“American Pie” explained. The Song By Don Mclean

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/americanpie.html ^

[navysealdad]

Songs like “Revolution” by The Beatles, which was clearly suspicious of violent revolution and uprisings, as well as “American Pie” by Don McLean.

Many people think that the song “American Pie” is about the death of Buddy Holly and other musicians in a plane crash, but Glenn presented a reading of the lyrics on radio and showed how it could also be seen as a warning against the danger of violent uprisings.

“ I’ve never understood I drove the Chevy to the levee, I didn’t know what that was. Let’s just start there on the simple part because Chevy, just think of Chevy and mom and apple pie. He’s making a point here. Chevy, I drove my Chevy to the levee. This actually goes back into the 1950s and a Dinah Shore commercial for Chevy,”

[Aevery_Freeman]

It was from the old Dinah Shore Chevrolet commercial. I am old enough that I understood the references in the lyrics.

I always believed that the reference to Jack Flash sitting on the candlestick was about the gay tryst between Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

[massgopguy]

The song also started the Urban Legend that the name of the plane they were on was Miss American Pie.

[martin_fierro]

[rellimpank]

—bflr-

[Pharmboy]

LOL. LOL.

[BlueLancer]

bookmarked

[Williams]

Note to Glenn: the marching band was the Vietnam war duh.

[KosmicKitty]

All I remember was how Don McLean set my little teenaged heart all a flutter.

Him, and Cat Stevens, but I am dating myself.

[Aevery_Freeman]

A subtext to the "eight miles high" reference is none other than Kenny Rogers and the First Edition:

I tripped on a cloud and fell eight miles high
I tore my mind on a jagged sky

A clear reference to the LSD craze in the late Sixties and early Seventies. We all recognized it.

[Williams]

Also the 8 miles high and falling fast combined w falllout shelter is the mushroom cloud and fallout or fears thereof.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Well, yeah, but what about “Vincent?”

[vanilla swirl]

” Saw a short piece on Lennon a while back and he said sometimes the words don’t mean anything.”

Lennon famously threw words together that sounded cool.
McCartney is an airhead that can put together a pretty turn of phrase.

To think we listened in rapt attention to the “Paul is dead” theorists. While the boys were laughing all the way to the bank.

Everybody was looking for a deeper meaning in those days.

[Oratam]

It’s a short history of rock & roll’s downward trajectory and the effect that has had on our culture.

[Oztrich Boy]

OK, but where does the flute fit in?

[Texas Songwriter]

Cadence and rhyme.

[Popman]

Hard not to miss the “america is changing” aspect of the song

It was interesting to see how the pieces fit together

[FreeAtlanta]

I think it is against Nuclear Weapons. If not, you can definitely fit it in.

[Terry Mross]

I’ve been saying that for 30 years. Clap your hands and you just caused a catastrophic event in the tiny universe on your palm.

[Terry Mross]

John Fogerty said he just liked to use strange lyrics.

[Fiji Hill]

The Byrds he spells with a Y, flew off to the fallout shelter. Nature, represented by the Byrds, sense the danger, headed for safety in a shelter.

Perhaps the "Byrds" refers to two of the most powerful Southern Democrats from the early 1930's to the early 1980's, Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-Va.) and his son, Harry, Jr., who succeeded him. Or perhaps it could refer to the liberal Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), whose power and influence in the Senate moved Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) to call it "the Byrd Bath."