We are now entering the proverbial minefield. The meaning of ‘American Pie’ song lyrics has been a subject of discussion since the song came out in 1971. It was taken from the hugely influential album of the same name. This was his second album release and reached #1 in America and #2 in the UK.
This is a song that defines certain aspects of America in the eyes of McLean. Some of it is accurate, some is conjecture, and some of it is buried in cryptic wordplay. And, despite being over 50 years old, people today are still searching for the meaning of the song “American Pie.”
This is not going to be a deep, dark examination of the lyrics…
Instead, we’ll look at some references that take us on a journey through the culture of America at a certain time. Some of that journey is subjective and will not be received well in some quarters. But, it is just an opinion. The last time I looked, we were still allowed those. Perhaps “the music” hasn’t completely died after all.
Formative?
It was a period that could be described as formative in American history. It could also be described as one of its most destructive periods. So, let’s take the lyrics at face value and look at the story the way he saw it when he wrote the song.
It takes us through a period from 1959 to the height of the Vietnam war in 1970. We will divide it up into various sections for explanatory purposes. And I will take a special look at the lyrics of that iconic chorus towards the end. But let’s start at the beginning as we unravel what the lyrics of “America Pie” mean.
The Pre-Verse
At the outset, before the song gets going, there is a pre-verse added to set the scene for what’s to follow. In this case, McLean is talking about the times he listens to music and Buddy Holly. And how he wants to be a musician himself one day.
He has a job delivering newspapers, and one day he is stopped in his tracks in the February cold. The day in question is February 3, 1959. Or, as he eloquently puts it, “the day the music died.” That, of course, was the day that Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper were all killed in a plane crash.
They had been performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. All three were established Rock n Roll icons of the time, but still getting better and on the rise. Take a listen to Rave On: Very Best of Buddy Holly, the Best Of Ritchie Valens, and The Best Of Big Bopper. Even at a young age, McLean says he was touched inside by the news and thought about Maria Elena, Holly’s wife.
The First Verse
The real opening to the song is the chorus, but we are going to look at that later. So, let’s start with the first verse. Once again, we are back in his youth. But now, he appears to be one of the older boys at his school. He is talking about losing girlfriends, saying he knows “she’s in love with him.” He knows that because he saw them and they were “dancing in the gym.”
This was when Rock n Roll was taking over, for want of a better expression. And the first verse asks the listener if they “believe in rock and roll.” The first few lines are often misquoted as religious in context, but he is just quoting song titles from those days. The Monotones song “Who Wrote The Book Of Love.” And a song by Don Cornell, “The Bible Tells Me So.” So, no deep meanings are involved there.
He talks about being lonely and having “a pink carnation” and driving a “pickup truck.” But, the enthusiasm of it all died with “the music.” Again, he is just painting a picture within the story.
The Second Verse
Now we are moving into more imaginative creations with “American Pie.” The song, like his existence, had been plain and simple thus far. Just how life would have been viewed for a young boy of his age. But now it has all changed. We go forward ten years.
He released the song in May of 1971, which means he may have started writing it in 1970 or even 1969. That would be about ten years after the plane crash. He refers to it in the first line of the second verse, saying they had been on their own “for ten years.”
Then we move into areas of conjecture…
He talks about the jester and how he “sang for king and queen.” Also, a coat that the jester had borrowed from James Dean. The opinion is that he is referring to Bob Dylan as the jester. Dean wore a jacket in the film Rebel Without a Cause. Dylan wears a similar, not identical, jacket on the cover of his 1963 album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
The King and Queen?
Some have considered they were The Kennedys. In this scenario, the jester becomes Lee Harvey Oswald. Rather unlikely, and maybe we should look closer to home.
If we are saying the ‘jester’ was Dylan, we should remember McLean admired Woody Guthrie, but also Pete Seeger. Also, at that time, Joan Baez was one of his favorite songwriters and people. Perhaps Seeger is the ‘King’ and Baez the ‘Queen.’ We then move into an area where there is much disagreement and debate.
The jester steals the “king’s thorny crown.” Some have said the king is representative of Presley, but I doubt that. Is he talking about Seeger being the ‘King’ of folk at the time? And the ‘Queen’ is Baez, who has a similar status in his eyes. So, is it that Bob crept up musically behind both of those renowned artists and ‘stole’ their crown and became more important than both?
The Beatles
He then appears to drag The Beatles into the fray and seems to take a dig at John Lennon. There are two issues to consider here. Firstly, there were many people, including musicians and recording managers, in America who hated The Beatles at the time. Some just couldn’t bear to think that the Brits produced the greatest band in the world over which they had little control.
Secondly, Americans have a neurosis about anything to do with communism. So, how do you destroy The Beatles’ reputation? Link them with “those darned reds.” He is seeming to have a go at John by saying, “Lennon read a book on Marx.”
However, there is no evidence for that at all. Just because you have left-wing tendencies, as Lennon did, doesn’t make you a communist. Nor does it mean he was reading Karl Marx and adopting his ideas from The Communist Manifesto.
As I said in the introduction, conjecture…
McLean might as well have been talking about Groucho Marx. He ends the verse by saying, “the quartet practiced in the park.” That could be another reference to The Beatles, but it could also refer to any quartet. Nothing is clarified.
However, it could refer to the church gardens or park where two of the Beatles first met in Woolton, Liverpool. John and his group, the Quarrymen, were practicing there when Paul was introduced to John.
The Third verse
Plenty of creative writing and cryptic clues start the third verse. He mentions “Helter Skelter”. That was a Beatles track from the White Album. It was associated with the Sharon Tate murders committed by Charles Manson and his cohorts.
It also references the song “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds. That was a song about drugs, especially LSD, that the band buried in a story. That story tells how one of the band asked how high they were at that time on a flight.
It was explained away because they knew any drug references would mean them being banned from some radio stations. There is a comment that might be interpreted as their songs getting worse. ‘Falling foul on grass,’ possibly because of drug use.
Now it starts to get confusing…
“American Pie” takes us to an American football game where there are some more cryptic messages in “American Pie” song lyrics. He refers to the ‘jester’ watching from the sidelines, possibly referring to Dylan’s motorcycle accident which had him in plaster for a while.
The Marching Band
At football games, there is sometimes a marching band at half-time, and this seems to be the case here. He calls them the “sergeants.” He says that the people “got up to dance.” Evidently, they couldn’t because the marching band wouldn’t leave the field and let the players back on.
So, who was who in this scenario?
Some seem to think the sergeants stopping the people were The Beatles again. Boy, some people really hate them, don’t they? Why would The Beatles stop the fans from enjoying themselves? They wouldn’t.
Just maybe, the fans were anti-war protesters, and the sergeants were the police or National Guard. On hand to stop the demonstration. It isn’t as if either organization hasn’t got a reputation for unwarranted aggression in those situations. Even the murder of peaceful protesters in Kent State, Ohio, that Neil Young wrote about.
Perhaps the “day the music died” in this context refers to something else. The final loss of innocence in a society that claimed to be ‘free’ but quite clearly wasn’t anymore. As I said, it was also a destructive period socially.
The Fourth Verse
And so, to the final verse, as we search for the meaning of ‘American Pie’ song lyrics, we arrive at the end of the 60s. A decade that promised so much. But, did it deliver? Some would say not at all.
The 60s created imaginary freedoms, but the same people were still running the show. As Pete Townshend wrote, “Meet the new boss.” It was a generation that had somehow got, as the song says, “lost in space.”
Woodstock is seen as the culmination of this period in 1969. But, as the song intimates, that wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Woodstock is glossed over with an imaginary lacquer that pretends it was special. Some of the music might have been, but the event wasn’t. It could have been used for something positive, but that would have taken clear heads and a sense of purpose. There wasn’t either around.
The Image Of Satan Laughing
Metaphorically, of course, but the meaning was clear. Something that some people have a hard time understanding and an even harder time accepting. I am sure this is going to cause a few comments, but I am going to say it anyway.
The Rolling Stones were never the best rock n roll band in the world. They weren’t even the best in West London in the mid-60s. The Yardbirds were far better. So was John Mayall. Keith Richards was good at Chuck Berry but very average at everything else. So, when he started going on about how good Beck or Page was, we took no notice.
If you were there at the time, you would know. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t know. It was all a corporate con encouraged by dubious personal behavior to rival the clean-cut Beatles. McLean rips open the myth in the song and describes them in chilling rhetoric.
But, he takes it a stage further…
In 1969, The Rolling Stones organized a concert in Livermore, California, at the Altamont Speedway track. For security, a Hells Angels chapter was hired for security duties. Now, there is an intelligent idea. Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death as they played, and the concert descended into chaos, as it was always going to.
Hunter was armed with a pistol as he had been warned about racial problems in that area. The “security” had knives. He had no chance; he was 18 years old. “Satan” was indeed laughing with delight.
How far from the smiling Buddy Holly had we come in just ten years? The corporations and their paid “pretend” superstars who sold out to them had taken control. And brainwashed the people in the bargain. Watching them on the stage made him “clench his fists with rage.” And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Once again, “the music died.”
Harsh?
Possibly to some, but Don McLean seems to have understood what was going on. And he used some graphic comments to allude to this meaning in “American Pie” lyrics.
And So It Ends
We move towards the end of this iconic song with the mention of the girl who sang The Blues. Maybe Janis Joplin? She also has no answers and just turns away.
He talks about revisiting those earlier days of innocence. Again, he metaphorically describes how he went back to his old record store. His ‘sacred store,’ where he hopes to revisit the nostalgia of his younger days.
But, he realized that it was all gone now…
The promise that had been Rock’ n Roll to him was now just a lie. “The music wouldn’t play.” It was different now. He seems to use music as a representative of society as a whole. Somewhere, it had all gone terribly wrong.
McLean had received a strict religious upbringing and invoked the comment about the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. He says they “took the last train.”
Given up themselves, maybe? Was McLean that distraught that he thought the people he had viewed as most important in his life had given up and just left? Of course, he could just be talking about the three who died in the plane crash.
Finally, The Chorus
We all sang along with it and have done so for years. But, even here, there is a little confusion about the meaning of ‘American Pie’ song lyrics. It produces some imagery that is important to most Americans.
The idea of ‘American Pie,’ or apple pie, something synonymous with American culture, saying goodbye? What is that about? A generation giving the responsibility away for what occurred in just ten years?
Chevy to the levee…
That seems quite obvious and clear-cut. Kids would kick around at the local levees in the 50s and later. Even racing their cars there. But, “the levee was dry.” Isn’t it supposed to be? Isn’t it protection against flooding?
An alternative meaning could refer to a bar that the young McLean would hang out in New York called ‘The Levee.’ Perhaps it means he and his friends couldn’t get served anymore for some reason.
Drinking whisky and rye…
Perhaps just a description of “sinking a few.” But, at the same time, singing, “this will be the day.” Perhaps changing Holly’s song a little from “That’ll be the day.” So, as you can see, deciphering what the song “American Pie” lyrics mean is no easy task. It’s all conjecture and highly subjective.
Want to Learn More About Famous Singers and Songs?
If so, have a look at our comprehensive features on Axl Rose’s Vocal Range, Is Stan Based On A True Story, The Meanings Behind Wade In The Water, What Instrument Did Louis Armstrong Play, and Did Elvis Write Any Songs for more interesting musical information.
Meaning Of ‘American Pie’ Song Lyrics – Final Thoughts
Is this one of the greatest songs ever? I think so. It ranks alongside the best of Dylan, Lightfoot, Chapin, and Lennon. In some ways, a snapshot of a time in history when everything changed. At times critical and at other times nostalgic.
Taking us from the innocence of Buddy Holly to the let-down that was Woodstock and to the dangerous disaster that was Altamont. And, it still leaves much to be answered, shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the real message is how fast things can change.
This may have been Don McLean’s “masterpiece,” but he wrote plenty of great songs. You can hear them on the album American Pie: The Greatest Hits. As for the meaning behind the lyrics in “American Pie,” it is quite a journey.
Until next time, happy listening.
