Perhaps more than Raining in My Heart, or any other Holly ballad, True Love Ways has become a standout classic, even immortal amongst the entire Buddy Holly catalog. Many feel the song originated as an inspiration found in the basic melody of Buddys favorite gospel tune, Ill Be Alright, by the Angelic Gospel Singers. A record of it was said to have been played at Buddys funeral. Holly historian Bill Griggs and I used to have these good natured debates about what genre of music Holly string sessions, including True Love Ways, truly belongs in, with Bill always stating emphatically that the entire session yielded pure pop music. Beautifully done, but its all pop music to me, Bill would say with a shrug. As for myself, I was always divided between the historic string treatments and what could be done with the songs on guitar, with or without a band, having done True Love Ways and Raining in My Heart myself beginning in the early 80s. Whether with acoustic or traditional rock and roll band line-up, those types of treatments lend the songs, arguably, to another genre, perhaps more than one: rockabilly ballad, country rock and acoustic folk. Beyond that, Ive always felt it was Buddys one-of-a-kind vocal delivery that decidedly pushed the songs into something outside the straight pop style. His pure, clear and passionate vocal, accentuated with very distinctive, to my ear, southern phrasing, and the occasional hiccup, as in It Doesnt Matter anymore, make the songs the classics that they are. Buddy was never meant to be a middle of the road pop artist as his voice was too colorful and unique for that field. He might have dabbled in it, experimented to an extent, but then he probably would have returned to the fold of his full and varied musical melting pot of country, bluegrass, R and B, blues, rockabilly and rock and roll and beyond.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 22:25:13 +0000
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