The Day The Music Died

A quiz, sent by Sandeepan (ex-BITSian) yesterday, had a connect for Don McLean with American Pie and Vincent Van Gogh. While I figured outthe Vincent connect, Ojas knew the American Pie one.

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
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.

McLean was a paperboy in his youth, and the incident is about the death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. Since all three were so prominent at the time, the day came to be known as “The Day The Music Died“. Holly’s recent (widowed) bride, Maria Elena, was pregnant when the crash took place; she had a miscarriage shortly afterward.

The lines were also used by Time in December 1980, on the death of John Lennon. The song has many more references to both political and musical events during the life of Don McLean. You can read more about it here.

Also came across two new songs yesterday. Linger – Cranberries and I Can’t Tell You Why – Eagles. The latter has beautiful lyrics and below are my favourite lines from the song.

Nothing’s wrong as far as I can see
We make it harder than it has to be
and I can’t tell you why