Posted on 11/15/2013 6:48:59 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at angelfire.com ...
It may have been inspired by being struck at the tragedy of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, et al, but that doesn’t explain the lyrics at all. I’m guessing McLean must’ve been outraged at the happenstance of their death, and knew to redirect it.
Great.
Now I’m going to need an explanation of the meaning of “It’s a Small World” just so I can get “American Pie” out of my head.
I spent hours trying to figure out what it meant.
I never did but still love it.
.
I couldn’t get “It’s a small world” out of my mind for months after the 1964 World’s Fair in NY. Drove my parents crazy singing it all the time...
I always took it as a "dirge in the dark" not only about the deaths of the musical icons, but also the death of America the Free and moral and decent. You could feel the changes in the air and know that it was not good.
McLean answered the question himself a few years ago.
“What does ‘American Pie’ mean?,” he responded. “It means I never have to seriously work again for the rest of my life.”
This may well be. I’m just surprised (maybe I shouldn’t be?) that it took 40 years for the lyrics to be deciphered.
Well that certainly was an interesting read. I’ve always presumed it was about Buddy Holly, but never could reconcile the darker stanzas about the devil and all that.
This article explains it in a way that does make me think this revised (or better, “corrected”) meaning was referring to a lost America and the role the counter culture played.
I’ve heard the song and my impression is that McLean was singing about simpler times and the loss of them.
It is perplexing. It is much easier to grasp the subject matter of “Starry, Starry Night.” Van Gogh. “Now I understand what you tried to say to me. How you suffered for your sanity.”
Hunh. And all the time I thought it was about Buddy Holly.
But it was really about Jack Kennedy, and the Flower Generation, and Woodstock, and the satanic presence of Mick Jagger.
They have reaped the whirlwind.
At 4:33, a failsafe stand-by for when the disc jockey really needed to go to the bathroom.
Personally I prefer Starry, Starry Night. One of the most lyrically well-constructed songs ever written IMO. Nary a note nor a syllable wasted.
Forget American Pie, can I get an explanation for MacArthur Park?
Just someone’s opinion but not Don McLean’s explanation.
Sometimes you just pick out words at random so that they rhyme.
It was played in an endless loop in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam - and while I was there I didn’t get tired of it.
Admittedly I can be shallow at times but to me the song means a 6 pack of bud and hitting for the cycle in the back of a 58 Bel Air.
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