what is this Rocky Horror-esque "shout back response" to "American Pie?"

Cafe Society
1

While at a bar tonight, someone elected to sing “American Pie” during Karaoke. While this might have been obvious enough, I was baffled when the singer got to the “this’ll be the day that I die…” part. Each time, almost the entire audience shouted “what?” after each “this’ll be the day that I die.” Then, after the final one in each chorus, they all shouted some sort of six or seven word “response”, cracking up while doing so.

What the hell was this? The whole thing seemed very “Rocky Horro”-esque .

2

If I know karaoke crowds, (and I hope I don’t), it was probably a reference to that movie.

“This’ll be my dick in a pie,” or something else like that which would make Oscar Wilde want to get really, really drunk.

3

That’s what threw me off - it was a very frattish/date-rape type crowd - no “nerds.”

4

What’s that supposed to mean?

5

The only place I ever encountered this (well, where else do you hear the song regularly?) was at CTY when I was in my early teens. For some reason that song was kind of an anthem there; American Pie was always the last song at dances. After Maclean sings “die,” everyone would yell “die! die! die!” The longer bit at the end of the chorus went “live!live! die!die! sex!sex! more!more!” I have no idea what the significance is or how this got started.

6

Marley - That’s funny - two of my children went to CTY, and they both surely sang American Pie Karoke at CTY. They sang it on the last day, when parents came to pick them up, which is how I know about it.

7

That IS funny, CBCD. When and where did they go?

8

My son Jim went to CTY three times - twice in Carlisle - 2000 & 2002, and once to CT College, in 1998.
My daughter went to CTY at Mount Holyoke in 2001.

Were you at any of these sessions?

9

I was at Carlisle once, but I think it was in '98.

10

Off to Cafe Society.

DrMatrix - GQ Moderator

11

I’ll second PaulFitzroy — what’s that supposed to mean?

12

I imagine it means preppies and frat-boy types.

13

Yeah, I thought it was self-explanitory - the crowd was of the frattish/jock/meathead/date rapist variety blend.

14

No, it’s not self-explanatory. What’s with the “date rapist” thing?

15

It’s a mindbogglingly moronic stereotype. Ignore it.

16

I thought it was obvious - the aforementioned types of people are often grouped together?

17

When I went to my one and only frat party last year, everyone shouted “Drinking beer with my fucked-up friends!” after the “This’ll be the day that I die” lyric.

18

American Pie - Lil’ Jon Remix?

19

Like Marley23, I’ve only found this to be the case at CTY (but then again I’ve never heard American Pie played in a public setting outside of CTY). And while the chant was generally “Die! Die! [4X] Live! [4X] Sex! [4X] More! [4X]” the “callbacks” varied slightly from site to site, IIRC.

20

Exactly what is CTY???