'The Day The Music Died'
A Musical Memorial for my uncle, Rodger Lynn Richey
“A long, long time ago, I can still remember…” my uncle burned me a copy of two albums by Don McLean—American Pie and Tapestry. I remember my father and me listening to the oldies radio station, “Oldies 104.3” in Alexandria, Louisiana, and I had heard McLean’s iconic hit. I was a teenager, and I remember that my uncle explained some of the meaning behind McLean’s famous song that memorializes the death of Buddy Holly. I remember him burning me and then purchasing me copies of his two favorite albums of Don McLean. And so it began.
A long, long time…before I ever thought of studying western music in the likes of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, I cut my teeth on the singer/songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, in large part because my Uncle Rodger was my tour guide to the music that came in the two decades before I was born. Before understanding the taste of a fine steak, I learned the meat and potatoes of folk and rock music of my parent’s generation.
My uncle loved Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Paul Simon, CSN, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Hornsby, Billy Joel, Elton John, Cat Stevens, Paul McCartney, David Wilcox, and more than I cannot fully list here. He took me to my first concert when I was sixteen years old. We got to hear Elton John in a solo piano concert in Shreveport, LA. Several years later, he took me to another solo piano concert by Randy Newman in Lafayette. We always wanted to hear Bob Dylan but never got to see him in concert together.
So when he got sick, I knew what I had to do. I needed to repay the favor. And so, “Rodger Richey Radio” was born. I would introduce the tracks using the radio/podcast equipment I regularly used in my media work. In one of these RRR sessions, I thought I should pay tribute to Don McLean and a song on the Tapestry album. It was an easy pick because it was my dad’s favorite song by Don McLean as well—And I Love You So. I recorded it one afternoon and burned it to one of those discs to play on loop while my uncle was resting in his bed. Here’s the recording uploaded to Soundcloud:
I want to say more about how thankful I was for the music appreciation and education I received from my uncle. I need more time to process and refine my thoughts. But, for now, I will say that my uncle has left a deep impression on me. As we sat there through the evening before he passed, I did what I had been doing in the weeks before he died—played the hits that I know he loved.
In Don McLean’s American Pie, Buddy Holly was the music that died. Unlike Buddy Holly, a plane crash didn’t cause Rodger Richey to die. He may have died earlier than we would have liked. But he left a lasting music impression on me that even though he has died, my memories and lifelong enjoyment of that music will not.
My father has left us, and now my uncle has left us. I’ll miss them both but cherish the many fruits of seeds they both planted in me the thirty-seven years I knew them.