Today’s classic song of the day was released on this day, November 27, 1971. It was a phenomenon, achieving the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks straight in January of 1972. It also hit #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and was a top ten single in countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, the UK, and West Germany.
The song is “American Pie” and it was written and performed by folksinger Don McLean, appearing on his 1971 album of the same name. If you weren’t around back then you have no idea the ruckus this one caused; it was an 8 minute, 42 second track (split in two parts for the A and B sides of the 7″ single) that detailed, in codified form, popular music from the late 1950s through the end of the 1960s.
Deciphering the lyrics to “American Pie” was a popular pastime back then; everybody and his brother was trying to figure out who or what McLean was referring to when he sang about the King or the Joker or other figures or events. I’ll do the hard work for you and suggest that:
- The day the music died (when “February made me shiver”) was February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed in a small plane crash in Iowa
- His widowed bride was Buddy Holly’s pregnant wife (she suffered a miscarriage)
- The Book of Love was a 1958 hit by the Monotones
- If the Bible tells you so refers to a lyric in the children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me”
- Do you believe in rock and roll is a line from the Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1965 hit, “Do You Believe in Magic?”
- With a pink carnation and a pickup truck refers (obliquely) to Marty Robbins’ 1957 hit, “A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)”
- For ten years we’ve been on your own refers to the ten years since the 1959 plane crash; presumably, McLean started writing this song in 1969
- Moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone refers to Bob Dylan’s 1965 song, “Like a Rolling Stone.” which merged the folk and rock genres
- But that’s not how it used to be refers to how “Like a Rolling Stone” differed from Dylan’s previous straight folk tunes
- When the Jester sang for the King and Queen—the Jester is Dylan, of course, and in this instance the King and Queen of folk music are Pete Seeger and Joan Baez
- In a coat he borrowed from James Dean refers to the red windbreaker that Dylan wore on the cover of his The Freelwheelin’ Bob Dylan album, which was reminiscent of the one James Dean wore in the movie Rebel Without a Cause
- While the King was looking down refers to a different King, in this instance Elvis Presley, who was out of action for a period when he was drafted into the Army from 1958 to 1960 and then was relegating to acting in a series of mostly inconsequential movies
- The Jester stole his thorny crown refers to Dylan redefining popular music during the period when Elvis was busy doing those lame movies
- The courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned probably refers to JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was killed (by Jack Ruby) before he had a chance to stand trial
- Lennon read a book of Marx refers to Beatle John Lennon taking a leftward political turn
- The quartet practiced in the park refers to the Beatles’ last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco
- We sang dirges in the dark probably refers to the public mourning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Helter Skelter in a summer swelter refers to the Beatles’ tune “Helter Skelter,” was was adopted by cult leader Charles Manson before he and his followers murdered actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 8, 1969
- The birds flew off to a fallout shelter refers, of course, to the folk-rock group the Byrds; it may also reference a member of the group entering rehab (the “fallout shelter”) for drug addiction
- Eight miles high and falling fast—again, the Byrds, but also how drug addiction led to the downfall of several rock musicians of the time
- They landed foul on the grass—marijuana, most likely
- The players tried for a forward pass, referring to the student protests of the late ’60s
- With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast is about Bob Dylan being sidelined for a time after a motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966
- The halftime air was sweet perfume—the scent of marijuana
- While sergeants played a marching tune, referring to the Beatles’ groundbreaking album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The players tried to take the field but the marching band refused to yield—again, student protesters (the “players”) meeting the resistance of police and the National Guard (the “marching band”)
- And then we were all in one place—that one place being 1969’s Woodstock Festival
- A generation lost in space—this was the decade of space exploration, culminating in the 1969 moon landing
- Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candlestick refers to Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones and their song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
- Fire is the devil’s only friend—still the Stones, this time referring to their song, “Sympathy for the Devil”
- I watched him from the stage, referring to the Stones’ ill-fated December 6, 1969 concert at the Altamont Speedway
- No angel born in hell could break that Satan’s spell, still at Altamont, where members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, acting as “security,” killed an audience member
- I saw Satan laughing with delight—Altamont was the end of the ’60s and an end of an era; peace and love did not prevail
- I met a girl who sang the blues—Janis Joplin
- I went down to the sacred store—any old record store
- The man there said the music wouldn’t play—by this point in time, nobody wanted to listen to ’50s “oldies” any more
- In the street the children screamed, the lovers cried and the poets dreamed—lamenting the end of an era
- The church bells all were broken, referring to the decline of religion and spirituality
- The three men I admire most… Caught the last train for the coast—ditto
There’s probably a bit more in there I missed and my interpretation may not be 100% on the mark, but you get the gist of it. Ultimately some pretty depressing lyrics about a turbulent time in American history, set to a rollicking up-tempo tune. It was pure genius and listeners embraced it like few songs on the radio then or before.
“American Pie” has been played to death, then and now, which has caused many to despise the song. That doesn’t take away from its inherent greatness, however. While I don’t think this is Don McLean’s best composition (I happen to prefer tunes like “Vincent” and “Castles in the Air,” both previous classic songs of the day), “American Pie” is still a groundbreaking piece of music, one with unique cultural impact. It’s also one of which almost all of us know almost all of the words. So come on now, sing along with me:
They were singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
