It's Cryin' Time

I really did cry when I heard Buck had died. He was always one of my heroes. I saw him live in 1966 in Seattle. That same summer I also saw the Beatles live, but Buck's performance was much better. The Beatles were tired of performing, and someone in the audience hit John Lennon with some thrown object, which very obviously pissed him off. The Beatles were professional and polished, but also mechanical and irritable. Buck was bursting with enthusiasm and so was the audience. There was 10 times more energy in the room with the Buckaroos than the Beatles had.

The LP pictured is from 1965; my copy is very clean and I'm still proud to own it. It used to be a scarce treasure, but now that it is out on CD it is just another old record. A lot of people don't know that Buck played guitar solos. He wasn't as good as his guitar player Don Rich, but he wasn't bad either. His Raz-Ma-Taz Polka is here, as I recorded it directly from the vinyl:

Click to Listen

posted by johncgreen@gmail.com @ 6:14 PM