sorry,but what shall this trivia be about? the soundtrack?

Quote:


  I don't get it.

This is an old Usenet article about the lyrics for this song.  I take no responsibilitty for the accuracy, but I did edit out some of the unnecessary parts and edit spelling and grammar - Kevin

AMERICAN PIE by Don McLean

The entire song is a tribute to Buddy Holly and a commentary on how rock and roll changed in the years since his death.  McLean seems to be lamenting the lack of "danceable" music in rock and roll and (in part) attributing that lack to the absence of Buddy Holly et. al.

(Verse 1)

A long, long time ago...

"American Pie" reached #1 in the US in 1972, but the album containing it was released in 1971. Buddy Holly et.al. died in 1959.

I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance,
That I could make those people dance,
And maybe they'd be happy for a while.


One of early rock and roll's functions was to provide dance music for various social events. McLean recalls his desire to become a musician playing that sort of music.

But February made me shiver,


Buddy Holly died on the night of February 2, 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa during a snowstorm.  The news came to most of the world on the morning of February 3, which is why it's known as "The Day The Music Died."

With every paper I'd deliver,


Don McLean's only job besides being a full-time singer-songwriter was being a paperboy.

 Bad news on the doorstep...
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride


Holly's recent bride was pregnant when the crash took place; she had a miscarriage shortly afterward.

 But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.


The same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly also took the lives of Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and The Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace").  Since all three were so prominent at the time, February 3, 1959 became known as "The Day The Music Died".

 So bye bye, Miss American Pie,

Miss American Pie *is* rock and roll music.  Also Don McLean supposedly dated a Miss America candidate during the pageant.

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singing "This'll be the day that I die,
This'll be the day that I die."


One of Holly's hits was "That'll be the Day"; the chorus contains the line "That'll be the day <pause> that I die".


Verse 2 to follow...

(Verse 3)


Now for ten years we've been on our own

McLean was writing this song in the late 60's, about ten years after the crash.


And moss grows fat on a rolling stone

It's unclear who the "rolling stone" is supposed to be.  It could be Dylan, since "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) was his first major hit and since he was busy writing songs extolling the virtues of simple love, family and contentment while staying at home (he didn't tour from '66 to '74) and raking in the royalties.  This was quite a change from the earlier, angrier Dylan.

The "rolling stone" could also be Elvis, although I don't think he'd started to pork out by the late sixties.

It could refer to rock and rollers in general, and the changes that had taken place in the business in the 60's, especially the huge amounts of cash some of them were beginning to make, and the relative stagnation that entered the music at the same time.

Or, perhaps it's a reference to the stagnation in rock and roll.

Or, finally, it could refer to the Rolling Stones themselves; a lot of musicians were angry at the Stones for "selling out".  John Foxx of Ultravox was sufficiently miffed to write a song titled "Life At Rainbow's End (For All The
Tax Exiles On Main Street)".  The Stones at one point became citizens of some other country merely to save taxes.


But that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the King and Queen

The jester is Bob Dylan, as will become clear later. There are several interpretations of king and queen: some think that Elvis Presley is the king, which seems pretty obvious.  The queen is said to be either Connie Francis or Little Richard.  But see the next note.

An alternate interpretation is that this refers to the Kennedys -- the king and queen of "Camelot" -- who were present at a Washington DC civil rights rally featuring Martin Luther King (There's a recording of Dylan performing at this rally).


In a coat he borrowed from James Dean

In the movie "Rebel Without a Cause", James Dean has a red windbreaker that holds symbolic meaning throughout the film.  In one particularly intense scene, Dean lends his coat to a guy who is shot and killed; Dean's father arrives, sees the coat on the dead man, thinks it's Dean, and loses it.  On the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", Dylan is wearing just
such a red windbreaker, and is posed in a street scene similar to one shown in a well-known picture of James Dean.  Bob Dylan played a command performance for the Queen of England.  He was *not* properly attired, so perhaps this is a reference to his apparel.

In a voice that came from you and me

Bob Dylan's roots are in American folk music, with people like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Folk music is by definition the music of the masses, hence the "...came from you and me".
                 

Oh, and while the King was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown

This could be a reference to Elvis's decline and Dylan's ascendance (i.e. Presley is looking down from a height as Dylan takes his place).  The thorny crown might be a reference to the price of fame. Dylan has said that he wanted to be as famous as Elvis, one of his early idols.


The courtroom was adjourned,
No verdict was returned.

This could be the trial of the Chicago Seven, but McLean seems to be talking about music, not politics at this point in the song.  With that in mind, perhaps he meant that the arguments between Dylan and Elvis fans over who was better just couldn't be settled.

And while Lennon read a book on Marx,

Literally, John Lennon reading about Karl Marx; figuratively, the introduction of radical politics into the music of the Beatles.  Of course, he could be referring to Groucho Marx, but that doesn't seem quite consistent with McLean's overall tone. On the other hand, some of the wordplay in Lennon's lyrics and books is reminiscint of Groucho. The "Marx-Lennon" wordplay has also been used by others, most notably the Firesign Theatre on the cover of their album "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?".  Also, a famous French witticism was "Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho."; "I'm a Marxist of the Groucho variety".  It's also a pun on "Lenin".


The quartet practiced in the park

There are two schools of thought about this; the obvious one is the Beatles playing in Shea Stadium, but note that the previous line has John Lennon *doing something else at the same time*.  This tends to support the theory that this is a reference to The Weavers, who were blacklisted during the McCarthy era.  McLean had become friends with Lee Hays of The Weavers in the early 60's while performing in coffeehouses and clubs in upstate New York and New York City.  He was also well-acquainted with Pete Seeger; in fact, McLean, Seeger, and others took a trip on the Hudson river singing anti -pollution songs at one point.  Seeger's LP "God Bless the Grass" contains many of these songs.


And we sang dirges in the dark

A "dirge" is a funeral or mourning song, so perhaps this is meant literally...or, perhaps, this is a reference to some of the new "art rock" groups which played long pieces not meant for dancing.

The day the music died.
We were 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.

'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

"Sympathy for the Devil", by the Stones -- seems to fit with some of the surrouding material.  It's possible that this is a reference to the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil".  But I doubt it.  An alternative interpretation of the last four lines is that they may refer to Jack Kennedy and his quick decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis; the candlesticks and 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

The most likely interpretation is that McLean is still talking about Altamont, and in particular Mick Jagger's prancing and posing while it was happening.  The sacrifice is Meredith Hunter, and the bonfires around the area provide the flames.  It could be a reference to Jimi Hendrix burning his Stratocaster at the Monterey Pop Festival, but that was in 1967 and this verse is set in 1968.)

I saw satan laughing with delight

If the above is correct, then Satan would be Jagger.

The day the music died
He was singing...

Refrain

i dont know anything about don mclean but i know that with American Pie im never going to look at a flute the same way 

Keep in mind, MacLean has never defined the message in his song.  He has hinted from time to time, but anything you see written about it is conjecture.  The only known fact is the reference to the Buddy Holly tragedy.