American Pie

Don McLean

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A	long,	long	time ago,	I can still re	member how that	music used to make me	smile.

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And	I knew	if I	had my chance that	I could make those	people dance

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and	maybe they'd be	happy for a	while. But	February	made me shiver with e	very paper	I'd deliver.

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	Bad news	on the	doorstep. I	couldn't take one	more step. I	can't re	member	if I cried,

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when I	read about his	widowed bride, but	something	touched me	deep inside the

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	day the	music	died.

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	Did you write the	book of love and	do you have faith in	God above?

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	If the Bible	tells you so, now	do you be	lieve in	rock and roll?

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Can	music save your	mortal soul, and	can you teach me	how to dance real	slow?

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Well I	know that you're in	love with him. 'Cause I	saw you dancing	in the gym.

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You	both kicked	off your	shoes, man I	dig those rhythm and	blues!

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I was a	lonely	teenage	broncin' buck, with a	pink carnation and a	pick up truck.

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But	I knew	I was	out of luck! The	day the	music	died.

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	I started	singing

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 King and Queen

in a coat he'd 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 of Marx the quartett practiced in the park

and we sang dirges in the dark the day the music died.

We were singin'

Helter skelter in the summer swelter the birds flew off with a fallout shelter

eight miles high and falling fast as it landed 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 the sergeants played a marching tune.

We all got up to dance oh but we never got the chance.

Oh as the players tried to take the field, the marching band refused to yield.

Do you recall what was revealed, the day the musik died.

We started singin'

And there we were all in one a place, the 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 candle stick, 'cos fire is the devils only friend.

Oh and as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in first of rage.

No angel born in hell could break that satan 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'

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 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 are well 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 singin'