Which was 51 years ago, today.
Parsing Don McLean’s 8:34 minutes of melodious eulogy can be interesting.
I get the “thorny crown” – as Elvis, as martyr (really, Jesus), passed on to Bob Dylan (which, of course, never happened).
But does it make sense for Elvis the be the King looking down, and dispensing a “thorny crown” in 1971, the date when Don McLean wrote the song?
The “sacred store” = the record store, dispensing that sacred stuff, as does a church.
And so the “church bells all were broken” part is again, the (now lost) singers and their songs as having a religious parallel.
In both cases, and with the crown as well, Rock ‘n Roll doing the work of religion.
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the three pop martyrs in the photo, above: Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper.
But what’s this part about getting the “last train to the coast”?
Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum since 1994, has been with the Baltimore institution for more than 20 years. A native of Minnesota, Gary received his B.A. from Carleton College in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976 before working as Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.