[hellbender]

McLean was a folkie-leftie influenced by Pete Seeger, and his lyrics refer rather specifically to events in pop culture of the late 60s-early 70s. The jester is Bob Dylan, the birds are the Byrds, the King is Elvis, Jack Flash is Mick Jagger, etc.

A poem which really captures the ominous state of our culture today (although it was inspired by events at the close of WW I) is Yeats' Second Coming:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

[Defiant]

And, as I recall, the “day the music died” referred to the day the plane with Buddy Holley, et al. went down.