Song of the week #23

Don't Quit

I was just three weeks away from my eighth birthday on the “Day the Music Died”. I don't remember much about Buddy Holly's death in early February 1959 at the time that it happened for, in those days, news often took days to travel across the Atlantic rather than hours or even minutes as is the case nowadays. However, my brother Alan and sister June were big fans of Buddy Holly, and other contemporary US rock-n-rollers, so I was very aware of his songs. Peggy Sue, Every Day, That'll Be the Day, True Love Ways and Raining in My Heart were some of my earliest musical memories. 

Buddy Holly's music was tremendously influential on bands and solo artists during the 1960s including, of course, the Beatles who started writing their own songs because Buddy Holly had done so. Paul McCartney (who now owns the rights to all of Buddy Holly's back catalogue) is on record as saying 

“People these days take it for granted that [bands write their own songs], but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician.'”

Soon after I started seriously writing songs in 2016 I also began performing at local open-mike nights. Will Shepherd hosted one of these every month in Shottermill and he was a big Buddy Holly fan so inevitably we would round off the evening with a few Buddy Holly songs. I therefore decided to write my own tribute in Holly's style and this was the result. It features pizzicato strings and rushing string scales borrowed from Raining in my Heart and I adopted his trademark hiccupping vocal style. For the video I wore horn-rimmed glasses and a dark suit and tie!

Click on the link below to view the YouTube video:

Don’t Quit

When you’re feeling down
And you search all around
But there’s nobody to pick you back 
Up off the ground...
Well it’s times like these
When you’re down on your knees
Don’t quit

Just remember that Rome
Didn’t happen in a day
That it all takes time
In the old-fashioned way…
Everything comes along
Like the words in this song
So don’t quit

Pretty soon those clouds will pass on by
And there’s gonna be a clear blue sky
And then the sunshine’s here to stay
To chase all your troubles away

Well it’s all too easy
Just to give it all up
When your life seems hard
And the going gets tough…
But if you keep on trying
Pretty soon you’ll be flying
Don’t quit

Pretty soon those clouds will pass on by
And there’s gonna be a clear blue sky
And then the sunshine’s here to stay
To chase all your troubles away

So remember when there’s nothing
But clouds in the sky
And the rain keeps falling
Like the tears in your eyes...
There’s a golden sun 
Right behind ev’ry one
So don’t quit
Please don’t quit
Just remember don’t quit.