been in situations where it's been too much and we were around each other too much.
With this new one, it's nice to hear such a range of people singing your music and doing it so well. It's quite a range of styles and it shows just how wide your influence is.
Well, thank you. That's a fine thing to hear.
Dennis Cook
JamBase | California
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