loss of american innocense

[Optimist Prime]

okay, i might lack spelling skills, but I've put a lot of thought into this.....
A long, long time ago (the 1950's)
I can still remember, how that music used to make me smile (he liked rock and roll)
and I knew if i had my chance, i could make those people dance (back in those days, the mark of a good musican was his ability to make people dance.)
and maybe they'd be happy for a while
but feburary made me shiver (the plane that Buddy Holly JP Richardson and Riche Valens was on crashed in feburary,1959, was later dubbed by this song as the day the music died)
with every paper I'd deliver (the only job besides singer Don MacClean ever had was a paper boy)
bad news on the door, i couldn't take one step
i can't remember if i cried, when i read about his widowed bride (holly was recently married)
but something touched me deep inside, the day the music died
so bye bye miss american pie (some people disagree, but miss american pie is none other than marilyn monroe)
drove my chevy (his favorite car, representive of the 50s) to the levy but the levy was dry (this means nothing good will ever happen again. All songs will empty the levy, or well, is dried, no more good things. Ever.) Them good ol' boys (in this case they are Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and John Lennon, and posibly Jerry Lee Lewis) were drinking whiskey and rye (they were all party animals) singin' this'll be the day that i die, thisll be the day that i die (That'll be the day, a populor song by Buddy Holly, contains the line "that'll be the day that i die")
Did you write the book of love (this is a referce to a song, and doo wop music in general, which greatly influenced rock and roll).
and belive in god above, if the bible tells you so (MacClean went to catholic and is now questioning his faith/ the common faith of the american people)
Now do you belive in rock and roll, can music save your mortal soul, and can you teach me how to dance real slow?
But i know that you're in love with him,
Because I saw you dancing in the gym (while dancing with multiple people was widely practiced and accepted, even slow dancing, you could still how serious people were by how the girl held him and how close her face was to his during the slow songs)
you both kicked off your shoes (it was a sock hop)
and i dig those rhthym and blues (r&b was the same thing as rock and roll until the 1980's, esp. the early works)
i was a lonely teenage brockin buck
with a pink carnation (pink carations are the ones you give to people you want to date, but have no interest in at all as far as really caring about him. This means he wanted to be some one's sweet heart, but was probbaly only known amoung the young ladies as the one guy that knew how to eat box, for example)
But i knew i was out of luck (he was never getting any again, because he knew was going to be all moody the rest of his life)
the day the music died.....
now for ten years we've been on our own (this song was written ten years after the plane crash)
and moss grows fat on a rolling stone (he's calling mick jagger a sell out)
but thats not how it used to be
when the jester (Bob Dylan) sang for the King (Elvis, baby) and queen (its marilyn agagain)
in a coat he barrowed from James Dean (the red one from rebel with out a cause)
and a voice that came from you and me (folk music=the common people feelings)
but while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown (elvis was getting boring and old and now dylan was more popular)
the court room was adjoured, no verdict was returned (I have no idea what this means. Some one who was around back then help.but for some reason i think its about Martin Luther King)
And while Lennon read a book on Marx (not the russian communist thing, but its a play on that. It was John Lennon reading about Groucho Marx and brothers and the fact that Lennon was a Marxist of Groucho variety.)
The quartet practiced in the park (the beatles were playing in the time period he is refering to)
and we sang dirges in the dark (dirgers are funeral songs)
the day the music died.........
Helter Skelter in a summer swelter (the beatles thing and woodstock)
the byrds flew out with a fall out shelter (i guess that band lost its popularity the same time people were abandoning the idea of having bomb shelters in case of nuclear attack from the russians)
eigh miles and falling fast (somebody he knew was on a bad acid trip) it landed foul on the grass (didn't mix well with ganja) the players tried for a forward pass (protesters asserted themselves at the democratic convention)
with the jester on the sidelines, in a cast (Dylan was hurt i guess, or not there supporting his people he sang for)
now the halftime was sweet perfume (tear gas) while the sergents played a marching tune (police with whistles and sirens)
we all got up to dance, but we never got the chance (they were beaten down before anything happened)
cuz the players tried to take the field (the protesters actully stood their ground. Hippies were a lot tougher back then, it took more than hit the skull with a night stick to keep them from coming. Not like now. Sorry for the slight digression)
the marching band refused to yield (of course the police won, it was guns versus picket signs)
do you recall what was revieled (i don't cuz i wasn't born yet, but if one of the more mature memebers of gamma chi/greekchat would like to enlighten me it would be much aprreciatttted)
the day the music died.....
so there we were all in one place (woodstock)
a generation lost in space (a tv show, also a slang term for trippin on lsd)
with no time left to start again (too late to go back with anything, wheather they agreed with any of it any more or not)
so come on jack be nimble, jack be quick (a nursrey rhyme)
Jack Flash sat on a candle stick (this seems late, but MacClean is all over the place in this verse. Its a refernce to John Kennedy.)
cuz fire is the devil's only friend (something from religion i think)
and as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage (I don't know...maybe Elvis, or any other music person, Something tells me its Rick(y) Nelson, and then the whole garden party incident makes a lot more sence)
No angel born in hell, could break that satan's spell (whoever he's talking about was a good preformer)
and as the flames climbed high into the night (from the plane crash)
to light the sacrifical rite (the deaths of those people were avoidible and unneccary)
i saw satan laughing with delight (his religion's creeping in there again)
the day the music died....
(this next part makes me want to cry)
I met a girl who sang the blues (Janis Joplin)
and I asked for some happy news, she just smiled and turned away (she died of a herion overdose)
I went down to the sacred store,
where I'd heard the music years before (the place where he bought his first records held a special place in his heart)
but the man there said the music wouldn't play (they used to have listening stations, were you could listen to the records before you buy them, as they were mostly 45s it didn't matter. Then latter in the era of the full length lp, they were sealed, and the stores lost money if they were opened, because people thought they were used.)
and in the streets the children scream (i think this is about the guy who went nuts in texas and went up into the clock tower and started shooting everyone)
the lovers cry (John and Yoko)
and the poets dream (Paul and Linda)
but not a word was spoken,
the church bells all were broken (church bells ring when people die, and there have been plently of refereses to dead people so far.)
and the three men i admire most,
the father, son, and holy ghost. (Its the guys in the plain, Valens=Son, Big Bopper=Father, Holly=Holy ghost)
they cought the last train for the coast ('they' does not refer to those who died, it refers to those who lived. Especialy eddie cochran, one of Holly's best friends, who blamed himself for Holly's death. This feeling of guilt led to his own death. The death of Holly AND Cochran was too much for Vincet, who went nuts)
the day the music died....

Okay, i hoped you like what I thought about it. I know its not the whole song, since the whole thing takes up the half of one side of an lp playing at 33 r.p.m.s But its all that was on the cd I have. Please feel free to share your own opinions.