h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"(I woke up to the sound of 'Fat bottomed girls' "

I'm the only male in the household, too. The loo can get really loud in the morning, can't it?

I've had chance to revisit the entry and take a proper look (mainly thanks to a Scout recommending it). I've just a few comments before I press that Accept button. I do think this is an improvement on the existing Buddy Holly entry, but in places it could really do with 'Plain English'ication...

- The headings: Firstly, subheaders should only be used to subdivide sections under a header. I'm a little baffled by soem of them as they seem a bit... well, random.

- First para under 'Many decades of bad road': This section reads like it should come near the end rather than at the beginning. It assumes that the reader will know how Holly died. Also, the Edited Guide should always focus of facts rather than fiction or speculation. As The Everley Brothers, Elvis and - yes - Roy Orbison continued to have number one singles for the early part of the 1960s, and subsequently enjoyed long-lasting careers, who could possibly say that Buddy Holly wouldn't have been among them - in his own country if not in the UK. As this is speculation, it would be better to simply state that no-one knows what might have happened had Holly lived. The second paragraph in that section seems to get a little carried away with itself, saying that Holly's widow 'left to carry by her lonesome the burdens of ire and admiration that have plagued her ever since'. Could you provide a source for this? It sounds a little too close to how you *imagine* she felt rather than reporting any statement she might have made on the matter.

- Daddy Sang Bass, Momma Sang Tenor: 'Like his idolizers' - made-up word? 'Famous fans' does the same job. '...and, in one instance, a movie star that he had never met' WHO???
'Fans and writers inebriated on the history of "rock and roll" often ignore the obvious influences on Buddy and his friends by isolating the "rock and roll" timeline from the actual "country music", "Broadway Show Tunes", and "rhythm and blues" reality that permeated it.'
I have to say, I've never read a single history of Holly that didn't acknowledge his Blues and country roots. I'm not sure where you're getting this viewpoint from.

- "Buddy's choice of guitar is a good instance iconography and hagiography gone wrong. Buddy was no Thor wielding a hammer that only he could handle. He was not born to wield it. Inspiration of a spiritual sort did not strike him when he first saw and handled one. His first Stratocaster was not bought for $600 cash by Buddy with a loan from his brother until they were reasonably certain that he was going to continue to work as a performer. (footnote: another $400 was spent on stage clothing!)"

Sorry, I'm struggling to work out what you're saying here. You're getting a bit carried away with your mixed metaphor - is he a saint, an icon or a God? The repeated negatives make the paragraph confusing. I *think* what you're trying to say is that Holly was no child protegee, and that his family held off buying him an expensive guitar until they were certain his determination to perform would justify the cost.

- "after seeing Elvis with something similar on one or more of the four appearances that Mr. Presley made in Lubbock in 1955, including one at a Pontiac Show Room (an auto dealer)." Too much info overload. Try: "after seeing Elvis with something similar at one of his 1955 performances in Lubbock." Although you mention the museum in Lubbock, you've not actualy mentioned that it was Holly's home.

- "Buddy was known, through his purchases of cars such as a '55 Oldsmobile, a Chevy Impala (for his parents), a Lincoln, which was soon traded for a Cadillac Fleetwood, a Triumph motocycle and later an Ariel Cyclone, to have a sense of the usefulness of flash and style." Sorry, this is where I stopped reading. You're in danger of losing your audience 'm afraid as it's too overwritten. It'd really benefit the entry to pare it down and simplify your sentences - there's a stunning amount of research here, and I think with a further draft it'll be a winner, but it's just too hard to read. That sentence above would be much easier to undertsand if it said: "Buddy was known for his sense of style - and his awareness of how important that could be to his self image: his love of cars took in a '55 Oldsmobile, a Chevy Impala (for his parents), a Lincoln (which was soon traded for a Cadillac Fleetwood), a Triumph motocycle and later an Ariel Cyclone." Separating the points makes the point and then illustrates it.

I hope this doesn't come across as too harsh - it's a subject I am really interested in and the problem I found with it is that it takes too much prior knowlegde of the subject for granted, and then gets a little lost in overly fanciful writing. We additionally have to be especially careful considering that this will be used to replace an existing entry. If you feel like you don't want to touch your version, we can accept the entry anyway, but it won't go into the Edited Guide in this form, and I think it only fair to include you in that rather than do it without any feedback from you.

Jims

There ya go! Thanks for critically reading it, Boss.

I will deal with the other problems later, following many of your suggestions.

I did believe it was a bit turgid in parts when I submitted it.
You have proven my suspicions.

With regard to Buddy's wife, no imagining is involved.

With regard to Buddy's subsequent career, his death was probably a good career move. I will, however, reread that section with an eye to your criticism.

One of the reasons for this entry was to debunk a lot of the barnacle-like encrustations of poorly-thought-out crap layered on top of the real fellow that I have had to scrape through during the last twenty years of reading about him, including the short entry that this is supposed to improve upon.

Please keep in mind that my internet access may be interrupted or removed within the next few days. If you don't see any improvement within forty-eight hours, assume that is the case and proceed accordingly.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may provide.

"in one instance, a movie star that he had never met' WHO??? "

Oh, yeah, sorry about that.
I will deal with that.

In the meantime, it was John Wayne, in "The Searchers". He provided the line "that'll be the day". Well, actually the scriptwriter probably did, but...

Now you can rest comfortably imagining "The Duke" singing the song...

That's fantastic - John Wayne? Wow!

I wouldn't say turgid was fair - but it was just a bit impenetrable in places. As I said, the hardest part is the research and you've clearly done that in abundance.

Personally I'd dispute the death was a good carrear move

Unlike Elvis, Holly was able to come up with new material and certainly could have kept going, escpecialy as he would have the royalites coming in. Look at Orbision, he kept going doing his own thing, not becoming the Elvis like pastiche

Besides, groups like the Stones and the Beatles grew up on Holly in preferance to Elvis, and he was for many musicians a bigger influence.

Without Holly, there would be no Dylan and rock would not be what it is today

Granted, but think for a moment about Ricky Nelson and "Garden Party".

Too many artists of the fifties got stuck playing their old tunes over and over to gradually aging audiences in school gyms, regardless of their recording efforts during the sixties and seventies.

I mean, look at Nat King Cole and Wes Montgomery. Both great musicians in their own right, but they ended up playing Tin Pan Alley and Broadway musical tunes in order to pay the bills.

"Without Holly, there would be no Dylan and rock would not be what it is today"

Um. Let's not forget Woody Guthrie and Dave Van Ronk, as well as Ramblin' Jack Elliot. During early recording sessions, Dylan used to sit at the piano playing Little Richard tunes. Buddy recorded a couple of those himself.

Before Dylan was folk dylan, he was rock 'n' roll dylan

He saw Holly in Duluth just a few days before he died, and for a few years, Rock and Roll was dyaln's only love in terms of music


My examplo Orbision ofr 50s stars who carried on holds, some of his best wor - You Got It and I drove all nightappeared on his 80s albums

Elvis was an influence because of the attitude more than the songs (he didn't write many of those classics, remember), whereas Buddy influenced the Beatles to sing, write, harmonise and perform. Just listen to the Beatles' first three albums and the influence of Holly, Eddie Cochrane and Little Richard are clear.

(The Beatles' first demo included a Holly cover).

I used to own a copy of the Star Club bootleg.

Okay, admitted, he was AN influence. I just get tired of reading stuff that strongly suggests that there wouldn't have been any sixties Rock without this person or that one.
It was a movement and many people stood on the shoulders of giants over the years.

I just wanted to strip away all the movie crap and deal with Buddy as the hard-working, hard-thinking person that he was.

http://www.houstontheatre.com/buddy2.html

Hmm. Mustn't forget this.
What's the code for outside links, again?

"Firstly, subheaders should only be used to subdivide sections under a header."

Uh, I've been doing so much stuff for The Post, my ML skills might be off the track. So, those should be headers, rather than subheaders?
Is that what you are almost saying in your marvelously y fashion?

I shall modify that forthwith.

As for the content of the headers, I am known for my quirky headings in my Guide Entries.
If you wish to suggest the ones that bother you, I will try to accomodate.

Okay. I sat down and did some damage this evening.
See what you think.
I still have to insert the links.

I expected to be disappointed when you said you'd changed it, tr, but it's still very good and it still says what you want it to say.

The PR-process can't really improve a piece like this, though. Its strength is its singularity of style.

If you stick it out here, you're only going to get people pointing out that 'incunabula' is already a plural (of 'incunabulum').

See, what did I tell you?

Hmm. Mongo not know that. Mongo thank Sheriff Bart.
Mongo go look at context.

Mongo took care of that bit of latinate quibbling.

Very nice. Now don't you dare change anything else

Sorry... what were we talking about?
Just got a new job and spent the last week trying to keep up or wake up.