I am now in Hobbs, NM after what I would call a fairly eventful day yesterday ... yes, eventful would be one way to put it.
The day begin innocently enough ... I visited the Buddy Holly Center ... I arrived at the opening time of 10 AM and I was the only one in there ... unfortunately no photos were allowed ... they weren't sure why ... just following rules don't you know.
It was one of the best museums of it's kind I have had the pleasure of visiting ... not large ... but big on quality ... as well as it should be.
We have all been conditioned by the media and the various histories of Rock and Roll that it was Elvis, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin ... and I can understand why ... they are the most popular and influential Rock 'n' Roll artists of all time.
However they stand on some very broad shoulders ... if one simply scratches the surface ... we get Little Richard, Carl Lee Perkins, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry ...
Elvis started something but he didn't finish it ... the military and the celluloid wasteland intervened ... Buddy Holly picked up his mantle, died way too young and and The Beatles completed the journey ...transforming Rock 'n' Roll .. and all of us ... forever ...
Buddy Holly set the template for an artist writing his own material, he overdubbed vocal and guitar on his recordings, he had a unique rhythm/lead style that influenced those that followed, he set the power trio template, and he and Allison set a unique standard for guitar/drum playing that is still being imitated.
He set another template that was to repeated later by John Lennon ... his chosen love came between him and the band causing him to strike out on his own and he died far too soon, leaving behind a public literally stunned at the loss ... the days the music died.
Elton John, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones cite Holly as a major influence ... and we only have to look as far John's fake glasses, the name for his group chosen by Lennon and the Rolling Stones first hit (Not Fade Away) to see this.
If you want to truly grasp what Holly and The Beatles did to popular music ... and looking back, this can be hard to appreciate ... especially if you were born after 1970 ... here's how to do it ... go to YouTube and watch Little Richard romp through Tutti Fruiti ... now change channels and watch Pat Boone's version that went to number 1 ... that's the tangible difference I am talking about ... one guy that can hardly stay in his own skin, he has so much energy ... the other guy turning it into a piece of Muzak ... this was why everyone went nuts for Elvis ... the music freed the soul .. it didn't anesthetize it ...
Thanks to Holly, The Beatles took it out a whole door ... to paraphrase Jack Nicholson's 'Joker'... one of the most pleasant hours I have spent in a while ... this museum is a 'must see' ...
Now another sideways thought ... if you draw a 40 - 50 mile diameter circle around Lubbock and then look at the number of well known musicians that are from this area, it defies what I would call, a statistical norm or expectation. In other words, it begs investigation ... just park that for a while and I'll return to it later in the 'trip' ..
When I left the museum, I entered the Phil S text address in to the GPS, and with some trepidation, followed the directions. I was taken to The American Wind Power Center ... one of the world's largest collection of wooden and metal wind turbines ... the kind that are ubiquitous out here in this country ... they have both an indoor gallery of rare windmills and outside in a park they have several that are operational ...
I walked around both indoor exhibit and outside ... trying to fathom what the connection was between Roswell and this place ... I finally worked up enough gumption to ask the receptionist if there was any 'UFO connection' associated with the museum ... and you know the look that I got ... and then she started laughing and said none that she was aware of ... I apologized ... I said I was here because of what I thought was some connection with 'UFOs' and 'Roswell' ... she laughed again ... then she scatted the theme from Twilight Zone and the she really started laughing ... all I could do was laugh along and say goodbye ...
As I was walking to the truck ... an elderly gentleman came out and introduced himself .. he had been working on one of the older wind turbines inside ... he said he hoped I didn't mind but he couldn't help over hearing my question inside ... he then asked me if I had heard of 'the Lubbock lights' .... I said no ... he then went on to recount the story which you can read here ...
I thanked him but I said it obviously has nothing to with the museum .... well, strangely enough, it does, he said ... how so ... well, the professor who was having the party lived in the country at that time .. he was on an old farm ... that old farm was where you are standing right now ....
I thanked him for the information, got in the truck, set the GPS for Hobbs and got the hell out of there ... I called up the 'Phil S' text again and noticed I hadn't scrolled down to catch it all ... underneath the address was a date ... 25 August 1951 ... if you have read the link above, you'll know the significance of this ... my foot became just a bit heavier on the accelerator ...
I kept thinking about those windmills ... and how they looked like something else ... like an array of antennae focused on something ... receiving information .. information on what ... I had no time to ponder this .. distance is what I needed ...
It is now more important than ever that I obtain what I need here in Hobbs before moving on to Roswell ... yes ... very important indeed. The search begins at daylight ... I need to get to the museum ...
To quote from verse 1951 from the Krome Koan,
` ... In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe ....'
The Ale i.a.n. Hunter
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