Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 11:48:58 -0500 
From: "Jason M. Roth" <jr4q+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: American Pie

Hello. This was indeed posted about a half a year ago after a flurry of
AP discussions; I'm assuming this is what you had.

______________________________
Remember the song "American Pie" by Don McLean?  Remember wondering what
the heck he was saying?  Well, this song has been placed on some pop
music critic's Ten Best Songs of All Time list and another's Ten Worst
Songs of All Time list.  The difference was in knowing what he was saying.

My wife and I spent an evening attempting to decipher the lyrics, which
for the most part isn't hard except that the blasted album never provided
printed lyrics - a major boo-boo for this album IMHO.  The lyrics are
sheer poetry and account for most of the quality of the album.  Maybe
Don was trying to make it more secretive and get cult status from it or
something.  Anyway, here's our "guess" as to what is being said in the
lyrics, I hope you agree.  Add insightful constructive comments where
you think I didn't fill in enough detail.  Now maybe if I played it
backward...


Players:  King .............  Buddy Holley
	  Queen ............  and the Crickets
	  Jester ...........  Elvis Pressley
	  Quartet, Seargent   The Beatles, song Helter Skelter also referenced
	  Birds ............  The Byrds, song Eight Miles High referenced
	  Jack Flash, Devil   The Rolling Stones


A long, long time ago
I can still remember how
that music used to make me smile
and I knew if I had the chance 
that I could make the people dance
and maybe they'd be happy for awhile.

But February made me shiver
with every paper I 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>

----------------------------
A long time ago Buddy Holley's unique music, called Rock and Roll, used to
make me smile and dance.  But on a February day the newspaper read that
he died in a plane wreck.  This was the day the music died.
Ignore the choruses until the very end.
----------------------------

Did you write the book of love 
and do you believe in God above if the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in Rock and Roll?
Can music save your mortal soul
and can you teach me how to dance real slow?

I know that you're in love with him
'cause I saw you dancing in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man I dig those Rhythm and Blues.

------------------------------
Thinking religious thoughts upon that event: Do you have faith in God,
the Bible, and isn't music transcendental?  Reminisces those gym dances.
------------------------------

Now for ten years we've been on our own
and moss grows fat on a rolling stone.
But that's not how it used to be.
When the Jester sang for the King and Queen 
in a coat he borrowed from James Dean
in a voice that came from you and me.

-------------------------------
Ten years later things have changed in music.
When Elvis sang like Buddy Holley and the Crickets
in a jacket with flipped-up lapels like James Dean did
he sounded a bit more amateurish, like you and me.
--------------------------------


While the King was looking down
the Jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned.
No verdict was returned.
And while Lenin played read a book of Marx
the Quartet practiced in the park 
and we all sang dirges in the dark
the day the music died.

<Chorus>

--------------------------------
While Buddy was dead looking down from Heaven,
Elvis took his title "King of Rock and Roll", no questions asked.
But now the Beatles were warming up on the sidelines.
And still we mourn over the loss of Buddy Holly, the real king.
---------------------------------

Helter Skelter in a summer swelter
The Birds flew off with a fallout shelter.
Eight Miles High and falling fast.
Landed about on the grass
the players tried for a forward pass
with the Jester on the sidelines in a cast.

The halftime air was sweet perfume
while Seargents played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance but we never got the chance.
The players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was the feel the day the music died?

<Chorus>

-----------------------------------
The Beatles hit the scene and so did the Byrds.
But the Byrds died off and the British Invasion took it's foothold
with this winning band, the Beatles.  No one could touch their
popularity now and Elvis was out.
-----------------------------------

And there we were all in one place
a generation lost in space
with no time left to start again

So come on
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick 'cause
fire is the Devil's only friend.
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.
And as the planes climbed high into the night
to light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
the day the music died.

<Chorus>

-----------------------------------
Now we are squarely in the sixties.
The Rolling Stones, the "bad boys of Rock and Roll"
are here and Don McLean isn't kind to their style.
We really have a British Invasion now.
Their music, though, was spell-binding.
This sharply contrasts to the purity of Buddy Holly in Heaven.
An allusion to the plane wreck is provided.
-----------------------------------

I met a girl who sang the blues
and I asked her for some happy news
but she just smiled and turned away.

I went down to the sacred store where
I heard the music years before
but the man there said the music wouldn't play.
And in the streets the children screamed, 
the lovers cried and the poets dreamed.
Not a word was spoken.
The church bells were all broken.
And the three men I admire most, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
they caught the last train for the coast,
the day the music died.


-----------------------------------
Don laments over the complete loss of the good old days.
There is no turning back.  The divine, pure Rock and Roll was
only here for a short while and died that February day.
-----------------------------------

Chorus:

And they were singing
Bye Bye Miss American Pie
I drove my Chevy to the levy 
but the levy was dry.
And good old boys were drinking 
whiskey and rye singing
"This'll be the day that I die.
This'll be the day that I die."

------------------------------------
This is the toughest to decipher.
My interpretation (and it's probably wrong) is that
Don continues his lamenting of the loss of old 50's 
rock to the British Invasion.  The <Rock> levy should have   
water flowing, but no more.  And the good old boys
are the has-beens of old time rock music.
-----------------------------------