761 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
761 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
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From: rsk@gynko.circ.upenn.edu (Rich Kulawiec)
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Subject: The Annotated "American Pie"
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Summary: Lyrics, chords, and notes on the song
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Keywords: American Pie, Don McLean, The Day the Music Died
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Message-ID: <103572@netnews.upenn.edu>
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Date: 3 Jan 93 21:13:38 GMT
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Reply-To: rsk@ecn.purdue.edu
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Organization: Go Big or Go Home
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Lines: 749
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This particularly enigmatic song has been discussed at least once a year
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since Usenet had a newsgroup for discussing music. These discussions
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frequently repeat themselves, but occasionally introduce new information
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and new interpretations. Having tired of watching the same process repeat
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itself for ten years, I've created this, the annotated "American Pie".
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This posting consists of: the lyrics to the song (left-justified) with
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comments (indented); the chords, for those who'd like to tackle it;
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some miscellaneous notes; and references. Comments are most welcome;
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comments backed up with references are *very* welcome. I have attempted
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to note where the interpretation is questionable.
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Credits, in rough chronological order:
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wombat@ccvaxa.uucp
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ihuxr!steck
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steiny@idsvax.uuucp
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ihldt!bnp
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sbcs!murray
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fortune!grw
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iws@rayssdb.ray.com (Ihor W. Slabicky)
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tugs@csri.toronto.edu (Stephen Hull)
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dko@calmasd.ge.com (Dan O'Neill)
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ssm@calmasd.ge.com (Sharon McBroom)
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mfterman@phoenix.princeton.edu (Martin Terman)
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rsk@gynko.circ.upenn.edu (Rich Kulawiec)
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tim@tcom.stc.co.uk (Tim Kennedy)
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rns@tortuga.sandiego.ncr.com (Rick Schubert)
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paul@moore.com (Paul Maclauchlan)
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rvloon@cv.ruu.nl (Ronald van Loon)
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wirth@sdsc.edu (Colleen Wirth)
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nelson@berlioz.nsc.com (Taed Nelson)
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bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger)
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Thomas.Sullivan@cs.cmu.edu (Tom Sullivan)
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H.Edwards@massey.ac.nz (Howard Edwards)
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gerry@macadam.mpce.mq.edu.au (Gerry Myerson)
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rice@mcz.harvard.edu
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dave@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Dave Hayes)
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rlwilliams@gallua.bitnet (Robert L. Williams)
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bee@ms.uky.edu (Elizabeth Gilliam)
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chris@gandalf.ca (Chris Sullivan)
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dtpilkey@mailbox.syr.edu (David T. Pilkey)
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Dan Stanley at Fitchburg State College (courtesy of
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Timothy J. Stanley, tjs@z.eecs.umich.edu)
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lgold@cadence.com (Lynn Gold)
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ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (Andrew J. Whitman)
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The roots of this posting are in the "Great American Pie" Usenet discussion
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of 1983; much of it comes from wombat's (the original wombat, not me)
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posting in net.music on June 16, 1985. As Robert Williams has pointed
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out to me, the entire song can be viewed as one big projective test, so
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interpretations vary quite a bit. I've tried to be inclusive while
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also indicating which ones I buy into and which I don't; your mileage
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may vary.
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---Rsk 1/3/93
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Revision history:
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1/20/92 Constructed from various old postings
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1/27/92 Added comments from Usenetters on first draft
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2/3/92 More comments folded in; reposted today, the
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anniversary of The Day the Music Died
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8/18/92 Added comments generated by the Februrary posting.
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1/3/93 Caught up on lots of updates that have been languishing
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in my inbound mail queue for months.
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AMERICAN PIE by Don McLean
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The entire song is a tribute to Buddy Holly and
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a commentary on how rock and roll changed in
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the years since his death. McLean seems to be
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lamenting the lack of "danceable" music in
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rock and roll and (in part) attributing that
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lack to the absence of Buddy Holly et. al.
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(Verse 1)
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A long, long time ago...
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"American Pie" reached #1 in the US in 1972, but
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the album containing it was released in 1971.
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Buddy Holly died in 1959.
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I can still remember how
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That music used to make me smile.
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And I knew if I had my chance,
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That I could make those people dance,
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And maybe they'd be happy for a while.
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One of early rock and roll's functions was to
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provide dance music for various social events.
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McLean recalls his desire to become a musician
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playing that sort of music.
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But February made me shiver,
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Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 in a plane
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crash in Iowa during a snowstorm.
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With every paper I'd deliver,
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Don McLean's only job besides being a full-time
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singer-songwriter was being a paperboy.
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Bad news on the doorstep...
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I couldn't take one more step.
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I can't remember if I cried
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When I read about his widowed bride
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Holly's recent bride was pregnant when the crash took
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place; she had a miscarriage shortly afterward.
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But something touched me deep inside,
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The day the music died.
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The same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly also
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took the lives of Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and
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The Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"). Since all three
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were so prominent at the time, February 3, 1959
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became known as "The Day The Music Died".
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So...
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(Refrain)
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Bye bye Miss American Pie,
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Don McLean dated a Miss America candidate
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during the pageant. (unconfirmed)
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Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
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Them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
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Singing "This'll be the day that I die,
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This'll be the day that I die."
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One of Holly's hits was "That'll be the Day"; the
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chorus contains the line "That'll be the day <pause>
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that I die".
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(Verse 2)
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Did you write the book of love,
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"The Book of Love" by the Monotones; hit in 1958.
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And do you have faith in God above,
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If the Bible tells you so?
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In 1955, Don Cornell did a song entitled
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"The Bible Tells Me So". Rick Schubert
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pointed this out, and mentioned that he
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hadn't heard the song, so it was kinda
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difficult to tell if it was what McLean
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was referencing. Anyone know for sure?
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There's also an old Sunday School song which goes:
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"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so"
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Now do you believe in rock 'n roll?
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The Lovin' Spoonful had a hit in 1965 with John
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Sebastian's "Do you Believe in Magic?". The song
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has the lines:
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"Do you believe in magic/it's like trying to tell
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a stranger 'bout rock and roll."
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Can music save your mortal soul?
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And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
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Dancing slow was an important part of early rock
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and roll dance events -- but declined in importance
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through the 60's as things like psychedelia and
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the 10-minute guitar solo gained prominence.
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Well I know you're in love with him
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'Cause I saw you dancing in the gym
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Back then, dancing was an expression of love, and
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carried a connotation of committment. Dance partners
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were not so readily exchanged as they would be later.
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You both kicked off your shoes
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A reference to the beloved "sock hop". (Street
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shoes tear up wooden basketball floors, so dancers
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had to take off their shoes.)
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Man, I dig those rhythm 'n' blues
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Some history. Before the popularity of rock and
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roll, music, like much else in the U. S., was
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highly segregated. The popular music of black
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performers for largely black audiences was
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called, first, "race music", later softened to
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rhythm and blues. In the early 50s, as they were
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exposed to it through radio personalities such as
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Allan Freed, white teenagers began listening,
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too. Starting around 1954, a number of songs
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from the rhythm and blues charts began appearing
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on the overall popular charts as well, but
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usually in cover versions by established white
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artists, (e. g. "Shake Rattle and Roll", Joe
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Turner, covered by Bill Haley; "Sh-Boom", the
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Chords, covered by the Crew-Cuts; "Sincerely",
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the Moonglows, covered by the Mc Guire Sisters;
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Tweedle Dee, LaVerne Baker, covered by Georgia
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Gibbs). By 1955, some of the rhythm and blues
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artists, like Fats Domino and Little Richard were
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able to get records on the overall pop charts.
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In 1956 Sun records added elements of country and
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western to produce the kind of rock and roll
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tradition that produced Buddy Holly.
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(Thanks to Barry Schlesinger for this historical
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note. ---Rsk)
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I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
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With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
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"A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)", was a hit
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for Marty Robbins in 1957.
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But I knew that I was out of luck
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The day the music died
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I started singing...
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Refrain
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(Verse 3)
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Now for ten years we've been on our own
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McLean was writing this song in the
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late 60's, about ten years after the crash.
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And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
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It's unclear who the "rolling stone" is
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supposed to be. It could be Dylan, since
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"Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) was his first
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major hit; and since he was busy writing
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songs extolling the virtues of simple love,
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family and contentment while staying at home
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(he didn't tour from '66 to '74) and raking
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in the royalties. This was quite a change
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from the earlier, angrier Dylan.
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The "rolling stone" could also be Elvis, although
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I don't think he'd started to pork out by the
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late sixties.
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It could refer to rock and rollers in general,
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and the changes that had taken place in the business
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in the 60's, especially the huge amounts of cash
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some of them were beginning to make, and the
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relative stagnation that entered the music at
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the same time.
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Or, perhaps it's a reference to the stagnation
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in rock and roll.
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But that's not how it used to be
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When the jester sang for the King and Queen
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The jester is Bob Dylan, as will become clear later.
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There are several interpretations of king and queen:
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some think that Elvis Presley is the king, which seems
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pretty obvious. The queen is said to be either Connie
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Francis or Little Richard. But see the next note.
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An alternate interpretation is that this refers to
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the Kennedys -- the king and queen of "Camelot" --
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who were present at a Washington DC civil rights
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rally featuring Martin Luther King. (There's
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a recording of Dylan performing at this rally.)
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In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
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In the movie "Rebel Without a Cause", James Dean has
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a red windbreaker that holds symbolic meaning
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throughout the film (see note at end). In one
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particularly intense scene, Dean lends his coat
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to a guy who is shot and killed; Dean's father
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arrives, sees the coat on the dead man, thinks
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it's Dean, and loses it.
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On the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan",
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Dylan is wearing just such as red windbreaker,
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and is posed in a street scene similar to one
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shown in a well-known picture of James Dean.
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Bob Dylan played a command performance for
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the Queen and Prince Consort of England.
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He was *not* properly attired, so perhaps
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this is a reference to his apparel.
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And a voice that came from you and me
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Bob Dylan's roots are in American folk music,
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with people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.
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Folk music is by definition the music of the
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masses, hence the "...came from you and me".
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Oh, and while the King was looking down
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The jester stole his thorny crown
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This could be a reference to Elvis's decline and
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Dylan's ascendance. (i.e. Presley is looking down
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from a height as Dylan takes his place.) The thorny
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crown might be a reference to the price of fame.
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Dylan has said that he wanted to be as famous as
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Elvis, one of his early idols.
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The courtroom was adjourned,
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No verdict was returned.
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This could be the trial of the Chicago Seven.
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And while Lennon read a book on Marx,
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Literally, John Lennon reading about Karl Marx;
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figuratively, the introduction of radical politics
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into the music of the Beatles. (Of course, he
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could be referring to Groucho Marx, but that doesn't
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seem quite consistent with McLean's overall tone.
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On the other hand, some of the wordplay in Lennon's
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lyrics and books is reminiscint of Groucho.)
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The quartet practiced in the park
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There are two schools of thought about this; the
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obvious one is the Beatles playing in Shea Stadium,
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but note that the previous line has John Lennon
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*doing something else at the same time*. This
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tends to support the theory that this is a reference
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to the Weavers, who were blacklisted during the
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McCarthy era. McLean had become friends with Lee Hays
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of the Weavers in the early 60's while performing
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in coffeehouses and clubs in upstate New York and
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New York City. He was also well-acquainted
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with Pete Seeger; in fact, McLean, Seeger, and others
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took a trip on the Hudson river singing
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anti-pollution songs at one point. Seeger's LP
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"God Bless the Grass" contains many of these songs.
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And we sang dirges in the dark
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A "dirge" is a funeral or mourning song, so perhaps
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this is meant literally...or, perhaps, this is a
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reference to some of the new "art rock" groups which
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played long pieces not meant for dancing.
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The day the music died.
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We were singing...
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Refrain
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(Verse 4)
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Helter Skelter in a summer swelter
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"Helter Skelter" is a Beatles song which appears
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on the "white" album. Charles Manson, claiming
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to have been "inspired" by the song (through which
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he thought God and/or the devil were taking to him)
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led his followers in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
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Is "summer swelter" a reference to the "Summer of
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Love" or perhaps to the "long hot summer" of Watts?
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The birds flew off with the fallout shelter
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Eight miles high and falling fast
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The Byrd's "Eight Miles High" was on their
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late 1966 release "Fifth Dimension". It was
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one of the first records to be widely banned because of supposedly drug-oriented lyrics.
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It landed foul on the grass
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One of the Byrds was busted for possesion of marijuana.
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The players tried for a forward pass
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Obviously a football metaphor, but about what?
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It could be the Rolling Stones, i.e. they were
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waiting for an opening which really didn't happen
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until the Beatles broke up.
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With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
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On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his Triumph 55
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motorcycle while riding near his home in Woodstock,
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New York. He spent nine months in seclusion while
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recuperating from the accident.
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Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
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Drugs, man.
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While sergeants played a marching tune
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Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
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Or, perhaps McLean refers to the Beatles' music
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as "marching" because it's not music for dancing.
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Alternatively, the "marching tune" could refer
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to the draft. (See below)
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We all got up to dance
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Oh, but we never got the chance
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The Beatles' 1966 Candlestick Park concert only
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lasted 35 minutes.
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Or, following on from the previous comment, perhaps
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he meant that there wasn't any music to dance to.
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'Cause the players tried to take the field,
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The marching band refused to yield.
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This could be a reference to the dominance of
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the Beatles on the rock and roll scene. For instance,
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the Beach Boys released "Pet Sounds" in 1966,
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an album which featured some of the same sort of studio
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and electronic experimentation as "Sgt. Pepper",
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but the album sold poorly because the Beatles'
|
||
|
release got most of the press.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Some folks think this refers to either the 1968
|
||
|
Deomcratic Convention or Kent State.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This might also be a comment about how the
|
||
|
dominance of the Beatles in the rock world
|
||
|
led to more "pop art" music, leading in turn
|
||
|
to a dearth of traditional rock and roll.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Or finally, this might be a comment which follows
|
||
|
up on the earlier reference to the draft: the
|
||
|
government/military-industrial-complex establishment
|
||
|
refused to accede to the demands of the peace movement.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Do you recall what was revealed,
|
||
|
The day the music died?
|
||
|
We started singing
|
||
|
|
||
|
Refrain
|
||
|
|
||
|
(Verse 5)
|
||
|
And there we were all in one place
|
||
|
|
||
|
Woodstock.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A generation lost in space
|
||
|
|
||
|
Some people think this is a reference to
|
||
|
the US space program, which it might be;
|
||
|
but that seems a bit too literal. Perhaps this
|
||
|
is a reference to "hippies", who were sometimes
|
||
|
known as the "lost generation", partially because
|
||
|
of their particularly acute alientation from
|
||
|
their parents, and partially because of their
|
||
|
presumed preoccupation with drugs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It could also be a reference to the awful TV
|
||
|
show, "Lost in Space", whose title was sometimes
|
||
|
used as a synonym for someone who was rather high...
|
||
|
but I keep hoping that McLean had better taste. :-)
|
||
|
|
||
|
With no time left to start again
|
||
|
|
||
|
The "lost generation" spent too much time being
|
||
|
stoned, and had wasted their lives? Or, perhaps,
|
||
|
their preference for psychedelia had pushed rock
|
||
|
and roll so far from Holly's music that it couldn't
|
||
|
be retrieved.
|
||
|
|
||
|
So come on Jack be nimble Jack be quick
|
||
|
|
||
|
Probably a reference to Mick Jagger of the
|
||
|
Rolling Stones; "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was
|
||
|
released in May, 1968.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Stones' Candlestick park concert?
|
||
|
(unconfirmed)
|
||
|
|
||
|
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend
|
||
|
|
||
|
It's possible that this is a reference to
|
||
|
the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil".
|
||
|
|
||
|
An alternative interpretation of the last four
|
||
|
lines is that they may refer to Jack Kennedy
|
||
|
and his quick decisions during the Cubam Missile
|
||
|
Crisis; the candlesticks/fire refer to ICBMs
|
||
|
and nuclear war.
|
||
|
|
||
|
And as I watched him on the stage
|
||
|
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
|
||
|
No angel born in hell
|
||
|
Could break that satan's spell
|
||
|
|
||
|
While playing a concert at the Altamont
|
||
|
Speedway in 1968, the Stones appointed
|
||
|
members of the Hell's Angels to work security
|
||
|
(on the advice of the Grateful Dead). In the
|
||
|
darkness near the front of the stage, a young
|
||
|
man named Meredith Hunter was beaten and stabbed to
|
||
|
death -- by the Angels. Public outcry that
|
||
|
the song "Sympathy for the Devil" had somehow
|
||
|
incited the violence caused the Stones to
|
||
|
drop the song from their show for the next
|
||
|
six years. This incident is chronicled in
|
||
|
the documentary film "Gimme Shelter".
|
||
|
|
||
|
It's also possible that McLean views the Stones
|
||
|
as being negatively inspired (remember, he had
|
||
|
an extensive religious background) by virtue
|
||
|
of "Sympathy for the Devil", "Their Satanic
|
||
|
Majesties' Request" and so on. I find this a bit
|
||
|
puzzling, since the early Stones recorded a lot
|
||
|
of "roots" rock and roll, including Buddy Holly's
|
||
|
"Not Fade Away".
|
||
|
|
||
|
And as the flames climbed high into the night
|
||
|
To light the sacrificial rite
|
||
|
This could be a reference to Jimi Hendrix
|
||
|
burning his Stratocaster at the Monterey
|
||
|
Pop Festival.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It's possible that this refers to the burial
|
||
|
of Kennedy, but I'm not sure I buy this.
|
||
|
For one thing, it doesn't fit chronologically,
|
||
|
and for another, McLean seems more interested
|
||
|
in music than politics.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I saw satan laughing with delight
|
||
|
The day the music died
|
||
|
He was singing...
|
||
|
|
||
|
Refrain
|
||
|
|
||
|
(Verse 6)
|
||
|
I met a girl who sang the blues
|
||
|
|
||
|
Janis Joplin.
|
||
|
|
||
|
And I asked her for some happy news
|
||
|
But she just smiled and turned away
|
||
|
|
||
|
Janis died of an accidental heroin overdose
|
||
|
on October 4, 1970.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I went down to the sacred store
|
||
|
Where I'd heard the music years before
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are two interpretations of this:
|
||
|
The "sacred store" was Bill Graham's Fillmore East,
|
||
|
one of the great rock and roll venues of all time.
|
||
|
Alternatively, this refers to record stores,
|
||
|
and their longtime (then discontinued)
|
||
|
practice of allowing customers to preview
|
||
|
records in the store.
|
||
|
It could also refer to record stores as "sacred"
|
||
|
because this is where one goes to get "saved".
|
||
|
(See above lyric "Can music save your mortal soul?")
|
||
|
|
||
|
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
|
||
|
|
||
|
Perhaps he means that nobody is interested in
|
||
|
hearing Buddy Holly et.al.'s music? Or, as above,
|
||
|
the discontinuation of the in-store listening booths.
|
||
|
|
||
|
And in the streets the children screamed
|
||
|
|
||
|
"Flower children" being beaten by police
|
||
|
and National Guard troops?
|
||
|
|
||
|
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
|
||
|
|
||
|
The trend towards psychedelic music in the 60's?
|
||
|
|
||
|
But not a word was spoken
|
||
|
The church bells all were broken
|
||
|
|
||
|
It could be that the broken bells are the dead
|
||
|
musicians: neither can produce any more music.
|
||
|
|
||
|
And the three men I admire most
|
||
|
The Father Son and Holy Ghost
|
||
|
|
||
|
Holly, The Big Bopper, and Valens
|
||
|
-- or --
|
||
|
Hank Williams, Presley and Holly
|
||
|
-- or --
|
||
|
JFK, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy
|
||
|
-- or --
|
||
|
the Catholic aspects of the deity.
|
||
|
McLean had attended several Catholic schools.
|
||
|
|
||
|
They caught the last train for the coast
|
||
|
|
||
|
Could be a reference to wacky California religions,
|
||
|
or could just be a way of saying that they've left.
|
||
|
Or, perhaps this is a reference to the famous
|
||
|
"God is Dead" headline in the New York Times.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The day the music died
|
||
|
|
||
|
This tends to support the conjecture that the "three
|
||
|
men" were Holly/Bopper/Valens, since this says that
|
||
|
they left on the day the music died.
|
||
|
|
||
|
And they were singing...
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Refrain (2x)
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Chords to the song:
|
||
|
|
||
|
The song appears to be in G; the chords are:
|
||
|
|
||
|
Intro: G Bm/F# Em . Am . C .
|
||
|
Em . D . . .
|
||
|
G Bm/F# Em . Am . C .
|
||
|
Em . A . D . . .
|
||
|
Em . Am . Em . Am .
|
||
|
C G/B Am . C . D .
|
||
|
G Bm/F# Em . Am . C .
|
||
|
G Bm/F# Em . Am . D .
|
||
|
G . C . G . D .
|
||
|
|
||
|
Chorus: G . C . G . D .
|
||
|
G . C . G . D .
|
||
|
G . C . G . D .
|
||
|
|
||
|
Em . . . A . . . (all but
|
||
|
Em . . . D . . . last chorus)
|
||
|
|
||
|
C . D . G C G . (last chorus)
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Other notes:
|
||
|
|
||
|
"Killing Me Softly With His Song", Roberta Flack's Grammy Award-winning
|
||
|
single of 1973, was written by Charles Gimble and Norman Fox about McLean.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Big Bopper's real name was J.P. Richardson. He was a DJ for a
|
||
|
Texas radio station who had one very big novelty hit, the very well
|
||
|
known "Chantilly Lace". There was a fourth person who was going to
|
||
|
ride the plane. There was room for three, ahd the fourth person lost
|
||
|
the toss -- or should I say won the toss. His name is Waylon
|
||
|
Jennings...and to this day he refuses to talk about the crash.
|
||
|
|
||
|
About the "coat he borrowed from James Dean": James Dean's red
|
||
|
windbreaker is important throughout the film, not just at the end.
|
||
|
When he put it on, it meant that it was time to face the world, time to
|
||
|
do what he thought had to be done, and other melodramatic but
|
||
|
thoroughly enjoyable stuff like that. The week after the movie came
|
||
|
out, virtually every clothing store in the U.S. was sold out
|
||
|
of red windbreakers. Remember that Dean's impact was similar
|
||
|
to Dylan's: both were a symbol for the youth of their time, a reminder
|
||
|
that they had something to say and demanded to be listened to.
|
||
|
|
||
|
American Pie is supposed to be the name of the plane that crashed,
|
||
|
containing the three guys that died. (Reported by Ronald van Loon
|
||
|
from the discussion on American Pie, autumn 1991, on rec.music.folk)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Dan Stanley mentioned an interesting theory involving all of this;
|
||
|
roughly put, he figures that if Holly hadn't died, then we would not
|
||
|
have suffered through the Fabian/Pat Boone/et.al. era...and as a consequence,
|
||
|
we wouldn't have *needed* the Beatles -- Holly was moving pop music away
|
||
|
from the stereotypical boy/girl love lost/found lyrical ideas, and was
|
||
|
recording with unique instrumentation and techniques...things that Beatles
|
||
|
wouldn't try until about 1965. Perhaps Dylan would have stuck with the
|
||
|
rock and roll he played in high school, and the Byrds never would have
|
||
|
created an amalgam of Dylan songs and Beatle arrangements.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Lynn Gold tells me that "Life" magazine carried an annotated version
|
||
|
of American Pie when the song came out; does anybody have a copy?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Andrew Whitman brings a sense of perspective to all of this by noting:
|
||
|
|
||
|
>As to what they threw off the bridge, Bobbie Gentry once went on record with
|
||
|
>the statement that it was the mystery that made the song, and that the mystery
|
||
|
>would remain unsolved. Don McLean later used the same device to even greater
|
||
|
>success with "American Pie," which triggered a national obsession on figuring
|
||
|
>out the "real meaning" of the song.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Well, probably not a national obsession, but certainly the life's work
|
||
|
of many talented scholars. According to the latest edition of the
|
||
|
"American Pie Historical Interpretive Digest" (APHID), noted McLean
|
||
|
historian Vincent Vandeman has postulated that cheezy country
|
||
|
songs may have played a much more prominent role in the epic
|
||
|
composition than had originally been thought. In particular, the
|
||
|
"widowed bride," usually supposed to be either Ella Holly or
|
||
|
Joan Rivers, may in fact be Billie Jo. According to this radical
|
||
|
exegesis, the "pink carnation" of McLean's song is probably what
|
||
|
was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and was later found by
|
||
|
the lonely, teenaged McLean as he wandered drunkenly on the levee.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Of course, such a view poses problems. McLean vehemently denies any
|
||
|
knowledge of Choctaw Ridge, and any theory linking the two songs
|
||
|
must surely address this mysterious meeting place of Billie Jo and
|
||
|
her husband Billy Joe. Vandeman speculates that Choctaw Ridge may
|
||
|
have been the place McLean drove his Chevy after drinking whiskey
|
||
|
and rye, and that McLean may have been unaware of the name because
|
||
|
of his foggy mental state. Still, there appear to be many tenuous
|
||
|
connections in Vandeman's interpretation - Tammy Wynette as the
|
||
|
girl who sang the blues, the proposed affair between Wynette and
|
||
|
Billie Joe which later led to d-i-v-o-r-c-e and Billy Joe's
|
||
|
suicide, the mysterious whereabouts of George Jones, and why
|
||
|
McLean insisted on driving a Chevy to the levee instead of a more
|
||
|
economical Japanese car.
|
||
|
|
||
|
My own view is that none of it makes much sense. Vandeman's theory
|
||
|
is intriguing, but it seems far more logical to hold to the traditional
|
||
|
interpretation of "American Pie" as an eschatological parable of
|
||
|
nuclear destruction and the rebirth of civilization on Alpha Centauri.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Thanks, Andrew. I'll take it under advisement. ;-)
|
||
|
|
||
|
References:
|
||
|
|
||
|
Billboard Book of Number One Hits, by Fred Bronson, Billboard, 1985.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul, revised edition, by Irwin Stambler,
|
||
|
St. Martin's Press, 1989.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rock Chronicle, by Dan Formento, Delilah/Putnam, 1982.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rock Day by Day, by Steve Smith and the Diagram Group, Guiness Books, 1987.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rock Topicon, by Dave Marsh, Sandra Choron and Debbie Geller,
|
||
|
Contemporary Books, 1984.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, ed. by Jon Pareles and
|
||
|
Patricia Romanowski, Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1983.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rolling Stone Record Guide, ed. by Dave Marsh with John Swenson, Random
|
||
|
House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, by Todd Gitlin, Bantam Book, 1987.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire's History of the Sixties, ed. by
|
||
|
Harold Hayes, Esquire Press, 1987.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It was Twenty Years ago Today: An Anniversary Celebration of 1967, by
|
||
|
Derek Taylor, Fireside, 1987.
|
||
|
|
||
|
--
|