“Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?”

"A Speech at the Lost-and-Found"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)

Interview in the documentary-film Cowspiracy by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2014).

"Wedding Day"
System (2007)

Source: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Body and Soul (1947).

Source: Treasure Box

Song lyrics, American Pie (1971), American Pie
Context: 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 woudn'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.

Quoted in a 1976 interview, published in Desert Plants by Walter Zimmermann.

Epigram —Dizzy Gillespie
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011)