Don McLean's "American Pie"

[Cervaise]

@FriarTed

Drove my Olds off the roads
Told the lady ‘Goodbye’…

Drove my Trans Am off the Hoover Dam
And told 'er goodbye

Drove my Comet till she vomited
And spit in her eye

Drove my beater like a cheater
'Cos to meet 'er was sly

Hey, this is fun.

[ouryL]

@seosamh

I still want to know why the singer is disappointed when he finds the levee to be dry. Aren’t they supposed to be that way? (even taking into account the whole Mississippi Burning malarky).

The levee is where kids (including under aged kids gathered to do some drinking and to get drunk. So finding it dry means going therr and finding the party had’nt started yet.

[Skywatcher]

@ouryL

The levee is where kids (including under aged kids gathered to do some drinking and to get drunk. So finding it dry means going therr and finding the party had’nt started yet.

Except for them good ol’ boys drinking whiskey & rye.

[John_Carter_of_Mars]

@ouryL

The levee is where kids (including under aged kids gathered to do some drinking and to get drunk. So finding it dry means going therr and finding the party had’nt started yet.

I don’t know about “finding the party hadn’t started yet”. The very next line is “Them good old boys was drinkin’ whiskey and rye”. (After preview, I see Lute Skywatcher beat me to this point.)

What we called “The Levee” was a place where we went to fish or swim in the daytime, returning at night to drink & party. Finding it dry would have been disconcerting to say the least.

I agree with GargoyleWB and Peter Morris in that the lyrics about the father, son and holy ghost catching the last train for the coast indicates that the death of the three singers caused DM to have a crisis of faith.

[rfgdxm]

Only McClean knows (unless perhaps he wrote it in such a hurry even his memory is dubious), and has refused to say. However, I find it unlikely in the extreme that “the father, son, and the holy ghost” refers to The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly. While McClean obviously has deep respect for Holly musically, I can’t imagine the two other men he admires most are Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Particularly the Big Bopper. Basically, he is a minor footnote in the history of rock and roll. I have to figure there were musicians McClean admired more than the Big Bopper. It should also be noted these musicians died in a plane crash. If McClean was refering to them, why say they caught the last train for the coast?

My best guess in interpretation is that McClean refers to the literal Trinity. And that the reference about then catching the last train for the coast is that in America (at least amongst the young), the interest in religion had declined. The song was written in 1971. The youth of America was focused on the Vietnam war, drug abuse, and promiscuous sex. The lyrics of this song strongly suggest McClean personally is spiritually oriented.

[sneezy5660]

I don’t remember clearly, but I’m almost positive that Kasey Kasem interviewed Don Mclean on American Top Forty waaaay back in the late seventies or early eighties, and Don explained all the meanings in the song.
The only one I remember is that the Joker was Nixon.
I wonder if there are any transcripts of the old shows available?

[Johnny_L.A]

@sneezy5660

I don’t remember clearly, but I’m almost positive that Kasey Kasem interviewed Don Mclean on American Top Forty waaaay back in the late seventies or early eighties, and Don explained all the meanings in the song.
The only one I remember is that the Joker was Nixon.
I wonder if there are any transcripts of the old shows available?

From my previous link:

But that’s not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the King and Queen

    The jester is Bob Dylan, as will become clear later. There are several
    interpretations of king and queen: some think that Elvis Presley is
    the king, which seems pretty obvious.  The queen is said to be either
    Connie Francis or Little Richard.  But see the next note.

    An alternate interpretation is that this refers to the Kennedys
    -- the king and queen of "Camelot" -- who were present at a
    Washington DC civil rights rally featuring Martin Luther King.
    (There's a recording of Dylan performing at this rally.)

I wonder if he was pulling Kasem’s leg? I don’t remember Nixon ever singing for anyone.

[Czarcasm]

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@John Carter of Mars

I don’t know about “finding the party hadn’t started yet”. The very next line is “Them good old boys was drinkin’ whiskey and rye”.

Which is a dumb line, really, because of course rye is whiskey.

[kelly5078]

I seem to remember reading something about McLean that said “The Levee” was the name of a bar where he used to hang out.

[Musicat]

@Cervaise

Drove my Trans Am off the Hoover Dam
And told 'er goodbye

Drove my Comet till she vomited
And spit in her eye

Drove my beater like a cheater
'Cos to meet 'er was sly

Hey, this is fun.

My theory is that’s pretty much the way Don did it. Like Nostradamus, if you write enough quantity with enough ambiguity, a lot of people will make a connection with reality.