I like “American Pie”, but “Vincent” is glurge.
Also, I am pretty darn sure I knew about Buddy Holly (and his death) well before “American Pie” came out, and I was neither particularly musically hip at that time, nor old enough to remember Buddy from when he was still alive.
That article suggests that the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” line refers to McLean’s father, Buddy Holly, and JFK.
I could be reading too much into that sentence.
I know I’m responding to a zombie post, but I’ve heard that McLean sometimes starts singing Weird Al Yankovic’s [del]parody of[/del] tribute to “American Pie,” called “The Saga Begins.”
“Long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Naboo was under an attack.”
Me too! A nice touch of comic hyperbole.
“The Grave” is another excellent song that doesn’t get much attention (and didn’t deserve the lackluster George Michael cover). But I could do without “Vincent” and some of his other, mushier tunes.
Just as Magicians keep their magical secrets well hidden, so too do Musicians have the right to keep their mysterious lyrics under wraps. That’s the secret behind a lot of entertainment, as well as a lot of the intrigue. Part of the enjoyment of pop culture is to use our OWN imagination to increase the awareness of our surroundings, to interpret things for ourselves, to discover things for ourselves. I say let the artists keep some things under lock and key, because isn’t life more exciting that way anyway?
Moderator Comment: Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, Dark_guy23, we’re glad you found us. Since there was already a thread on this topic, I’ve taken the liberty of merging your post into that thread… sort of trying (vaguely) to keep topics together.
Speaking as a poster: I think that artists very often do not even recognize the implications of their work. I’d be hard-pressed to imagine that Shakespeare (for instance) could have imagined a fraction of the kinds of commentary that’ve happened on any one of his plays.
Certainly, I’ll bet McLean never thought he’d inspire somebody’s porn squad.
I beg your pardon?
Typography strikes again.
I saw the same thing that Tom Tildrum saw: “p-o-m” looked oddly like “p-o-r-n” because of the shape of the “m” in the font I’m viewing this in. (Internet Explorer 8, if that matters, and whatever the default font is for comments.)
So, it just takes a careless and dirty-minded glance to misread “pom squad” as “porn squad”.
</hijack>
I did a double-take on that word, too, and I was happily imagining a football game being held up by a “porn delay.”
What’s a “pom squad”?
It’s like a porn squad, but British.
No, actually it’s just a squad of cheerleaders.
Ah.
Thanks.
Presumably due to their carrying (at least in the US) pom-poms.
Pom Squad is traditionally more dance and less cheer. Many schools have them in addition to Cheerleaders.
I have only been to two football games in my life.
Both times it involved chatting up women.
A lot of secrets are unintentionally secretive.
He was at the local college in the last 20 years & stumbled over the lyrics once or twice but the audience was singing along & brought him up to speed. L Really.
A fun & memorable evening!
Something I’m curious about from McLean’s reply to Cecil:
It sounds like he is suggesting Kasem claims to have spoken to him, when he had not. Was Kasem ever called out for it?
Haha. But of course that would properly be spelled “POHM squad”.