"He was one of the giants ... a figure so important in the history of popular music that it is impossible to hear a song on the charts today that does not owe something to [him].... Adults put him down ... as shock rock. Kids just remembered it was impossible not to dance, not to groove, while he sang."-- Lillian Roxon on Buddy Holly, Rock Encyclopedia
One of the lesser lights in Trent Reznor's career so far is his appearance with the fictitious band The Problems in Light Of Day, an old Michael J. Fox movie that until recently was more likely to go down in history as the film debut of Joan Jett than as anything else. In fact, the main reason for The Problems' cameo seems to be to make Fox's fictional group, the Barbusters, look good by comparison.
Far more interesting than their actual performance is the song The Problems played -- a cover of Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways," co-arranged (and possibly chosen) by Reznor himself. The song was a little syrupy even for Holly, who cooked with Karo to much better effect on songs like "Everyday" and "Words of Love." On the surface, it seems a strange cover for the Trent Reznor we'd like to think we know.
But could a substantial connection really exist between Reznor's career and a lesser artifact of a long-dead genius? Here's what I've discovered: a true story of talent, greed, unspeakable tragedy, and natural selection gone horribly wrong.
First of all, there are many more similarities between Holly and Reznor than first meet the eye -- even, nay especially, in musical style (classic pop song structures, driving rhythms, tenor vocals, chordal guitar breaks, and occasional whispering, to name just the most obvious ones).
Both worked with drummers who were longtime friends from home (Jerry Allison and Chris Vrenna). Both are known for their production talents as well as their unique-yet-readily-imitable singing and songwriting styles. (Holly pioneered studio techniques -- echo, close-miking, multitracking, and found percussion among them -- that since have become common as dirt and have been used with impressive results by Reznor.) Both did much of their best work alongside willful and extravagantly gifted studio producers with whom they didn't always see eye to eye (Norman Petty and Flood). Both suffered through ugly, nerve-ruining legal and financial disputes with the manager/overlord figures who had helped engineer their first successes (Petty and Steve Gottlieb).
One description of the contradictions in Holly's personality seems as if it could have been written about Reznor: "On stage, he was uninhibited, always trying to reach out and touch an audience and never holding anything back; off stage, he was quiet, shy and cautious towards strangers, sometimes moody and withdrawn even with friends.... He was outwardly self-confident, often aggressive; but fear of failure, as much as any deep ambition, was what spurred him on."
"True Love Ways" has the sad distinction of being one of Holly's last four studio masters (all of which were recorded at the Coral Records studio in New York City's Pythian Temple on the night of October 21, 1958). Holly's death in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, provoked a predictably huge surge of public grief; Coral recognized a marketing opportunity and rushed to capitalize on it. Besides rereleasing several previous Holly hits as The Buddy Holly Story Volume 1, the company annexed the Pythian Temple tracks and six others that Holly had recorded in his apartment in the month before he died. These recordings were of variable quality; some in fact were nothing more than unmastered demos. In an effort to make these tracks sound fuller and more commercial, Coral tacked on some dubious overdubbing that spared little concern for Holly's musical integrity and helped create an image of his work to later generations as "sappy" or "poppy" (in the derogatory sense) -- an image that has little to do with reality.
"True Love Ways" first showed up on The Buddy Holly Story Volume 2, a compendium of Holly's final tracks. The album came out in March 1960 -- about a year after the crash in Mason City, Iowa, that killed Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and pilot Roger Peterson. Volume 2 charted for 14 weeks, peaking at # 7 (Volume 1 remained in the Hot 100 for exactly three years, peaking at # 2).
Meanwhile, four guys from England -- inspired by Holly and in tribute to his band, the Crickets -- named themselves the Beatles. Soon after the first rush of their own success, Beatle Paul McCartney began producing records for the pop duo Peter and Gordon (one of whom was the brother of McCartney's then-girlfriend Jane Asher). In 1965, the pair had a Top 40 hit with a cover of..."True Love Ways."
Several years ago, the Holly catalog -- one of the deepest and most influential in rock-and-roll history -- was sold at auction to the by-then grotesquely compromised McCartney. The former Beatle promptly demonstrated his respect for his hero's legacy by accepting hefty fees from at least three different national advertisers to use Holly songs in their TV commercials.
I submit for your approval that the genuinely awful circumstances surrounding "True Love Ways," as partially detailed herein, qualify the Problems' cover as an authentic Reznor protowork. Surely it points to a pedigree of violence, treachery, rape (figurative and artistic), and public morbid-mindedness that would do any NIN song proud.
For the record, the Light Of Day cover is not the only recent connection between Reznor and Holly. In January 1991, during the Hate tour, NIN played a Dallas concert at a venue that now operates under the name Deep Ellum Live and at that time may have been known as the Institute. (It's endured several name changes, sometimes two in a single year.) The space itself, at 2727 Canton Street, began life in the mid-'80s as Tommy's Heads Up Saloon under the ownership of Tommy Allsup -- a former Cricket who played on Holly's last tour, the Winter Dance Party. The "heads up" is a reference to the luckiest coin toss of Allsup's life: the one he lost to Ritchie Valens for the last seat in Roger Peterson's plane.
"Maybe someday soon, things'll change..." -- Buddy Holly
This article is a work in progress. In the course of research, I have found enough material to warrant a much fuller treatment (or torture, maybe, depending on your POV) of the Holly/Reznor analogy. Stay tuned for the next installment....
The All-Music Guide Gopher and Home Page at Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan.
Light Of Day, a film by Paul Schrader, 1987 (Vestron Video).
The Nine Inch Nails FAQ and discography on the Unofficial NIN Home Page at Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Remembering Buddy: The Definitive Biography of Buddy Holly by John Goldrosen and John Beecher, 1987 (Penguin Books).
Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation by Philip Norman, 1981 (Warner Books).
alt.music.nin and the uninhp (which is an anagram of "hip nun") for the inspiration and opportunity to do my bit for Reznorean scholarshit.
Malcolm Mayhew and Kate McCormack for confirmation and information on the Hate tour.
Thank you for reading this story. -- KT
...and when in Lubbock, Texas, be sure to visit the Buddy statue at the Civic Center and bow down before the shrine of our Holly faith.