On January 15, 1972, “American Pie,”, an epic poem in musical form that has long been etched in the American popular consciousness, hits #1 on the Billboard charts.
The story of Don McLean’s magnum opus begins almost 13 years before its release, on a date with significance well-known to any American who was alive and conscious at the time. Tuesday February 3, 1959, was the date of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson—a date that would be imbued with transcendent meaning by Don McLean when he labeled it “the Day the Music Died.”
One might reasonably point out that the baby-boom generation has since invested its entire rock-and-roll experience with transcendent meaning, but don’t blame Don McLean for starting the trend. “American Pie” wasn’t written to be a generation-defining epic; it was written simply to capture McLean’s view of “America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become.”
When asked to explain what exactly he was trying to say with some of his more ambiguous lyrics, McLean has generally declined. Many others have applied themselves to the task, however, and even today the Internet bristles with exhaustively reasoned interpretations of “American Pie” and its web of lyrical references to the youth culture of the 1950s and 60s. The meaning of the Stolen Crown and Marching Band may be of interest only to the most obsessive of baby boomers, but almost all of us know the chorus of “American Pie” better than we know our own national anthem, and the chances are good that our great-grandchildren will, too. Which isn’t bad for a song that was written and recorded by a struggling folk singer who merely hoped that it would “earn two or three thousand dollars and make survival for another year possible.”
My interpretation of his lyrics written in 2009:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/07/19/american-pie-oldie-but-goodie/
Enjoyed reading what you posted.
Have just started looking into the Laurel Canyon influence on music and the world after years of being a student of the whole Manson Family incident (remember reading all about it in the papers as a lad of fourteen). Just came across this recently:
http://www.conspirazzi.com/e-books/inside-the-lc.pdf
and
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stones-disaster-at-altamont-let-it-bleed-19700121
Both very interesting, though quite long.
Pizzagate is not too far fetched when considering the satanic influences of the past fifty years in California.
I’ve downloaded the files to review later, Ginger. How’s MaryAnn?
His two most well-known songs (American Pie and Vincent) are reason enough for Maclean to put down his pen and call it a full life.
Yeah, well, you can put your pen down and call it a life cause you can never top your best joke some years back.
I saw him at McCarter Theater in Princeton when I was 13- hid behind the stage door after the concert to get his autograph on my hat. He came out with his guitar case and his coat and let me walk back to his car with him. I told him I listened to his song on the way to school in the mornings and really liked it. He finally got in to leave and when he turned on the car the radio came on and it was about halfway through American Pie. I remember both of us smiling and then I waved as he drove off.
I still have the hat.
Ritchie lost a coin toss with a guitarist that played with the Buddy Holly group. We indeed lost three gifted musicians that day at the Mason City airport.
Rags, Ritchie actually got the plane seat because he wasn’t feeling well. The guitar player was Waylon Jennings. You can see the Surf Club in Clear Lake from my grandmothers house, it’s about fifty yards away.
Thanks for the link to this article. Very intuitive.
July 5th, 2016 – The day America Died.
I believe “Killing Me Softly” was about one of his concerts.
1972 huh? That coincides closely enough with the date I assign to what I call The Great Regression. I think we reached Peak Human on or about July 20th, 1969. Sure, hoomans have done some clever shit since then but our overall trajectory is downhill in nearly every way possible.
I didn’t see this mentioned in reference to the song, but please let me point out it was over 8 minutes long. When the average right about then was under 3:30, it’s amazing the song even got airplay. Hell, MacArthur Park (Richard Harris) was only about 7:40. Once again, the miracle of independent record promotion and it’s persuasive abilities.