01 Intro (The Annotated "American Pie")
Description
This article is from the The Annotated American Pie FAQ, by Rich Kulawiec rsk@gsp.org with numerous contributions by others.
01 Intro (The Annotated "American Pie")
This particularly enigmatic song has been discussed at least once a year
since Usenet has had a newsgroup for discussing music. These discussions
frequently repeat themselves, but occasionally introduce new information
and new interpretations. Having watched this process repeat itself for
fifteen years, I've created this, the annotated "American Pie".
This posting consists of: the lyrics to the song (left-justified) with
comments (indented); the chords, for those who'd like to tackle it;
some miscellaneous notes; and references. Comments are most welcome;
comments backed up with references are *very* welcome.
The roots of this posting are in the "Great American Pie" Usenet discussion
of 1983; much of it comes from wombat's (the original wombat, not me)
posting in net.music on June 16, 1985. As Robert Williams has pointed
out to me, the entire song can be viewed as one big projective test, so
interpretations vary quite a bit. I've tried to be inclusive while
also indicating which ones I buy into and which I don't; your mileage
may vary. Note that Don McLean has been rather steadfastly
silent on this over the years; my hunch is that he derives a great
deal of quiet amusement from our attempts to dissect his lyrics.
A few years back, while being interviewed by Bob Costas on the "Later"
TV show, he was fairly surprised to find out that his song had
so much meaning.
Recently, many people have inquired as to why I just don't ask
Don McLean what he meant. Well...I probably could do that. I'll bet
that he's online *somewhere*. But I think that it's much more fun for
all of us to speculate and debate and discuss what we think it means.
In many ways, it tells us more about ourselves, and about what our music
and culture mean to us.
Besides, he gave us this song, which is one of the classics of
our time; I don't feel that we can rightfully ask any more of him.
So, buy his records and tapes and CDs and attend his shows; but please
don't bug him over this one song -- I have a hunch that he's had enough
of it over the years.
I must also tip my hat to Cecil Adams, whose "Straight Dope"
columns and books have been a source of joy and information to me since
I discovered them in the Chicago Reader years ago. If there is any
merit in this article's contents, credit Uncle Cecil for inspiring it.
(And my thanks to Ed Zotti for getting this article mentioned in
the latest S.D. book, "The Return of the Straight Dope". Go forth
and buy it and drink deeply from the fountain of wisdom.)
Oh -- and about that. When Uncle Cecil ran a note about American Pie
in his "Straight Dope" column on June 25, 1993 or so, it included some
additional material from an "interview" with McLean and Casey Kasem.
Several weeks later, the following letter appeared (August 3, 1993):
THE LAST WORD (PROBABLY) ON "AMERICAN PIE"
As you can imagine, over the years I've been asked many times
to discuss and explain my song "American Pie" [June25]. I have
never discussed the lyrics, but have admitted to the Holly
reference in the opening stanzas. I dedicated the album
American Pie to Buddy Holly as well in order to connect the
entire statement to Holly in hopes of bringing about an
interest in him, which subsequently did occur.
This brings me to my point. Casey Kasem never spoke to me and
none of the references he confirms my making were made by me.
You will find many "interpretations" of my lyrics but none of
them by me. Isn't this fun?
Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I
realized that songwriters should make their statements and move
on, maintaining a dignified silence.
- Don McLean
Castine, Maine
So, folks, let's leave the man alone. (Special thanks to Malcolm Humes
for sending this along.)
Incidentally, gentle reader, you'll find a revision history and credits
at the end of all this. Many thanks to those who have contributed.
Rich Kulawiec
rsk@itw.com
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