[ Took from this page by Tuttle (Dec 25, 2002). ]
American Pie
An Interpretation
Don McLean himself refuses to reveal the precise meanings of each line in
this song because he fears "You'll say 'you never meant that'", but many
people have attempted to produce their own interpretations of the song.
Obviously everyone interprets it differently, but I have compiled this one
after reading many other people's views, selecting the points that I feel
are most appropriate for each line. This interpretation, as with all others,
is open to debate, and I make no claims whatsoever regarding its validity.
It is simply one fan's view of a very popular song.
The entire
song is a tribute to Buddy Holly and a commentary on how rock and roll music
changed in the years since his death. McLean is lamenting the lack of
danceable good time party music in rock and roll and (in part) attributing
that lack to the absence of Buddy Holly et. al.
(Verse 1)
A long, long time ago...
American Pie reached #1 in the US in
1972; the album containing it was released in 1971. Buddy Holly died in
1959.
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.
One of early
rock and roll's functions was to provide dance music for various social
events. McLean recalls his desire to become a musician playing that sort of
music.
But February made me shiver,
Buddy Holly died
on February 3, 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa during a snowstorm.
With every paper I'd deliver,
Don McLean's only job before
becoming a full-time singer-songwriter was being a paperboy.
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
Holly's recent bride was pregnant when the crash took place; she had a
miscarriage shortly afterward.
But something touched me deep
inside, The day the music died.
The same plane crash that killed
Buddy Holly also took the lives of Richie Valens (La Bamba) and The Big
Bopper (Chantilly Lace). Since all three were so prominent at the time,
February 3, 1959 became known as The Day The Music Died.
So...
(Refrain)
Bye bye Miss American Pie,
Don McLean dated a
Miss America candidate during the pageant.
Drove my Chevy to
the levee but the levee was dry
I see this as being a metaphor.
The Chevy represents Don, and the levee is the music he loved, he is saying
that since the death of Buddy Holly the well of music has dried up and his
journey was in vain.
Them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singing This'll be
the day that I die, This'll be the day that I die.
One of Holly's
hits, "That'll be the Day", contains the line 'That'll be the day that I
die'.
(Verse 2)
Did you write the book of love,
"The Book of Love" by the Monotones was a hit in 1958.
And do you have faith in God above, If the Bible tells you so?
There's an old Sunday School song which goes: Jesus loves me this I know,
for the Bible tells me so
Now do you believe in rock 'n roll?
The Lovin' Spoonful had a hit in 1965 with John Sebastian's "Do
you believe in Magic?" The song has the lines: 'Do you believe in magic and
It's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll.'
Can
music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real
slow?
Dancing slow was an important part of early rock and roll
dance events -- but declined in importance through the 60's as things like
psychedelia and the 10-minute guitar solo gained prominence.
Well I know you're in love with him,
'Cause I saw you dancing in
the gym
Back then, dancing was an expression of love, and carried
a connotation of commitment. Dance partners were not so readily exchanged as
they are now.
You both kicked off your shoes
A
reference to the beloved sock hop. (Street shoes tear up wooden basketball
floors, so dancers had to take off their shoes.)
Man, I dig
those rhythm 'n' blues
Some history. Before the popularity of rock
and roll, music, like much else in the U. S., was highly segregated. The
popular music of black performers for largely black audiences was called,
first, race music, later rhythm and blues. In the early 50s, as they were
exposed to it through radio personalities such as Allan Freed, white
teenagers began listening, too.
Starting around 1954, a number of songs
from the rhythm and blues charts began appearing on the overall popular
charts as well, but usually in cover versions by established white artists,
(e.g. 'Shake Rattle and Roll' Joe Turner, covered by Bill Haley; 'Sh-Boom'
the Chords, covered by the Krew-Cuts). By 1955, some of the rhythm and blues
artists, like Fats Domino and Little Richard were able to get records on the
overall pop charts. In 1956 Sun records added elements of country and
western to produce the kind of rock and roll tradition that produced Buddy
Holly.
I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink
carnation and a pickup truck
A White Sport Coat (And a Pink
Carnation) was a hit for Marty Robbins in 1957. The pickup truck has endured
as a symbol of sexual independence and potency, especially in a Texas
context.
But I knew that I was out of luck The day the music
died
I started singing...
Refrain
(Verse 3)
Now for ten years we've been on our own
McLean was
writing this song in the late 60's, about ten years after the crash.
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
Dylan's 'Like a
Rolling Stone' (1965) was his first major hit, and since he was busy writing
songs extolling the virtues of simple love, family and contentment while
staying at home (he didn't tour from '66 to '74) and raking in the
royalties. This was quite a change from the earlier, angrier Dylan.
But that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the
King and Queen
The jester is Bob Dylan, as will become clear
later. Elvis Presley is the king, which seems pretty obvious. The queen is
either Connie Francis or Little Richard.
In a coat he borrowed
from James Dean
In the movie Rebel Without a Cause James Dean has
a red windbreaker that holds symbolic meaning throughout the film. In one
particularly intense scene, Dean lends his coat to a guy who is shot and
killed; Dean's father arrives, sees the coat on the dead man, thinks it's
Dean, and loses it. On the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Dylan is
wearing a red windbreaker, and is posed in a street scene similar to the one
shown in a well-known picture of James Dean.
And a voice that
came from you and me
Bob Dylan's roots are in American folk music,
with people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Folk music is by definition
the music of the masses, hence the '...came from you and me'.
Oh, and while the King was looking down
The jester stole his thorny
crown
A reference to Elvis's decline and Dylan's ascendance. (i.e.
Presley is looking down from a height as Dylan takes his place.) The thorny
crown a reference to the price of fame. Dylan has said that he wanted to be
as famous as Elvis, one of his early idols. Alternatively, this could refer
to Lennon's claim that the Beatles were bigger than God (with Lennon as the
jester and Jesus with his thorny crown).
The courtroom was
adjourned,
No verdict was returned.
The trial of the Chicago
Seven.
And while Lennon read a book on Marx,
Literally, John Lennon reading about Karl Marx; figuratively, the
introduction of radical politics into the music of the Beatles. The
Marx-Lennon wordplay has also been used by others, most notably the Firesign
Theatre on the cover of their album 'How Can You Be In Two Places At Once
When You're Not Anywhere At All?'
The quartet practised in the
park
A reference to the Weavers, who were blacklisted during the
McCarthy era. McLean had become friends with Lee Hays of the Weavers in the
early 60's while performing in coffee-houses and clubs in upstate New York
and New York City. He was also well-acquainted with Pete Seeger; in fact,
McLean, Seeger, and others took a trip on the Hudson river singing
anti-pollution songs at one point. Seeger's LP 'God Bless the Grass'
contains many of these songs.
And we sang dirges in the dark
A reference to some of the new art rock groups which played long
pieces not meant for dancing.
The day the music died. We were
singing...
Refrain
(Verse 4)
Helter
Skelter in a summer swelter
'Helter Skelter' is a Beatles song
which appears on the White album. Charles Manson, claiming to have been
inspired by the song (through which he thought God and/or the devil were
talking to him) led his followers in the Tate-LaBianca murders. Summer
swelter is a reference to the long hot summer of Watts.
The
birds flew off with the fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling
fast
The Byrd's 'Eight Miles High' was on their late 1966 release
Fifth Dimension. It was one of the first records to be widely banned because
of supposedly drug-oriented lyrics.
It landed foul on the
grass
One of the Byrds was busted for possession of marijuana.
The players tried for a forward pass
A football
metaphor about the Rolling Stones, i.e. they were waiting for an opening
which really didn't happen until the Beatles broke up.
With
the jester on the sidelines in a cast
On July 29, 1966, Dylan
crashed his Triumph motorcycle while riding near his home in Woodstock, New
York. He spent the next nine months in seclusion.
Now the
half-time air was sweet perfume
This line and the next few refer
to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The sweet perfume is tear gas.
While sergeants played a marching tune
The Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band music in general as marching because
it's not music for dancing. But music with a message to which we march.
We all got up to dance Oh, but we never got the chance
The Beatles' 1966 Candlestick Park concert only lasted 35 minutes and there
wasn't any music to dance to.
'Cause the players tried to take
the field,
The marching band refused to yield.
A reference to
the dominance of the Beatles on the rock and roll scene. For instance, the
Beach Boys released 'Pet Sounds' in 1966 -- an album which featured some of
the same sort of studio and electronic experimentation as Sgt. Pepper
(1967)-- but the album sold poorly. It's a comment about how the dominance
of the Beatles in the rock world led to more pop art music, leading in turn
to a dearth of traditional rock and roll.
Do you recall what
was revealed, The day the music died?
We started singing
Refrain
(Verse 5)
And there we were all in one place
Woodstock.
A generation lost in space
A
reference to hippies, who were sometimes known as the lost generation,
partially because of their particularly acute alienation from their parents,
and partially because of their presumed preoccupation with drugs.
With no time left to start again
The lost generation spent too
much time being stoned, & had wasted their lives.
So come on
Jack be nimble Jack be quick
A reference to Mick Jagger of the
Rolling Stones; 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' was released in May, 1968.
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
The Stones' Candlestick park
concert.
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend
The
Stones were playing with fire . . .
And as I watched him on
the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in
hell
Could break that Satan's spell
While playing a concert
at the Altamonte Speedway in 1969, the Stones appointed members of the
Hell's Angels to work security. In the darkness near the front of the stage,
a young man named Meredith Hunter was beaten and stabbed to death -- by the
Angels. Public outcry that the song 'Sympathy for the Devil' had somehow
incited the violence caused the Stones to drop the song from their show for
the next six years.
And as the flames climbed high into the
night
To light the sacrificial rite
About Altamonte, and in
particular Mick Jagger's prancing and posing while it was happening. The
sacrifice is Meredith Hunter, and the bonfires around the area provide the
flames. Alternatively, this could refer to the burning of Beatles albums in
outrage after Lennon allegedly claimed they were bigger than God.
I saw Satan laughing with delight
Satan would be Jagger.
The day the music died. He was singing...
Refrain
(Verse 6)
I met a girl who sang the blues
Janis
Joplin.
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just
smiled and turned away
Janis died of an accidental heroin overdose
on October 4, 1970.
I went down to the sacred store
Where
I'd heard the music years before
The sacred store was Bill
Graham's Fillmore West, one of the great rock and roll venues of all time.
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
Nobody is interested in hearing Buddy Holly et.al.'s music.
And in the streets the children screamed
Flower children being
beaten by police and National Guard troops; in particular, perhaps, the
People's Park riots in Berkeley in 1969 and 1970.
The lovers
cried and the poets dreamed
The trend towards psychedelic music in
the 60's.
But not a word was spoken,
The church bells all
were broken
The broken bells are the dead musicians: neither can
produce any more music.
And the three men I admire most: The
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie
Valens.
They caught the last train for the coast
A
way of saying that they had left the scene (or died – went west as a synonym
for dying).
The day the music died, And they were singing...
Refrain (2x)
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