"American Pie" reflects events, chronologically, stretching two decades. The first verse of "American Pie" starts off with the lyric, "Long, Long time ago/ I can still remember/ how that music used to make me smile." "American Pie" was written in the early 70's, which was a long time after the 50's, which was McLean's favorite decade of music. The 50's style of music served as his inspiration to become a singer/songwriter. His job prior to that was as a paper boy as written in this lyric, "...but February made me shiver/ with every paper I delivered, bad news on the doorstep/ I couldn't take one more step." Some would say that the bad news on the doorstep would be news of the plane crash on

Soon after Haight and Ashbury was Woodstock; "oh and there we were all in one place. Thousands of hippies, "a generation lost in space," showed up at this one place to celebrate three days of peace, love and music in 1969. The rest of the lyrics in this verse relate to The Rolling Stones disastrous concert at Altamount in 1968, in which the motorcycle gang, Hell's Angels, was used as security. "So come on jack me nimble, Jack be quick...("Jumping Jack Flash")/oh and as I watched.../no angel born in hell.../ and as the flames climbed..." reflect how McLean saw the Hell's Angels kill a black man in the front row and that he was disturbed. Once again, with this horrible event the music died, in a sense.

February 3, 1959 that killed McLean\'s idols Buddy Holly, Richie Vallens and the Big Bopper.

Don McLean's song, "American Pie" is a piece of literary work that I feel reflects the thoughts and emotions of 2 decades. As related to Gershwins quote, this song is true music in that it reflects the events, thoughts and cultures of the people and the time. Any song that has the capability of telling a story and can bring the listener along for the ride, deserves its title as a "classic. T.S. Eliot once wrote, "You are the music, while the music lasts." We are the music. We are all instruments, and each one of us uses our thoughts and emotions to create notes that will ultimately make up our final composition. As long as WE continue to make music, then the music will never die.

Throughout this classic, one particular phrase is repeated, "the day the music died." According to McLean, the music did die. What do you think? Granted some tragic events occurred in the 50's and 60's causing some to believe that the progress of music was at a stand still. I find this to be false, however. Look at where music is today. Not only, are more types of music blossoming from the depths of individual\'s souls, but also the same music from McLean's generation continues to fill the airwaves. If the music did die, no one woul

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