A POET

During any holiday, American radio stations play classic rock and roll tunes because most parents and adults are driving to and from their weekend destinations.

So it is not surprising to hear a classic like "American Pie" by Don McLean.

In junior high, my science teacher spent an entire class period explaining the lyrics to this song to us. It was an important piece of music that incorporated a key moment in his past. Music does creates markers of memories to people.

"The Day the Music Died, " as stated in McLean's 1971 song, was about an aviation accident that occurred on February 3, 1959, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The accident  killed rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Jiles "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and the pilot, Roger Peterson. After terminating his partnership with The Crickets, Buddy Holly assembled a new band consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, to play on the '"Winter Dance Party" tour. The tour also featured rising artist Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, who were promoting their own recordings as well. The tour was to cover 24 Midwestern cities in three weeks.

Kids today may not realize that their Disneyifed pop music has its roots in a turbulent crossover in the 1950s when blues, country and old standards became electrified by a new brand of rebels called rock and rollers. Buddy Holly was one of the new pioneers of the rock sound that defined a new generation.

Although McLean dedicated the American Pie album to Buddy Holly, none of the musicians in the plane crash are identified by name in the song itself. When asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean replied, "It means I never have to work again." Later, he more seriously stated, "You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me.... Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."

McLean has generally avoided responding to direct questions about the song lyrics, such as saying, "They’re beyond analysis. They’re poetry." He has acknowledged that he did first learn about Buddy Holly's death while folding newspapers for his paper route on the morning of February 3, 1959, (the line "February made me shiver/with every paper I'd deliver"). He also stated in an editorial published on the 50th anniversary of the crash in 2009 that writing the first verse of the song exorcised his long-running grief over Holly's death:

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And, I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance, and...
Maybe they'd be happy for a while
But, February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep - I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside the day the music died

It is interesting to note that an artist such as McLean is still careful to not explain his lyrics. He wants people to interpret them in their own way. He may have been inspired by actual events, but may have wrapped all his childhood memories into a collage of images that only he will truly understand.

There was a passage that caught my ear:

And, there we were, all in one place - a generation Lost in Space
With no time left to start again
So, come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick - Jack Flash sat on a Candlestick, 'cause...
Fire is the Devil's only friend
And, as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell could break that satan's spell
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 ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing...
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die 

None of the musicians who died that fateful day were named Jack. Jack is from a nursery rhyme. And nursery rhymes are the first fantasies told to little children as they fade off to dream.

The main characters' parents would have been the start of the Boomer generation, the first generation of rock music. The main characters would have had this sound in their memories growing up as children. In the LOST series, most of the music bridges were from the 1960s (except for Charlie's own music). The mood of the series from its background music is like it was frozen in time in the 1960s just as McLean's musical memory seized up when the pioneers died in a plane crash.
There are many similarities between "American Pie" and LOST: a plane crash, time standing still, death, and symbolic images.

The LOST characters were all in one place, a cast of lost people in a generation that should have been on Easy Street living the American dream. When they reached the island, there was no time to start their lives again. Fire was an important symbol tied to Jacob. It was in his statue home, and the campfire when he told the remaining candidates that they needed to act so their friends deaths would not be in vain. Jacob was called The Devil. He did cast spells over the Others and Ben to do his work. And if Jack had to be nimble and quick to defeat MIB, it was his sacrifice in the island succession ritual that allowed the other survivors passage to the next life. He knew it in the bamboo field that that was the day he died.

Many ancient cultures believed that human spirits would wander and haunt the world unless they "accepted" their own deaths. How souls would block out the memory of their own demise is unclear. How souls would want to change the outcome of their deaths for a greater purpose or remorse for things not accomplished is also unknown. Modern society does not stress the importance of the ancient belief of preparation for one's after life. Kings and Pharaohs built grand tombs and stockpiled it with weapons, food, gold, servants and livestock for the journey to the next level of existence. Rock and roll led to rebellious freedom from past tradition. It allowed the Boomers to reach new heights of accomplishment, but also new levels of selfish behavior. One mantra was Live for Today.

Many LOST fans are still melancholy about the end of the series. Everything must end in order to have a new beginning. They miss the rhythm of the series, not caring about the symbolism; they miss the wild ride, not whether the story lines made sense. They still wait since the day their show died.