Critical Commentary Post One Week Twelve

In keeping with the previous posts of this nature, I want to look at yet another song that I believe can stand as poetry. This song is Don McLean's "American Pie." The song has four verses, so I think I'm just going to focus on the first part:  
[Intro]
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

[Chorus]
So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

The thing about this song that first drew me to it was the rhyme. The rhyme scheme seems to be an  abccb, ddee, ffgg, abbaa. The only thing about the chorus is that I think all the end words seem to rhyme. I like how that scheme seems to stay similar through the entire song. This is the form for the piece, and the key part of the argument that songs can't stand alone as poetry is because they don't have form. I also think that the reason that this song can stand alone as poetry is the subject matter. The song begins as a sort of elegy towards the Billy Holly, Richie Vallens and The Big Bopper plane crash. I see this song as a sort of "The Day Lady Died"-esque poem, or when it isn't an outward elegy in the sense that it directly states specifics about the person, but rather focuses on something else about that day. In this song, as in Frank O'Hara's poem, it focuses on what the speaker does that day and what the speaker remembers. That is why the song can stand alone as poetry. The lyrics and the form coordinate on a level that is different from present pop songs. The subject matter is deeper, which allows for a richer song in the artistic sense, which then combines with the elegy-esque form and the rhyme scheme to create a fully rounded song that then doubles as a poem.