Monday 3 February 2025
Eskişehir, Türkiye
What makes a life worth remembering?
A long, long time ago (“American Pie” was written in 1971 and the time McLean is going to talk about is the 1950’s. This seems
like a long time ago ’cause of all the turmoil that occurred in the 60’s.)
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile (McLean’s favorite music was that of the 50’s.)
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while (In the 50’s, the major purpose of music was for dancing (sock hops). He wanted to play rock & roll so people could have a good time.)
February 3 is a day marked by echoes — of voices lost too soon, of lives that reshaped history, and of sacrifices that continue to ripple outward in unseen ways.
It is a day that forces us to ask:
What makes a man or woman worth remembering?
What determines whether a life’s impact lingers like gentle ripples on water or vanishes like a stone sinking beneath the surface?
But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step
Above: Don McLean
“I first found out about the plane crash because I was a 13-year-old newspaper delivery boy in New Rochelle, New York, and I was carrying the bundle of the local Standard-Star papers that were bound in twine, and when I cut it open with a knife, there it was on the front page.“
Don McLean
On this day in 1959, the world of music lost Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper in a plane crash.
Above: Photo of the aviation accident known as “The Day the Music Died”, that occurred on 3 February 1959, near Clear Lake, Iowa, where rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson perished.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride (Holly’s wife was pregnant when the accident occurred and soon after had a miscarriage.)
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
Young, vibrant, and brimming with potential, their voices were silenced in an instant.
Above: Ritchie Valens (1941 – 1959)
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), better known by his stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.
A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens died in a plane crash just eight months after his breakthrough.
Valens had several hits, most notably “La Bamba“, which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song.
Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.
He also had an American number-two hit with “Donna“.
Yet, their music never truly died.
So bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
Above: The Big Bopper (1930 – 1959)
Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), better known by his stage name The Big Bopper, was an American musician and disc jockey.
His best-known compositions include “Chantilly Lace“, “Running Bear“, and “White Lightning“, the latter of which became George Jones’s first number-one hit in 1959.
The songs they sang, the energy they infused into rock and roll, and the inspiration they provided to future artists continued long after their last performances.
Did you write the book of love (The Monotones’ “The Book of Love”)
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so? (Don Cornell’s “The Bible Tells Me So“)
Now do you believe in rock and roll? (This is from the great song “Do You Believe in Magic?” by the Lovin’ Spoonful. One of the lines is “like trying to teach a stranger ’bout rock & roll” and another is “the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me“. The “magic” is the ability of a song to stick in your head. Often times songs bring back memories of the past, this is what the magic is. This magic is especially in rock & roll, ’cause you experience it without thinking about it or trying to analyze the lyrics. Another lyric is “so just blow your mind“.)
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow? (Dancing in the 50’s wasn’t like it is today. If you danced with someone, you then were committed to them.)
Above: Buddy Holly (1936 – 1959)
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll.
He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas, during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his two siblings.
Holly made his first appearance on local television in 1952, and the following year he formed the group Buddy and Bob with his friend Bob Montgomery.
In 1955, after opening once for Elvis Presley, Holly decided to pursue a career in music. He played with Presley three times that year, and his band’s style shifted from country and western to rock and roll.
Above: Elvis Presley (1935 – 1977)
In October that year, when Holly opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, he was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records.
Above: Bill Haley and the Comets – Rudy Pompilli (1924 – 1976), Billy Williamson (1925 – 1996), Al Rex (1928 – 2020), Bill Haley (1925 – 1981), Johnny Grande (1930 – 2006), Ralph Jones (1921 – 2000) and Franny Beecher (1921 – 2014)
Holly’s recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley, who had become famous for producing orchestrated country hits for stars like Patsy Cline.
Above: Patsy Cline (1932 – 1963)
Unhappy with Bradley’s musical style and control in the studio, Holly went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded a demo of “That’ll Be the Day“, among other songs.
Petty became the band’s manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to the Crickets, a name chosen by the band to subvert Decca’s contract limitations.
In September 1957, as the band toured, “That’ll Be the Day” topped the US and UK singles charts.
Its success was followed in October by another major hit, “Peggy Sue“.
The album The “Chirping” Crickets, released in November 1957, reached number five on the UK Albums Chart.
Holly made his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after toured Australia and then the UK.
Above: Logo of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948 – 1971)
In early 1959, Holly assembled a new band, consisting of Waylon Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), and embarked on a tour of the mid-western US.
Above: Waylon Jennings (1937 – 2002)
Above: Tommy Allsup (1931 – 2017)
Above: Carl Bunch (1939 – 2011)
After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered an airplane to travel to his next show in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Above: Downtown Clear Lake, Iowa, USA
Soon after takeoff, the plane crashed.
Above: Monument at crash site, Clear Lake, Iowa
During his short career, Holly wrote and recorded many songs.
He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass and drums.
Above: Signpost near the crash site, Clear Lake, Iowa
Don McLean immortalized their loss in American Pie.
Well, I know that you’re in love with him
‘Cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym (McLean caught his love cheating on him.)
You both kicked off your shoes (sock hops)
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
Artists from the Beatles to Bob Dylan credited Buddy Holly as an influence.
Above: The Beatles: John Lennon (1940 – 1980), Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison (1943 – 2001)
Above: Bob Dylan
What should have been the end of their impact instead became the beginning of their legend.
Their ripples moved outward, reaching generations they would never see.
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck (A pickup truck was a symbol of sexual freedom. Marty Robbins’ “A White Sport Coat”)
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
Not all voices are lost to sudden tragedy.
Some build their echoes deliberately, crafting words that refuse to be silenced.
I started singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
February 3 gave the world literary giants who shaped our understanding of storytelling and history:
- Johannes Gutenberg (d. 1468) gave humanity the printing press, ensuring that ideas could outlive their creators.
Above: German inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1393 – 1468)
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (died 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press.
Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press enabled a much faster rate of printing.
The printing press later spread across the world and led to an information revolution and the unprecedented mass-spread of literature throughout Europe.
It had a profound impact on the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, and humanist movements.
His many contributions to printing include:
- the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type
- the use of oil-based ink for printing books
- adjustable molds
- mechanical movable type
- the invention of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period.
Gutenberg’s method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting type.
The alloy was a mixture of lead, tin and antimony that melted at a relatively low temperature for faster and more economical casting, cast well, and created a durable type.
His major work, the Gutenberg Bible, was the first printed version of the Bible and has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality.
Gutenberg is often cited as among the most influential figures in human history and has been commemorated around the world.
To celebrate the 500th anniversary of his birth in 1900, the Gutenberg Museum was founded in his hometown of Mainz.
Above: Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany
Now for ten years we’ve been on our own (The music died 1959, McLean more than likely started writing this song around 1969.)
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone (The Rolling Stones or the great Bob Dylan wrote “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1965. This was his first MAJOR change from folk music. In late 1966, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident, and hid in his house in Woodstock, NY for a good year, hence the “fat” and the moss shows the time change. Dylan didn’t really get his muse back till 1975.)
But that’s not how it used to be (McLean liked Dylan as a folk singer in the early 60s more than his folk-rock style in the mid 60s.)
When the jester sang for the King and Queen (The King is Peter Seger and the Queen is Joan Baez. These were the two big names in folk at the time early ’60’s). During the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, Dylan was honored to play his own set and then combine with these two legends to sing his song “Blowin’ in the Wind“.)
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me (political protest)
Above: American musician Pete Seeger (1919 – 2014)
Above: American musician Joan Baez
Above: American actor James Dean (1931 – 1955)
- Gertrude Stein (b. 1874) revolutionized modernist literature, challenging the very structure of language itself.
Above: American writer Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946)
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector.
Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life.
She hosted a Paris salon, where the leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson and Henri Matisse, would meet.
Above: Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)
Above: American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
Above: American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940)
Above: American writer Sinclair Lewis (1885 – 1951)
Above: American poet Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972)
Above: American writer Sherwood Anderson (1876 – 1941)
Above: French artist Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)
In 1933, Stein published a quasi-memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Alice B. Toklas, her life partner.
The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of the cult-literature scene into the limelight of mainstream attention.
Two quotes from her works have become widely known:
“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” and “There is no there there.“, with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland.
Her books include:
- Q.E.D. (1903) about a lesbian romantic affair involving several of Stein’s friends
- Fernhurst, a fictional story about a love triangle
- Three Lives (1906)
- The Making of Americans (1911)
- Tender Buttons (1914).
Oh, and while the King was looking down (Elvis Presley)
The jester stole his thorny crown (While Elvis was in the army, Dylan took his spotlight and changed the whole music business. The thorny crown is the price of fame and is referenced with Jesus’s thorny crown before he was murdered.)
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned (the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald)
Above: Elvis Presley in Germany
Above: Christ carrying the cross, El Greco (1580)
Above: Jack Ruby (1911 – 1967) shoots Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (1939 – 1963), 24 November 1963
- James Michener (b. 1907) painted history with a storyteller’s brush, making the past vivid and personal.
Above: American writer James Michener (1907 – 1997)
James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer.
He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales and incorporating detailed history.
Many of his works were bestsellers.
He was also known for the meticulous research that went into his books.
Michener’s books include:
- his first book, Tales of the South Pacific, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948
- Hawaii
- The Drifters
- Centennial
- The Source
- The Fires of Spring
- Chesapeake
- Caribbean
- Caravans
- Alaska
- Texas
- Space
- Poland
- The Bridges at Toko-ri
His non-fiction works include:
- Iberia, about his travels in Spain and Portugal
- his memoir, The World Is My Home
- Sports in America
Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener’s factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place.
Tales of the South Pacific was adapted as the popular Broadway musical South Pacific, by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The musical in turn was adapted as a feature film in 1958 and 2001, adding to his financial success.
A number of his other stories and novels were adapted for films and TV series.
He also wrote Presidential Lottery: The Reckless Gamble in Our Electoral System, in which he condemned the United States’ Electoral College system.
It was published in 1969 and republished in 2014 and 2016.
And while Lennin read a book on Marx (John Lennon / Vladimir Lenin / Karl Marx)(Songs like John Lennon’s “Revolution” (1968) (which actually mentions Chairman Mao) were much different then “Love Me Do” (1963). Many American adults thought the Beatles were bad for the American youth, especially after Lennon’s remark in 1966 about Christianity. He said “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first: rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” This started anti-Beatles burnings and such.)
The quartet practiced in the park (The Beatles / Candlestick Park)
And we sang dirges in the dark (A dirge is a funeral song. These songs were for the Kennedy’s (John and Robert) and Martin Luther King Jr., all who died in the mid 60’s. And remember – “dark” rhythms with “park“.)
The day the music died
Above: English musician John Lennon
Above: Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924)
Above: Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976)
Above: US President John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
Above: US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968)
Above: American activist Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968)
- Henning Mankell (b. 1948) didn’t just write crime fiction — he used his words to critique society and illuminate the human condition.
Above: Swedish author Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015)
Henning Georg Mankell (3 February 1948 – 5 October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children’s author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.
Kurt Wallander is a fictional police inspector living and working in Ystad, Sweden.
In the novels, he solves shocking murders with his colleagues.
The novels have an underlying question:
“What went wrong with Swedish society?“
Mankell also wrote a number of plays and screenplays for television.
He was a left-wing social critic and activist.
In his books and plays he constantly highlighted social inequality issues and injustices in Sweden and abroad.
Above: Flag of Sweden
In 2010, Mankell was on board one of the ships in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was boarded by Israeli commandos.
He was below deck on the MV Mavi Marmara when nine civilians were killed in international waters.
Mankell shared his time between Sweden and countries in Africa, mostly Mozambique where he started a theatre.
He made considerable donations to charity organizations, mostly connected to Africa.
Above: Flag of Mozambique
We were singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
- Paul Auster (b. 1947) explored fate, coincidence, and identity, leaving behind novels that question the nature of existence.
Above: American writer Paul Auster (1947 – 2024)
Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker.
His notable works include:
- The New York Trilogy (1987)
- Moon Palace (1989)
- The Music of Chance (1990)
- The Book of Illusions (2002)
- The Brooklyn Follies (2005)
- Invisible (2009)
- Sunset Park (2010)
- Winter Journal (2012)
- 4 3 2 1 (2017)
His books have been translated into more than 40 languages.
Helter skelter in a summer swelter (The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter“)
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter (The Byrds, “Eight Miles High” )
Eight miles high and falling fast (“Eight Miles High” was banned and band member Gene Clark entered rehab – “fallout shelter” )
It landed foul on the grass (marijuana)
The players tried for a forward pass (The players are the protesters in the 60’s. The forward pass was their movement to change the situation they were in, full of government corruption.)
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast (Dylan was in a motorcycle accident)
Above: The Byrds – David Crosby (1941 – 2023), Gene Clark (1944 – 1991), Michael Clarke (1946 – 1993), Chris Hillman and Jim McGuinn
Each of these individuals left behind more than just words.
They left behind a way of seeing, a way of thinking.
Their ideas did not sink beneath the waves.
They continued outward, influencing other writers, other thinkers, other dreamers.
Their ripples shaped the tides of culture itself.
Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune (Sgt. Pepper, Beatles, 1967, recently named the most influential album of all time. First ever concept album. First to have lyrics printed on the back. First to have a design on the protector of the record. Included an elaborate cover design and cut-outs. As far as the music goes, it had drug references in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, sitars, animal sounds and studio trickery. In the song “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” at one point in the sound the engineer was instructed to cut the tape into small pieces, scatter them around, then tape them back together. In “A Day in the Life” (which was banned from the radio ’cause of the drug reference line “I’d Love to Turn You On“), after the piano cords die out, there is a minute of silence, followed by a high pitched sound (by the request of John Lennon, especially to annoy the family dog), then a loop of Beatles gibberish to make the owners of the LP think that the needle had stuck!)
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance (The Beatles helped to start a new kind of music that was meant to be listened and not danced to (how do you dance to “Within You and Without You“?)
‘Cause the players tried to take the field (Players=protesters. In 1968, at the Chicago Democratic convention, protesters rioted, and some were beaten by the police. It is now known as the days of rage. Also in 1970, at Kent State University, four students were killed by the National Guard in response to their anti-Vietnam protests, which inspired the song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.)
The marching band refused to yield (The Beatles had some anti-violence songs that made protesters think twice about the way they were acting. “All You Need is Love” (1967) says there is a better way then violence, and in “Revolution” (1968) one of the lines is: “But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.” The Beatles were in no way pro-government (as seen in 1968’s “Piggies” which is about Congressmen), but they were against violence.)
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died? (So, what was revealed? Well, look at today. As Dr. Evil says in Austin Powers, “Face it, freedom failed” or more accurately, the protests failed. The government is more corrupt now then ever before. McLean wasn’t a big 60’s fan and here is putting down the efforts of the failed generation.)
Above: Mary Ann Vecchio gestures and screams as she kneels by the body of a student, Jeffrey Miller (1950 – 1970), lying face down on the campus of Kent State University, in Kent, Ohio, 4 May 1970.
Not all legacies are built on fame or artistic genius.
Some are carved through selflessness, through a single act that changes the course of another’s life.
On February 3, 1943, the Four Chaplains — men of different faiths—gave up their life jackets as their transport ship, the USS Dorchester, sank into the freezing Atlantic.
Above: The USS Dorchester (1925 – 1943)
They chose to die so that others might live.
Their heroism was not captured in books they had written or songs they had sung.
It lived on in the men they saved, in the memory of those who witnessed their final moments, and in the stories told about them in the decades that followed.
Above: Chaplain Alexander D. Goode (1911 – 1943), Chaplain George L. Fox (1900 – 1943), Chaplain Clark V. Poling (1910 – 1943) and Chaplain John P. Washington (1908 – 1943)
We started singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
And singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
Above: Don McLean
And then there is Ranald MacDonald (b. 1824), a name unfamiliar to most.
An educator, an adventurer, and a man who saw the world differently, he smuggled himself into Japan at a time when it was closed to the outside world.
Captured and imprisoned, he nonetheless became the first teacher of English in Japan, influencing the interpreters who would later play a role in the country’s opening to the West.
He did not seek fame, but his impact — like the Four Chaplains’ —expanded beyond his own lifetime.
Above: English educator Ranald MacDonald (1824 – 1894)
Ranald MacDonald (February 3, 1824 – August 24, 1894) was the first native English-speaker to teach the English language in Japan, including educating Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters to handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Above: Flag of Japan
Oh, and there we were all in one place (Woodstock Performing Arts Festival took place in August in 1969. 400,000 of McLean’s generation were there. It took place at Woodstock (actually Bethel) because that’s were Dylan was hiding, and they were hoping he would come out and play. Unfortunately he turned it down for the Isle of Wright concert.)
A generation lost in space (The moon landing was of course in 1969, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was released (which was about ‘Major Tom‘ who got lost in space), there was a TV show called “Lost in Space” and this is a drug reference, the 60’s are generalized by saying everyone in the entire world was on acid.)
With no time left to start again (Doomsday clock)
So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick (“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was a hit for the Rolling Stones. In this song, Mick Jagger compares himself with Jesus. This line comes from the nursery rhyme that has the line “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumps over a candlestick“.)
‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friend (The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil“)
Above: Man on the Moon, 21 July 1969
Above: English musician David Bowie (1947 – 2016)
What makes a man / a woman worth remembering?
Is it talent?
Sacrifice?
Innovation?
Is it the art they leave behind, the lives they touch, or the risks they take?
Or is it something simpler — that they existed, that they mattered to someone, that their presence in the world made even a small difference?
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage (In December of 1969, the Stones attempted another Woodstock, this time at Altamont Speedway. This time it was a free concert, with the Hell’s Angels handling the security. The biggest mistake was paying them in advance, but instead of money, with beer and handfuls of acid. While the stones were singing “Sympathy for the Devil“, a black man was beaten and stabbed to death by the Hell’s Angels. They soon began beating everyone, include a member of the Jefferson Airplane.)
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan’s spell
Above: Mick Jagger stops performing to address Hell’s Angels, Altamont Free Concert, Tracy, California, 6 December 1969
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
And singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
Some ripples are immediate, felt in the moment.
Some take years, decades, or even centuries to be seen.
But they exist.
And as long as they continue outward, the person who made them is never truly gone.
I met a girl who sang the blues (Janis Joplin)
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away (She died of a heroin overdose.)
I went down to the sacred store (record stores that sold 50’s albums.)
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play (By the 70s, 50s music was almost ignored by everyone. Hundreds of great albums were released in the 60s. It seems that everyone has forgot about the 50’s.)
Above: American musician Janis Joplin (1943 – 1970)
And in the streets, the children screamed (The youth of America were beaten in the streets especially at the end of the decade.)
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed (In Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall“, he says: “I met one man he was wounded in love, I met another man he was wounded in hatred.”, showing that love hurts sometimes as much as hate.)
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken (Again in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall“, the line is: “I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken.” Simon and Garfunkel had a hit with “Sounds of Silence“. The church bells all were broken shows that people have forgotten God. All things are are so sacred are gone, love, faith, happiness, peace. In Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)“, one verse goes: “Disillusioned words like bullets bark . As human gods aim for their mark . Made everything from toy guns that spark . To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark.” It’s easy to see without looking too far. That not much Is really sacred. McLean isn’t the only one that feels this way. He was obviously a religious man and is very disappointed that they have abandoned God.)
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost (the Trinity of God)
They caught the last train for the coast God has left. (Time magazine even featured a cover story “Is God Dead?” The generation has failed, and “with no time left to start again.” It was now up to the next generation to put things right.)
The day the music died
And they were singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
Above: Chevrolet logo
So today, February 3, we remember.
We remember the lost voices, the storytellers, the selfless and the seekers.
And in doing so, we ask ourselves:
What ripples do we leave in our wake?
