50 years later

It was fifty years ago. Some of the hottest rock n' roll musicians had just played a slammin' show, and were all set to play their next, when they boarded an airplane. They never made it.

The plane crashed 5 miles away from the nearest airport, killing all three passengers, as well as the pilot. The pilot was Roger Peterson. The doomed musicians were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (J.P Richardson). They were young, talented, and had they lived, music would not be what it is today. Their transformative influence on rock n' roll shaped and fortified its sound and stature. If they had lived on, their musical growth would have been exponential. Buddy Holly laid down some of the most enduring tracks of the 20th Century. Imagine if he had lived past the age of twenty-two. What could have been?

These talented musicians had their lives cut short. This is a common theme in music. John Lennon. Kurt Cobain. Bob Marley. The list goes on. In the midst of their creative zenith, they left us. Their legacies are their music. But the question of 'what if?'  haunts listeners, always wondering what could have been.