I haven’t been around lately. Been busy. Doin’ shit. So for those of you don’t know, I am the Mikey from the Life Cereal campaign. Here’s me then:
Here’s me now:
Anyhoo. I got that ad campaign because I’m supposed to be a cynic, right? I’m supposed to hate everything, right?! I swallow my anger, right?!! Wrong dillweeds!! Wrong.
I have the open mind of a newborn babe. That’s why I work in my birthday suit.
So let’s talk about The Big Bopper.
A cynic might say that The Big Bopper is the luckiest man in rock for if he hadn’t died in that crash, no one would remember him.
A cynic might say that in the triumvirate of Chubby Checker–Fats Domino-Big Bopper, the Bopper comes up third no matter how you sort them: talent, fattest, most black…
I might suggest that we celebrate the fact that The Big Bopper wrote that White Lightening song and some song about a bear running that apparently deserve notoriety.
A cynic might respond, WTF are you talking about?
A cynic might say that the only people who truly celebrate The Day The Music Died are Don McLean and whoever inherited the royalties to Chantilly Lace.
But I’m not a cynic.
I’d like us all to imagine for a moment a world in which the Big Bopper didn’t exist.
OK, let’s see.
Well if he hadn’t existed then Waylon Jennings might have died. Depending on your feelings about Jennings this could be some sort of It’s A Wonderful Life way to celebrate the Bopper.
They’d have to find another song to fill the void where Chantilly Lace was used in American Graffiti. I don’t recall the scene though and couldn’t find it.
I personally wouldn’t have the memory of my dad lifting both hands off the steering wheel and gesturing while singing “Well hellloooooo baaaabay” when Chantilly Lace came on the oldies station. I would have to be satisfied with only having the almost identical memory but with that “sing like a frog” song.
I, along with countless others (here, here, here…) see a world without music videos, because The Big Bopper is the visionary who created music video.
A cynic might point out the fact that pre-rock musicians produced and distributed “soundies“, as early as 1940. But again I’m no cynic.
So in short, I think we can all agree that The Big Bopper was indeed a great…man.
Dude, you forgot the big one:
– No Big Bopper, no Sue Bopper-Simpson.
– No Sue Bopper-Simpson, no “I’m Taking My Own Head, Screwing it On Right, and No Guy’s Gonna Tell Me That It Ain’t.”
– No “I’m Taking My Own Head, Screwing it On Right, and No Guy’s Gonna Tell Me That It Ain’t,” no Seth Dick III.
There you have it:
No Big Bopper, NO SETH DICK III!
Why isn’t there a Big Bopper biopic? If one ever gets made, who should play the Bopper?
Is Beau Bridges too old?
I apologize to the friends and family of the Bopper for not having the time to put together my essay about his passing and the impact it had on Look in rock music, which was to have been called “The Day The Music Dieted”.
Here’s a story about the Big Bopper’s casket that’s almost unbelievable:
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/big_bopper_s_casket_a_macabre_marketable_on_e-bay_12-26-2008.html
Sadly the Big Bopper biopic will not get off the ground unless Jack Black signs on. He will see it as a vehicle to go “serious” hoping to catch the same Oscar vibe that Jaime Foxx did in RAY.
Hi Mikey,
Your brother’s did you wrong. They assumed things about you that just were not true. But you stuck it to them and proved them wrong! I bet they didn’t think you could grow a cool manly beard too!
Ah, 50 years ago. I still remember where I was when I heard that the Bopper died. However, I was very isolated in my room and it was difficult to hear the news though the walls of my pad at the time. I kept trying to adjust myself to put my ear up against the wall to listen. But per having flipper arms and an unusually large head… I just couldn’t keep my balance and the sad news came to me in bits and pieces of broken information. That made it was all the more troubling somehow.
At least that’s the story I’m sticking with.
Research unveiled a Big Bopper biopic that is supposedly to be released this year. And it’s called…
The Day the Music Died
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to bring Dad back to life?” Jay, 49, said recently from Canada, where he was touring with a tribute act to his father, Holly and Valens.
Does Jay tour as The Little Bopper?
Mikey, thanks for digging up news of the Bopper biopic.
2K, I believe Jay tours as “The Big Bopper Jr.”
Big Bopper, Jr., for at least some period, was the opening act for a Buddy Holly tribute band.
As a DJ I feel like I should stick up for the Big Bopper. Sure, his recording career was a fluke (it’s surprising how many of the DJs of the era had their own novelty hits) but he probably would have gone on to have one of those syndicated oldies shows, where he would talk about giving up his seat to Buddy oh so many years ago…
Having written White Lightning earns the Bopper a place in history, even if he’d never done anything else.