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Related: About this forumBeakybird
(3,333 posts)Croney
(4,662 posts)Beakybird
(3,333 posts)Beakybird
(3,333 posts)That American Pie had nothing to do with Buddy Holly, and I was like, "Right!"
Quixote1818
(28,955 posts)The "innocence" idealism of the 50's shifting to the more rebellious, independent 60's. But we all know there was plenty of rape and lynching of black folks in those "innocent" years. From his interview I think he didn't care for this change but I think it was a necessary period of growth.
Nitram
(22,845 posts)"innocent" R&B and rock'n'roll he grew up with. But he didn't like the psychedic sound of the Byrds and Jefferson Airplane, either. I like it all. The music never died. It evolved, as it always does. Don stayed stuck in the mud of the 40s and 50s. I've heard he hates it when audiences ask him to play the song at concerts. Ironic.
Croney
(4,662 posts)He seemed to enjoy the build-up to it, and was happy to sing it. Vincent was another one he seemed to relish singing. Actually he oozed joy with every hit. He just seemed grateful that we all still knew who he was. Lol
Nitram
(22,845 posts)I was confusing McClean with Jaime Brockett, who used to get irritated when asked to play his hit "The Legend of the USS Titanic." Too many brains cells down the drain. But I am right about McClean hating the rock music of the 60s.
Croney
(4,662 posts)Nitram
(22,845 posts)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
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lennon read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend
Oh and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
Croney
(4,662 posts)Or the Titanic song. I probably should have.
Edit: Yep, I should have. My excuse is that I moved to Boston in 1972, so maybe he had moved along to somewhere else.
no_hypocrisy
(46,157 posts)I had it out on the piano in 1971-2. My father saw it and threw a terrible fit. Screamed at me. Told me it was all about communism and whatever Time Magazine said it was about. He threw it in the trash.
I rescued it and still have it. And I still love the song.
Prelude: My father was paranoid about and inflamed by popular culture. Three years before the American Pie episode, he made me throw out all my comic books because he read it led to juvenile delinquency. You'd have thought that he found a dime bag in my underwear drawer.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Quixote1818
(28,955 posts)He sounds a bit conservative to me as though he was upset about the changes the country was going through. He wanted things to stay like they were in the 1940's and 50's. What he seems to think of as an innocent age but I would say it was far from an age of innocence and the 60's and 70's was an awakening with protestors and MLK Jr. inspiring millions. Kind of reminds me of the movie Pleasantville. He wanted things to stay black and white but people were screaming for their own identity and equal rights and fairness.
Washington Post: Gloomy Don McLean reveals meaning of American Pie and sells lyrics for $1.2 million
Snip:
People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity, McLean said in an early interview, as the Guardian reported. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.
But what state was that? It seemed like the songs cast of characters which include a jester, a king, a queen, good ol boys drinking whiskey and rye as well as Miss American Pie herself were meant to represent real people. The song includes references to Karl Marx; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (or, more likely, John Lennon); the Fab Four; the Byrds; James Dean; Charles Manson; the Rolling Stones; the widowed bride, Jackie Kennedy; and the Vietnam War.
What does it all mean? Just what a song about the day the music died seems like it might be about: the end of the American Dream.
Basically in American Pie, things are heading in the wrong direction, he told Christies, as the Newcastle Herald reported. It is becoming less idyllic. I dont know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense.
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/08/gloomy-don-mclean-reveals-meaning-of-american-pie-and-sells-lyrics-for-1-2-million/?utm_term=.39cab921b1f6
William Seger
(10,779 posts)I still like it, musically, but it's pretty clearly lamenting the way music went after the 50s, and I always assumed he meant society along with it. However, I really don't take anyone's lyrics very seriously, so it's never bothered me.
Croney
(4,662 posts)He was charming, talkative, and his voice was still good. Singing American Pie with him was a musical highlight of my life.
I like the interpretation of every line in the video. There is only one line that has always stuck in my craw. (Yes, I really did just say that.) He found the levee dry? I'm from Louisiana, and you DON'T want to find the levee anything but dry.
Srkdqltr
(6,313 posts)He didn't say it but at the time a lot of people were of the opinion that a lot of the words were to rhyme and keep the song going not necessary to make perfect sense.
I always felt that it was more story telling then reporting actually.
Croney
(4,662 posts)William Seger
(10,779 posts)... the part everyone loves to sing along with. I've always assumed it meant something to McClean but its main purpose in the song was just that.
revmclaren
(2,528 posts)classof56
(5,376 posts)This is Bob Dylan's first album, which I bought as soon as it came out, and still have in my collection. Ah, the memories it evokes! Saw him in concert a couple of times in the 60s, one with Joan Baez. Those were the days, my friend!
Cheers.
SCantiGOP
(13,871 posts)I was a freshman in college when the song came out. I had parsed out about 3/4 of what the video said was the meaning of lyrics, but never did have a strong opinion about them Father Son and Holy Ghost reference.
StClone
(11,686 posts)McClean built the song around direct mention, and inferences, to music's historic reality along with symbolism, metaphors, generalized ideals in a catchy poetic riff.
I love McClean. But, in listening to American Pie over the decades its pretty apparent he could not have fit all the stuff attributed to American Pie accurately or appealingly in lyrical verse.
Bemoaning the loss of his 50's idealism may have been an after the fact response to queries of the songs meaning. I think it is just a great song (supposedly conjured out on a napkin) which is nothing more than portraying whatever you want it to be.
My fave Starry, Starry Night is more romanticizing too but at least easier to define.