50 years ago I was a college freshman, and I remember joking with my roommate that we had a magic radio: turn it on, spin the dial, and it plays “American Pie.”
I also recall a full-page story in our local paper, decoding the lyrics. Some that I recall:
King - Elvis
Queen - Little Richard
Joker - Bob Dylan. Sidelined (in a cast) because Dylan had a near-fatal motorcycle accident at one point.
Sergeants - the Beatles
Lenin/Karl Marx…or is it Lennon/Groucho Marx
I was reading up a bit and supposedly when interviewers ask what “American Pie” means, Don McLean replies that it means he never has to work again.
Years ago an English prof went through a bunch of this in class. As I recall…
February made me shiver=Plane crashed in Feb
With every paper I’d deliver=He was paper boy when it happened
This’ll be the day that I die=That’ll be the Day (Buddy Holly)
Did you write the book of love (Who wrote the book of love=the Monotones)
Helter Skelter=Beatles song, Manson
Birds=Byrds…8 miles high
Jester=Dylan, in a cast after motorcycle accident
…Jack Flash sat on a candlestick ‘cause fire is the Devil’s only friend=Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Mick Jagger
No angel born in hell=Rolling Stones at Altamont
A girl who sang the blues: Janis Joplin
Father son and holy ghost=Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Big Bopper
They caught the last train for the coast=Not a plane, of course
Drove my Ford to the fjord, but the fjord was dry…
Chevy and levee, good ol’ boys…,was a reference to the civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi.
Supposedly a reference to the music-writing industry (e.g. the Brill Building group) moving out to California in the late sixties. YMMV.
I hate it. I didn’t like it when it came out and I like it even less now. It’s too rhymey and, honestly, takes itself too seriously. When really it just nicks a bunch of other song’s refences.
And it’s too damn long for what it is.
But maybe that’s just me…
OK no problem. I figured there’d be some. It’s simply a matter of numbers - if you get a group of people large enough, some are bound to dislike this song. I venture a guess that more people like it than dislike it, though.
Yes it is a long song. And you make points that are valid for you, and that’s cool.
Thanks for that. I was having a shitty day at work and probably was harsher than I intended.
I do strongly dislike the song but I should have tempered my response.
Apologies.
Apologies not necessary, but accepted. No offense was taken at all. Hey if you don’t like the song, I’m not going to argue and it’s OK with me.
Sorry you had a shitty day at work.
I must admit, though, that for my first reply to you I thought of adding at the end, “What we have here… is a failure… to communicate.”
There. Now everybody eat 50 eggs and make up.
In college I used to hang out in a basement bar where they had musicians come to play. Usually not a band, just a dude with a guitar. They had two songs banned from their bar, Puff the Magic Dragon, and American Pie. I think that was a fine policy, if only for the sanity of the bar staff.
Denied!
Fine, but I am NOT going to die to prove I can’t be controlled by The Man. What do you think I am, some antii-vaxxing repub?
That’s about my exact opinion of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.
Would this be the time to nitpick and point out there’s no “a” in the line as Strother Martin says it?
Didn’t even know the Shea show had an opening act.
I think it was the Shea Stadium concert Ron mentioned–he saw it televised/recorded later on.
Sure did–in the theater! (I plan to show it in a couple of months at my library, paired with Blinded By The Light, another 2019 movie about a South Asian youth in England influenced by a classic rock act.)
As I recall, Pete Townshend was talking about “A Quick One (While He’s Away)” and said basically if you want a 10 minute song, write four parts that are 2.5 minutes apiece and string them together. If you didn’t know that, you are forgiven.
What are the other long songs that made it?
Bohemian Rhapsody
Nights in White Satin
No gong at the end, but Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do?” is mighty long
I don’t actually think that’s what’s meant in the song. It’s just a recognition that the day they died was a terrible blow to music. Call it poetic license. It wasn’t an old man tirade about how music today sucks.
I liked it, but was surprised by how much other good stuff was on that album. If I played it now, I might skip AP and just get into the other stuff. Just bought for 50 cents and a library sale the album “Classics” which has 2 versions on it (Haven’t listened to either yet, but has a version of Vincent which, IMHO, blows the original away.)
Wow I love that song, Vincent! So the one you have must really be something else.