McLean has said little about the implications of the song; only hinting to it being biographical in nature. It is how he viewed America at the time, and the direction he saw it was heading. He further describes how he has not given a full line-by-line explanation of his lyrics, in part, because much of it is illogical in nature. He has stated that they lyrics are “beyond analysis; they’re poetry.” With that being the closest he has ever come to satisfying public demand for the song’s true meaning, it makes it diffic

In the final stanza, McLean goes back to depicting more events that shaped rock history. He gives a direct reference to Janis Joplin and “asks her for some happy news.” He is metaphorically asking if rock can be saved. Moreover, in the succeeding line, he uses figurative language to implicate Joplin’s death. It is yet another blow to rock-n-roll, and perhaps the last straw for McLean. He finishes off by giving reference to hippies and protestors that littered the streets. He then flashes back to “the three men that (he) admired most,” probably because he realizes, at that point, that things have drastically changed since their death. The world is not the same as when they were in it. He further describes these three men as “The father, the son, and the holy ghost.” This is yet another example of grammatical allusion and religious symbolism. I believe that he uses such powerful words to describe the three men (Holly, Bopper, and Valens) because of their musical influence on him and others. The mention of the holy trinity is symbolic to the three men who died on February 3, 1959, and those three men are symbolic for all the heroes of the ‘50s rock-n-roll era. To finish, McLean fittingly ends the song with another metaphor. Catching the train for the coast represents the death of Buddy Holly – the death of rock-n-roll.

Though puns, metonymy, irony, and imagery are represented all through the tune, the first and second stanzas embody one central theme. The first verse lays the foundation for the premise of the song. In a bit of a flashback, McLean tells of the principle event that shaped the outcome of his life. The last line of that canto, which happens to be the last line of them all, epitomizes the fundamental idea of the melody. It can also be looked at as a loose example of hyperbole. Though music did not literally ‘die,’ it did change. Using such a strong word increases the effect of the line. “The day the music died” signifies the loss of the three musicians, as well as a loss of innocence. Feb. 3, 1959 marked the beginning of the slow death of rock that the song further chronicles. Similarly, the second stanza conveys one focal point. It tells of Don McLean’s tumultuous teenage years and expresses his ever-present dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Within this verse, he uses repetition of sorts. In the first seven lines, McLean asks five different questions. The repeating of questions is, perhaps, significant because adolescence is a perplexing time. In addition to the repetition, he uses direct references to era songs in a roundabout way, all of which symbolize the ‘sock hop’ period. By the end of the stanza, the listeners are left with the image of a young man all dressed up and no place to go, as if he were stood up for the prom. You can make this assumption because McLean uses direct characterization in saying he “was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck.”

In the fourth verse, McLean uses homophones and metonymy as well as the usual metaphors and symbols. In citing “the birds flew off with a fallout shelter, eight miles high and fallin’ fast,” McLean is actually talking about a band called The Byrds and a song of theirs called “Eight Miles High.” Also, in the fourth line, there is more use of homophones. “It landed foul on the grass” can be looked at as ‘fo

Some topics in this essay:
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