American Pie Explained: Don McLean's Cultural History of Rock n' Roll

[Uncle Joe]

[jpak]

1. He's a wife abuser

no thanks

[Uncle Joe]

2. I guess you don't like the song "Starry Starry Night" either?

[elleng]

8. Thanks, Joe.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. That was really interesting! Thanks for posting.

I never was quite sure what some of those lyrics meant, but I remember every single referenced event and person.

[Mike Nelson]

4. That was nice, but it could...

... have mentioned Connie Francis (the Queen) and the Byrds (Eight Miles High). I recall hearing them as likely noted in the song, also.

[jberryhill]

5. Yes, more beer cans were tossed out of Chevies on levees...

...to that tune above all others.

And I have to say that Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama continue to give it fierce competition.

[maddiemom]

6. I taught this , when it came out, as a young English teacher as an intro to poetry.

It seems many of us had the same idea at the time. We weren't copycats, but a few movies picked it up. It became a popular method. The original references were great for the first few years. Many song lyrics continue to serve the purpose.

[appalachiablue]

7. Thanks for posting. In HS I saw him perform at a local college, first rate.

K/R

[spike jones]

9. Did Mclean once say that American Pie means that he would never have to work again?

[mountain grammy]

10. Interesting. Thanks, Joe.

[Gothmog]

11. We spent a week on this song in my freshman honors english class

[crazytown]

12. JFK, MLK, RFK

Few nations could recover from losing one person of this caliber. There's a sound grab I remember, after Martin was shot ... "but we still have Bobby", and then we didn't.

[Nitram]

13. The narrator says "the song quickly became a cultural relic."

I doubt that's what he meant to say because calling it a "relic" means that plus it was no longer culturally relevant. He probably means a cultural "classic", "touchstone", "anthem" or something similar. I like the song, and enjoy the cultural allusions, but it really sounds like a cranky rejection of all popular music from the Beatles on as worthless compared to the music of the 50s. As a child of the 60s, I love the Beatles, the Stones, the Birds, the Who and the rest of that amazing cultural explosion of bands that wrote, played and sang their own music for our generation.

[burrowowl]

14. Thanks! Very interesting