The day the music died + 50 years

[liberal N proud]

What do they lyrics of "American Pie" mean?

Real good breakdown on the word to American Pie


http://wmji.com/common/thedaythemusicdied/

[madfloridian]

1. XM station 5 for the Fifties music....Cousin Brucie talks about Buddy Holly

and Ritchie Valens. Don't know the exact schedule but listened the last two nights around 7 PM

[billybob537]

2. And the Big Bopper died in that plane also.

[rsdsharp]

3. Cousin Brucie

(former WABC jock) was the MC of the concert last night at the Surf ballroom in Clear Lake.

[liberal N proud]

4. Oops, My bad wrong forum

[mackerel]

5. Michael Krasny's "Forum" had a great show today on

Buddy Holly. Played a lot of his earlier stuff likened him to Dylan (or vice versa)

[MTmix86]

6. ...

ive heard that it has something to do with the plane crash with the big bopper, richie valens, and buddy holly

[mackerel]

7. His song was an homage to the three. Anybody know

who was supposed to be on that plane instead of Holly?

[onager]

8. Waylon Jennings gave up a seat on that plane...

He escaped death in the February 3, 1959 plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson when he gave up his seat to the latter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waylon_Jennings

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Since I'm a Certified Geezer, here are some explanations I've heard/invented for the lyrics of "American Pie:"

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.--A nice poke at squeaky-clean (at least publicly) Fifties singer Diana Shore. Her TV variety show was sponsored by GM, and featured Shore endlessly belting out the theme song, "See the USA in your Chevrolet."

Shore would eventually have an affair with Burt Reynolds, causing observers to snark: "She was cutting her first records when he was cutting his first teeth."

Did you write the Book of Love, and do you have faith in God above...--Nod to the 1958 hit "The Book of Love" by The Monotones.

I was a lonely teenage broncing buck, with a pink carnation and a pickup truck...--Another Fifties hit, "A White Sport Coat and A Pink Carnation" by Marty Robbins.

Now for ten years we've been on our own, and moss grows fat on a rolling stone...--Obviously a slap at Sir Mick and the boys, and only the first of many in the song. Later, several verses refer to the disastrous Dec. 1969 free concert by the Stones in Altamont, CA:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candlestick....No angel born in hell, could break that Satan's spell...--Apparently under the influence of some mind-bending drug, the concert promoters hired Hell's Angels as concert security. Check out the documentary by the Maysles brothers, Gimme Shelter, to see how that great idea turned out.

When the jester sang for the king and queen, in a coat he borrowed from James Dean, in a voice that came from you and me...--The "King" is...you guessed it, Elvis. The jester--Bob Dylan. The "coat he borrowed" is probably the black leather jacket, a favorite of both Dean and Dylan.

And while Lenin (or Lennon) read a book of Marx, the quartet practiced in the park, and we sang dirges in the dark...--Putting on my Pretentious Interpretation (Ass)Hat: "Lenin/Marx" is probably a neat pun about John Lennon and Groucho Marx, instead of Famous Commies.

"The quartet" = early Beatles, and the narrator sings "dirges" to mourn the passing of his beloved Fifties music. Maybe. Hey, I can Pretentiously Interpret with the best of 'em...

Helter skelter in a summer swelter...--That one's easy. A reference to the Charlie Manson slaughters in the summer of 1969.

The birds flew off to the fallout shelter, eight miles high and falling fast...--That one is too. "Eight Miles High" was a big hit by the The Byrds in 1966.

...With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.--Bob Dylan indeed spent much of 1966 "in a cast." He had a near-fatal motorcycle accident.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume, while Sergeants played a marching tune...--Reference to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," released in summer 1967. "Sweet perfume" probably refers to incense as well as the sweet smoke of Teh Killer Weed.

And as the flames climbed high into the night, to light the sacrificial rite, I saw satan laughing with delight...--The Altamont concert again, as I yammered above.

I met a girl who sang the blues, and asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away...--That can only mean Janis Joplin, dead of a drug overdose in 1970 at age 27.

I went down to the sacred store, where I'd heard the music years before, but the man there said the music wouldn't play...--Refers to the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco (and later New York, Fillmore East).

And the three men I admire most, the father, son, and the holy ghost, they caught the last train for the coast...--This might refer to the famous 1966 TIME magazine cover asking, "Is God dead?" Or maybe not. We could ask McLean, I guess. But I have a lot of fun putting my own spin on his lyrics.

As I have just proven at tedious length...AGAIN...