Sometimes, art imitates life. At other times, life imitates art, and today marks the anniversary of an event that illustrates the latter.
Before I explain the specifics of those phenomena, though, we need to travel back in time, all the way to 1971.
In November of 1971, American singer/songwriter Don McLean released the American Pie album. The single with the same title was the number 1 hit for 4 weeks in 1972, and also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
The repeatedly mentioned phrase "the day the music died" refers to the plane crash in 1959 which killed early rock and roll performers Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. The meaning of the other lyrics has long been debated, and for decades, McLean declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned. However, the overall theme of the song is the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation as symbolized by the plane crash which claimed the lives of three of its heroes and Ritchie Valens.
In February 2015, McLean announced he would reveal the meaning of the lyrics to the song when the original manuscript went for auction in New York City, in April 2015. The lyrics and notes were auctioned on April 7, and sold for $1.2 million.
One of the phrases in the album is the line “ and the marching band refused to yield ”, which happens to be the link to “life imitating art”.
On this day in 1982, the Cal football team wins an improbable last-second victory over Stanford when they complete five lateral passes around members of the Cardinals’ marching band, who had wandered onto the field a bit early to celebrate the upset they were sure their team had won, and score a touchdown. After catching the last pass of the series, Cal’s Kevin Moen careened through the confused horn section and made it safely to the end zone. Then he slammed into trombone player Gary Tyrell. (A photograph from theOakland Tribune of the jubilant Moen and the terrified Tyrell in the moment just before the collision is still displayed triumphantly all over Berkeley.)
Prior to that last touchdown, Cal was leading 19-17. Stanford quarterback John Elway was able to bring his team into field goal range, and Mark Harmon kicked a field goal to give Stanford a lead of 20-19.
The Cardinals flooded the field to celebrate, and the ref ushered them back to the bench and slapped them with a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. As a result, Harmon had to kick off from the 25 with four seconds to play.
Harmon squibbed the kick, and Cal’s Moen scrambled to retrieve it at the Cal 46-yard-line to play. At that point , the Cal team used 5 separate lateral passes to move down the field, and Kevin Moen took it into the end zone.
Meanwhile, Stanford’s band, confident that their team had won the game, had already gathered at the end of the field. Apparently without noticing that 22 football players were hurtling toward them, they began to play Free’s “All Right Now.” Before the band really knew what was happening, Moen crashed triumphantly into the end zone–and into trombonist Tyrell. The touchdown counted, and the Bears won the game 25-20. “The Play,” as it became known remains one of the most famous in college football history.
If you would like to revisit the song, the link below (with lyrics) will take you there:
And, if you REALLY want to know what the lyrics mean, the video below will help you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZFiMo8TIc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZFiMo8TIc
I am 73 years old. I remember that song in 1971 referring to "the marching band would not yield". It brought back a memory of a marching band in the, I think, early 1960's that refused to leave the field after half-time. I don't think it was in the late 1960's but it was a pretty good while before the song was made. Each time I hear the song I say to myself that I am going to look up that bank and game. It is now December 2020 and I have just started to look it up and find all sorts of references to so many bands and games but none of them took place in the early 1960's. So the song writer still keeps that a secret? I can't find it anywhere and it was on television and no doubt recorded. Where is it?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was halftime at a Stanford football game when the Stanford band refused to leave after halftime performance about 1959. I thought Don McClean was referring to that instance about the same time Holly’s plane crashed
ReplyDeleteThat's absolutely what happened. I was living through it then. And a big rock and roll fan among other things I was a fan of!
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