The pride of Lubbock, Texas, Buddy Holly was arguably rock's first modernist. From his first hit, 1957's "That'll Be the Day," he was stripping the new music down to its barest essentials: vocals, guitars, and drums. That minimalism makes his music sound timeless, and proved enormously influential. (The Beatles even named themselves in honor of Holly's band The Crickets.) By the time he died in an infamous Iowa plane crash in February 1959, Holly had moved to New York's Greenwich Village and was checking out the local jazz scene. What might have been?