The Enigmatic Trio
The last lines of the song are again highly enigmatic ones, as they carry more than one association. McLean now shifts from the problems of the day and the sentiment of loss he experiences when witnessing a world that is changing before his eyes and focuses again on the plane crash the song began with.
“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.”
American senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968) stands in an open-top convertible and shakes hands with members of a crowd as he campaigns for the Democratic Presidential nomination in Detroit, Michigan, May 15, 1968. (Photo by Andrew Sacks/Getty Images)
The three figures mentioned in these last lines may refer to the three performers who died in the plane crash, but they could also be a symbol of the three major political assassinations of the 1960s: John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. The violent deaths of these three historical figures were definitive in the shattering of the public’s optimism, so they could very well qualify as the people referenced in the song.