Verse 4

Helter Skelter in a summer swelter
(This is where my knowledge of history fails and where, I think, my Dad's begins... For some reason I thought this was just a mixture of Politics, Music, Protests, Weather... Not knowing that Helter Skelter was a Charles Manson rip off of the Beatles for describing a rising race war within America... and Yellow Submarine was his description of what they should do while it was going on... Lay Low... and killing people was his idea of how he would do it?)
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
(The next few lines can't help but spring images of Nuclear War... The Simpsons did a fallout shelter episode where Homer built a shelter, and everyone made fun of it until, an asteroid was to hit Springfield and they all wanted in... he barred the door... but eventually he unlocked it and came out to die with the others... and then the asteroid ended up being really small and no one died and Bart put it in his pocket... But also... The Byrds and the Ladybirds were song groups that are important because...)
Eight miles high and falling fast
(... in happier times this line could reference The Byrds song called Eight Miles High about psychadellic drugs... the highs and the crashing lows, and the stealing from everyone who trusts you to get money to buy more drugs to get that high again, but 'nothing will ever be as good as that first one' they always say... Eminem did a movie called Eight Mile about the race war that's still going on even today... And where does Obama fit into it all?... anyone a little scared that he's trying to copy a President that did a lot of amazing things but eventually was assassinated...?)
It landed foul on the grass
(On the Byrds return flight from a tour of England they were arrested at security for possession of Marijuana... in Game 6 of the NLCS Bartman interfered with Moises Alou catching the foul ball and supposedly eventually cost them the game and the series... lows always seem worse and last longer than highs...)
The players tried for a forward pass
(all I and Wikipedia know is football, so I'm going to tell you that the forward pass was instituted in 1906 after a season of 18 on-field deaths in 1905... Doug Flutie threw the greatest forward pass in history in 1984 for Boston College to beat Miami... and if you type 'best football pass' into google the first match it comes up with is about the Saskatchewan Roughriders...)
With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast
(The only Jester I know of is Broadway Joe... And with multiple knee surguries you can bet he was sidelines in a cast, rocking a full length fur coat and white sneaks, drunk, and trying ot kiss 'cute' TV reporters...)
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
(I think smoke could be a defining part the entire history of the 60s... War, and Drugs, and a War on Drugs...)
While the Sergeants played a marching tune
(Welcome to the 60s... Now March... move... along... your friends are fighting a war they were never a part of.. others are doing everything they can to forget it... you never had a choice over it... even Sergeants (as non-commissioned-officers where the word Sergeant literally means 'to serve') just follow orders... like cops (see 'The Grapes of Wrath') and they make you do what you are told... so deal... fall in line... march... and cheer up...)
We all got up to dance, Oh but we never got the chance'
(Miles Davis was so cool he would play with his back to the stage if the people didn't deserve to see him play... he was so cool he referred to Louis Armstron as 'Uncle Tom', even though in an interview years later he said he likes the guy and his music... And he was so cool that people weren't allowed to dance at his concerts.. when they tried, they got made fun of until they stopped...)
Cause the players tried to take the field, The marching band refused to yield
(In 1982.. Stanford is leading 20-19 after kicking a field goal.. and there's 4 seconds left on the clock.. at kickoff the Stanford band thought the game was over and went on the field... But it wasn't... the Golden Bears completed 5 laterals and scored a touchdown in a mess of batons, tubas, players, and snare drums... 2 of the lateral passes and all of the bands stupid looking hats are still up for protest...)
Do you recall what was revealed, The day the music died
(Playboy went from nothing in '55 to huge by '72... That's gotta say something about the '60s)
We started singing {Refrain}