He left the blank there because you keep writing “laughing”, and laughing is not in AB’s post.
You are not making yourself look good, here, IMO.
Thank you. I thought that was obvious to anyone following along.
I always took the meaning of the song to be: Deejays don’t often get the time to get a good long bathroom break, so I’m gonna do something nice for them with this one.
You’re right. My error, and I apologize for it.
However, there is no difference in meaning between “laughing all the way to the bank” or “tired all the way to the bank.” Whichever word is chosen, the phrase is still a derogatory one.
If LD wants to use my error as a convenient way to escape providing the clarification I asked for (essentially, demonstrate to me that this and “buswah” are not derogatory phrases), then I guess we’re at an impasse.
I was asked why I thought AB had a problem with Don McLean. I answered that question:
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His use of the derogatory phrases “tired all the way to the bank” and “bushwah”
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His implication that McLean’s refusal to give a detailed explanation of the lyrics of “American Pie” was a financial rather than an artistic one (“the debate over the lyrics is probably a major factor in keeping the song in popular rotation”)
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His suggestion that “[McLean] long ago could have written an essay on the influences and references and been done with it” [but has chosen not to].
LD disagreed. I asked why, in his view, AB’s post shows no evidence of him having a problem with Don McLean. After several posts in which the particulars of my answer were ignored, the answer has ultimately come back: “Because I say so.”
If you and others are happy with someone who makes assertions but offers no evidence to support them beyond this, then good luck to you.
This should have been the content of post #28. Everything since then has been increasingly manic in tone.
If you are of a certain age, say 55 to 65, chances are you can sing along with the whole damn thing. And for those who don’t know the song, its fairly long and complicated. As much as we may have loved the Beatles or Steppenwolf or Iron Maiden, this was the one that got engraved in our brain. Never understood why. Back-up to separate the folks who had the album from the folks who just had radios is “Babylon” – if someone starts it and you had the album, you not only join in but as a round.
A local comedian claims this to be one of the first “stealth heavy metal” songs.
“This will be that day that I die die die die”
I recently read about how Buddy Holly was getting interested in writing more cerebral lyrics, and incorporating instruments like string and chromatic percussion. Imagine, that’s like Cohen and Dylan (among others) before anyone had heard of them.
I apologize to everyone for going on what I should have long ago realized is a futile quest to get you to actually deal with any of the specifics of this matter.
I posed point-blank questions to you in multiple posts in an effort to clarify your views — e.g., “You said ‘Not sure why you think AB has some sort of problem with McLean.’ I responded ‘Well, “laughing all the way to the bank” isn’t usually a flattering description of someone. Nor is the term “bushwah.”’ Do you disagree with this statement?”
That was just the first of many such questions you utterly ignored. My great mistake was in persisting in trying to elicit something of substance from you beyond the snark which is obviously all you have to offer.
For continuing that effort long past the point of any possible hope, I apologize to anyone who may actually still be in this thread.
Beyond my error in misquoting one of the key phrases in AB’s post (which had no effect at all on its essential meaning but provided you with a convenient out), I don’t apologize for any of the views I’ve expressed on the actual issue at hand.
I’m happy now to stop wasting my time on this matter any longer. Please feel free to declare victory and pat yourself on the back.
The final thing I’d like to point out is that it might be instructive to look back and see who was the first to turn this discussion from an exchange of ideas into an exchange of hostilities.
A few years back, I think it was on the Imus show on MSNBC Don McLean dropped in and did American Pie. It looked like he was backed up by studio musicians who put everything they had into that performance. Great song, a real American classic, and we can all find our own meanings in the lyrics.
I told you all that this rocking and rolling music angries up the blood!
This is actually funny at this point.
If I was participating in a thread about one of my favorite musicians, John Lennon, and said “Yeah, he took himself a bit too seriously sometimes”, that would have been worse than anything AB said about Don McLean. If someone responded to me with “What’s your problem with John Lennon!”, them I’d think there was something wrong with his or her ability to understand very mild criticism.
If that person then issued paragraph after paragraph of questions about whether or not my comments constituted negative remarks, then I would think the questions irrelevant and ignore the manic bullshit. Like I did here.