Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
Landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singing
American Pie -- Don McLean
This verse refers to Charles Manson's murders inspired by the Beatles song Helter Skelter and the Byrds' Eight Miles High and their subsequent problems with the law over drug use. While Bob Dylan was laid up after a motorcycle accident, other bands tried to take his place. The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's album changed rock and roll forever. Still, it wasn't music that you could dance to. McLean didn't like drugs or the drug references in music. He saw drugs as evil and a major reason for the decline in American society.
Oh, 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
American Pie -- Don McLean
The one place was Woodstock. The Baby Boom generation was lost in space. They were alienated from their Hero Generation parents. The hippies were lost in their drug induced psychedelic stupor. There was no time left to go back to the good feelings of the 1950s. He refers to the Rolling Stones' Jumpin Jack Flash and the murder of a fan during the Stones' Altamont Speedway Concert by the Hell's Angels during a performance of Sympathy for the Devil. McLean was a religious man. He was angry at what he believed were satanic influences on the music of Mick Jagger and the Stones. The fan was sacrificed while Jagger performed.
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing
American Pie -- Don McLean
The girl who sang the blues was Janis Joplin and she turned away by overdosing on heroine. The sacred store was record stores where they used to let you preview the records in the 1950s before buying them. By the late 1960s they wouldn't let you listen anymore. The teenagers screamed as the National Guard shot them down at Kent State. The church bells were broken refers to all the dead singers. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson. They died and went to heaven.
Awakening through Unraveling
In 8 minutes and 33 seconds, Don McLean captured the angst and turmoil of an entire generation moving from a High halfway through an Awakening. McLean was unhappy with the America of the late 1960's. The Awakening cycle continued until 1984. The youthful enthusiasm and the attacks on the establishment dimmed as the country exited Vietnam and experienced the trauma of Watergate. Emotions cooled as the 1970s progressed. The 1970s and early 1980s are remembered for closure of the gold window by Nixon, Nixon's resignation, stagflation, oil embargoes, even or odd gas days, the Ford Pinto, recessions, Saturday Night Fever, American hostages, Carter's ineptitude, Reagan's optimism, John Hinckley's assassination attempt, John Lennon's assassination, 18% interest rates, and 11% unemployment rates. This was not a cheerful time in America. The success of shows like Happy Days reflected America's longing for the "better" days of the 1950s. The old cultural regime had been thoroughly discredited and institutions had been delegitimized. America's mood was ready to change again, as 1984 approached. The Boomers entered their self actualization phase concentrating on wealth accumulation and personal fulfillment.
Strauss & Howe described the journey from Awakening to Unraveling:
"The Tomorrowland of the 1950s had evolved through Space Odyssey in the 1960s to Star Wars in the 1970s and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the 1980s, a spiritual future in which human consciousness triumphs over machines. The visions alternated between perfection and disaster--between utopias celebrating "love" and dystopias annihilating everything. We no longer believed that progress required self-expression more than self-control--even if we still assumed that our nation must be advancing somewhere."
An Unraveling begins much like a High, with a renewed sense of purpose and spirit of optimism. Ronald Reagan's 1984 Morning in America and Bear in the Woods presidential ad campaign symbolized the new spirit:
"It's morning again in America. Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future. It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?"
"There is a bear in the woods. For some people the bear is easy to see. Others don't see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it's vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure who is right, isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear...."
