Remember that I loved when it was foolish, cared when it was unwanted and when my body is gone — remember my full heart.
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From a Coffee and Donut
On his way home from his 12-hour overnight shift, Buzz stopped at the local 7-11 to fuel up his truck. In front of him, at the counter, was an older gentleman wearing a Korean war veteran’s hat. He thanked the old man for serving the U.S. and Buzz bought his cup of coffee and donut.
After gassing up, he got in his truck and drove home. When he pulled into his driveway, a car pulled up to the curb, and out stepped a guy Buzz didn’t know.
The guy said, “Hi, my name’s Gordon and you bought my fathers stuff at the gas station a few minutes ago.”
Thinking he may have screwed up, and seeing the old man in the passenger seat, Buzz responded, “Yeah, I hope that was okay?”
Gordon moved closer, toed the cement like a child about to admit to having been bad, and half-smiled, “My dad has Alzheimer’s and barely remembers who I am most of the time, and you — you look like my son Bobby, who died in Fallujah, back in 2004.”
There was a slight pause, and Buzz felt a lump forming in his throat as he fought back the desire to tear up saying, “I’m sorry for the loss of your son. I can’t — nor do I wanna even imagine what that must be like for you.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Gordon said. “Anyway, when he came out of the store and got into the car he said, “Bobby jus’ bought my coffee. ‘Hell of a kid you got there, Gordy.’”
Another pause came as Gordon cleared his throat and continued, “I don’t know what you said to him, but my dad hasn’t used my name, let alone my nickname in over a year and he hasn’t said his grandsons name in ages.”
“Thank you,” Gordon said as he offered Buzz his hand.
Once Buzz grabbed it, Gordon pulled the slightly smaller Buzz to him, and gave him a hug. After a few seconds, he released Buzz, then with tears glistening in his eyes, Gordon returned to his car and drove away.
Buzz fumbled with his keys, his hand nervously shaking and hot tears streaming from his eyes, as he unlocked his front door. All he could now think of was his long deceased father, also a veteran of Korea, and how he wished he could talk to his old man once more.
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An American Pie Breakdown
America’s culture began its current transformation in the 1960s and the song ‘American Pie,’ by Don McLean, released in the autumn of 1971, was the near-perfect vehicle describing the sense of loss of an ‘innocent time’ in our country…
A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while
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
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
So…Buddy Holly’s death on February 3, 1959 is a traumatic time-point signifying the beginning of a change from adolescence to adulthood as well as American culture. Holly died in a plane crash that also took the lives of Jiles Perry “J. P.”Richardson Jr. known as ‘The Big Bopper,’ Richie Valens and pilot Roger Peterson.
Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you’re in love with him
‘Cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
I started singin’…The first sentence refers to The Monotones and their 1957 song, ‘The Book of Love;’ replacing classic religion with rebellious music; growing up and being awkward around the opposite sex, being in love and being hurt by that first love; ‘pink carnation,’ goes to Marty Robbins’ 1957 hit, ‘A White Sports Coat and a Pink Carnation,’ which sums up the loneliness and pain of teen angst.
Now, for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But, that’s not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin’…A decade after Buddy Holly’s death; Bob Dylan (the jester), Elvis Presley (the King,) Nancy Sinatra (the Queen, since she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with Elvis and her father in 1959 and then as Elvis’ leading lady in the 1968 movie, ‘Speedway,’) The Beetles, (the quartet); The jacket “borrowed from James Dean” can be seen on the cover sleeve of Dylan’s 1963 album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.’ Lenin is John Lennon; moss: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”; rolling stone: “”How does it feel/To be without a home/Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?” Bob Dylan; rolling stone also alludes to the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in December 1969 and is explained in greater detail in verse five.
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It 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 singin’…Helter skelter refers to The Manson Family and the song title from The Beatles they misused (and misspelled) to try and create a race war; it was 92 degrees on August 9, 1969, when Sharon Tate and her house guests were murdered; “The birds flew off with the fall out shelter,” is about Dore Albert’s (Herb Albert) 1962 song ‘Fallout Shelter,’ with side B being, ‘Tell It To the Birds,’; ‘Eight Miles High,’ The Byrds,; The jester in a cast is Dylan, who fractured a vertebrae in a 1966 motorcycle accident; The Beatles are the ‘sergeants’ and field is the ‘battlefield’ where the anti-war and counter-culturalist tangled with establishment authorities.
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
Oh 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 singin’…One place: Woodstock, Altamont, in front of a TV set, Lost in Space, a TV show and an allusion to the faltering ‘flower power’ movement; Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and the song ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ where the protagonist plays with fire to promote his freedom, “So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick/Jack Flash sat on a candlestick/’Cause fire is the Devil’s only friend,” as well as a photograph of Jagger, onstage at Altamont in a flowing red cape; ‘No Angel born in Hell, – the Hell’s Angels, who were hired as security at Altamont; a ‘dirge’ is a sad song often sung during funerals.
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 the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing…The ‘girl who sang the blues’ is Janis Joplin; the ‘happy news’ is a mixed metaphor as Joplin says nothing and later Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison die from heroin overdoses like Joplin; The sacred store is a record store and follows the mixed metaphors of “Do you have faith in God above,’ and ‘Can music save your mortal soul,’ in verse two, by the time ‘American Pie’ was written, ‘music booths,’ where a customer could listen to a record before buying it, had fallen out of favor, the music had drastically changed from the fifties to the late sixties and early seventies; screaming children (protesters), crying lovers (parents) and dreaming poets (news reporters,) and ‘The Last Poets,’ a poetry and political music group formed during the 1960s; broken church bells referencing broken religions; ‘The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost,’ is an a religiously mixed allusion to President John Kennedy, Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy.
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die‘Bye, bye Miss American Pie’ denotes not only a longing for the ‘simpler days in the US,’ but also refers to the 1968 Miss America Beauty Pageant, where women demanding equal rights, removed their brassieres and burned them; ‘Drove my Chevy to the Levee,’ comes from a car commercial sung by Dinah Shore: ‘Drive your Chevrolet through the USA/America’s the greatest land of all/On a highway or a road along a levee…’; The Sunday family drive was a tradition losing popularity, therefore the ‘levee was dry.; ‘whiskey and rye,’ are two different types of alcoholic beverages, bourbon is a distilled spirit made primarily from corn, rye is made of a mash of at least 51 percent rye grain, one is considered the drink of the ‘rich’ man while the other, the ‘poor’ man
Finally, nothing written here is new and with the songs ambiguity it continues to generate new discussion regarding the lyrics nuances. May this serve as a platform to cause you to reflect on the songs ultimate meaning.
On a more personal note: hearing the song never fails to bring back the innocent times of hearing it blasted from Mr. Segel’s single-speaker phonograph player over and over while we played on the grade school playground during lunch recesses. Oh, how the school’s administration hated that act of rebellion on that eighth grade teachers part, and how we loved him for it.
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Upon the Path of a Dogs Passing
Awoke tearful this morning, having had a lucid dream of Roxy, our Pit Bull, where she ‘spoke’ to me without saying a word. I am compelled to write down her thoughts as she conveyed them — and to do so before I am fully woke and forget her canine colloquy…“They tell you not to cry – it’s jus’ a dog, not a person, that animals don’t know they have to die, that the important thing is not to let me suffer. You’re told that you can have another, but they don’t know what or how you felt when you held me during the last moments of my earthly life.
Tom, you were so gentle — as always — and I could hear your soft voice, smell your scent and feel your hot tears. I know you truly loved me.
No one knows how many times you’ve looked me in the eye and knew that this ‘animal’ would never judge you, or the number of times I was the only one by your side or how much you’ve changed since I became a part of your life. They can’t know how many times you spoke to me as if I were a human, and that I was the only one really listening, and though I didn’t understand all your words, that I was the only one who knew you were suffering and that when things went wrong, I was the only one who refused to leave your side.
Nor do they understand that crying and mourning over my passing is one of the most noble and sincere things you could do. For me, knowing that, leaves my heart full in the knowledge that you are a good and loyal friend.
Oh, the things some people don’t know – I’d stack up against what this dog understands and does so without words but through my eyes, the wag of my tail, a lap of a moist tongue and the touch of a paw at all the right moments. You did right by me, thank you and now, let your mind be at peace and your anguish be put to rest in knowing that I’m patient and will be waiting for you when that time is right, my dear, good and loving human.”
The Old Blog in the Desert 