Dreaming My Dreams With You.

I remember growing up as a kid in Ireland, my parents generation would have listened to a lot of American Country and Western Music. Artists like Glen Cambell, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Kris Kristofasan. Like the cut scene from Pulp Fiction, you were either an Elvis fan or a Beetles fan…you couldn’t be both. I was an Elvis fan. In fact I fondly remember listing to Presley’s In The Getto in my dads car on one of those old 8 Track tapes. I have always warmed to distinctive vocals and a track I just heard played today, reminded me of my youth and those distinct American Country and Western voices. The song was Waylon Jennings, Dreaming My Dreams With You. Its one of those songs, that when you hear it played out of the blue, its makes you stop, pause, and reflect on poignant moments from your youth.

Waylon Jennings was a very interesting and lucky character, who, like the crane driver that turned up late for work in Vauxhall London as a helicopter crashed into his cab, cheated death by chance. He was a member of the Buddy Holly band, that tragically died in the famous plane crash which claimed the lives of some of the biggest stars of the American Rock and Roll scene in the 50’s. Buddy Holly, Richie Vallens,and  J.P “The Big Bopper” Richardson, all died when their plane crashed into a corn field on a dark, frosty night, in Iowa. Waylon Jennings was due to fly that fateful night, but gave up his seat to Richardson, who was suffering from the flu. When Buddy Holly heard that Jennings was not travelling on the plane, he said to Waylon ” I hope your old bus freezes up” to which Jennings replied in jest, ” Well I hope your old plane crashes”.

Waylon & Buddy Holly

The remark haunted Jennings, until he died in 2002. The dialogue was witnessed by fellow band member, Tommy Allsop, who was about to board the plane, but due to lack of space, tossed a coin with Richie Vallens as to who got the last seat. The crash was immortalised in song by Don McClean, when he refereed to the incident as “The Day The Music Died” in his most successful hit, American Pie. Waylon Jennings was also the narrators voice in the original series of the Dukes Of Hazard, which was a huge television show in the 70’s, shot in the southern state of, Georgia USA. He also wrote and sang the shows, Theme Music. Above is the video of one of my favourite Waylon Jenning songs, Dreaming My Dreams With You. I know the chances of it been played in Ibiza are very slim, but nevertheless, I feel its worthy for an inclusion in the blog, simply for the fact that they sadly, dont make people like Waylon Jennings any more.