The Day the Music Died

It is 53 years now since that dangerous blizzard, that fatal plane ride, that terrible day the music died.

There are two, perhaps three, generations for whom Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens are just names vaguely remembered if at all; that’s fair enough. But I’m old enough for this to have felt like a date of genuine significance and I’m happy to remember their lives and their passing.

The Day The Music Died

It is 52 years now since that terrible day, that dangerous blizzard, that fatal plane ride.

The Day The Music Died

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,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

You have to be almost as old as God herself to remember this, but 50 years ago today Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Richie Valens died in a snowy plane crash at Clear Lake , Iowa.  I, too, learned about it from the headlines I read during my paper route the following morning.  It’s a long, long time ago.