American Pie

“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

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die""

American Pie – Don McLean

“The day the music died”. When I listen to this song this is the line which always gets me thinking. It is, along with most of the song, referring to the death of Buddy Holly (though Don McLean has never admitted to this the lyrics speak for themselves). While Buddy Holly is the pioneering figure for shift in rock and roll music in the 1950’s and is said to be in the influence behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, his music lasted less than a year and a half before his untimely death. How does someone spend that short a time in the music industry and be that influential – to the point where without him, the music died?

We are lucky the musicians in the 1950’s capitalised on Buddy Holly’s new found genre and didn’t let it fade away, but in my opinion, the music wouldn’t have died anyway – and I don’t think the music will ever die. It didn’t die when the grunge era was rocked by the death of Kurt Cobain or the King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley (the one which got the chance to be famous), and the music didn’t die when The Beatles split up after their widespread fame. Indeed, the music didn’t even die when Nickelback put out yet another album which sounded the same as their first album or Billy Ray Cyrs released Achy Breaky Heart. And while we came close to the death of music when Rebecca Black came out with Friday but we still scraped by without killing anything or anyone. In fact, if music can survive amateurs singing on reality television competitions, it can survive anything.

I’m not doubting that Buddy Holly was extremely influential in music history – and I wished I lived in the middle of last century because the music was that good – but pinning down one moment and one artist is a bit farfetched for me. Indeed, let’s not forget there were two other passenger on the place the day it went down who were also pioneering the rock and roll movement. Who knows what music genius Ritchie Valens and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson would have bought us.

And besides, if the music had died the day Buddy Holly’s plane went down, we wouldn’t have gotten an eight minute song about the event.