American Pie
May 4, 2024
This month I’m focusing on One Hit Wonders of the 70s.
Today our song is: American Pie
Wikipedia tells us this about the song:
The repeated phrase "the day the music died" refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash. The theme of the song goes beyond mourning McLean's childhood music heroes, reflecting the deep cultural changes and profound disillusion and loss of innocence of his generation – the early rock and roll generation – that took place between the 1959 plane crash and either late 1969 or late 1970. The meaning of the other lyrics, which cryptically allude to many of the jarring events and social changes experienced during that period, has been debated for decades. McLean repeatedly declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned; he eventually released his songwriting notes to accompany the original manuscript when it was sold in 2015, explaining many of these, and further elaborated on the lyrical meaning in a 2022 interview/documentary celebrating the song's 50th anniversary, in which he stated the song was driven by impressionism and debunked some of the more widely speculated symbols.
Enjoy!
I actually know all the words to the song, can sing it from memory. The song is so long that it takes up both sides of a 45; you’d listen to half the song, then flip the record over to hear the other half,
ReplyDeleteDon McLean actually charted more than once, he can’t be considered a one-hit wonder. “Vincent” reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This was a great song until they played the crap out of it, not to mention all the analyzing they did...
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