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| Next single = "[[Vincent (song)|Vincent]]" <br>(1972)
| Next single = "[[Vincent (song)|Vincent]]" <br>(1972)
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'''''American Pie''''' Justin sucks is a [[folk-rock]] song by [[singer-songwriter]] [[Don McLean]] about "[[The Day the Music Died|the day the music died]]."
'''''American Pie''''' hey blade, Justin sucks doesn't he? is a [[folk-rock]] song by [[singer-songwriter]] [[Don McLean]] about "[[The Day the Music Died|the day the music died]]."


Recorded in [[1971]] and released that year on the [[American Pie (album)|album of the same name]], the [[single (music)|single]] was a number-one U.S. hit for four weeks in [[1972 in music|1972]]. The song is an [[allusion|allusive]] history of [[rock and roll]] that starts with the [[The Day the Music Died|deaths]] of [[Buddy Holly]], [[Ritchie Valens]] and J. P. Richardson, Jr. ([[The Big Bopper]]) in a [[The Day the Music Died|plane crash in 1959]], and ends in [[1970]]. The importance of "American Pie" to America's musical and cultural heritage was recognized by the [[Songs of the Century]] education project which listed the song performed by Don McLean as the number five song of the twentieth century.
Recorded in [[1971]] and released that year on the [[American Pie (album)|album of the same name]], the [[single (music)|single]] was a number-one U.S. hit for four weeks in [[1972 in music|1972]]. The song is an [[allusion|allusive]] history of [[rock and roll]] that starts with the [[The Day the Music Died|deaths]] of [[Buddy Holly]], [[Ritchie Valens]] and J. P. Richardson, Jr. ([[The Big Bopper]]) in a [[The Day the Music Died|plane crash in 1959]], and ends in [[1970]]. The importance of "American Pie" to America's musical and cultural heritage was recognized by the [[Songs of the Century]] education project which listed the song performed by Don McLean as the number five song of the twentieth century.

Revision as of 16:42, 13 November 2007

For other uses, see American Pie (song) (disambiguation).
"American Pie"
Song
B-side"Empty Chairs (first release) American Pie part 2 (second release)"

American Pie hey blade, Justin sucks doesn't he? is a folk-rock song by singer-songwriter Don McLean about "the day the music died."

Recorded in 1971 and released that year on the album of the same name, the single was a number-one U.S. hit for four weeks in 1972. The song is an allusive history of rock and roll that starts with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, Jr. (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959, and ends in 1970. The importance of "American Pie" to America's musical and cultural heritage was recognized by the Songs of the Century education project which listed the song performed by Don McLean as the number five song of the twentieth century.

The song's lyrics are the subject of much curiosity. Although McLean dedicated the American Pie album to Buddy Holly, none of the singers in the plane crash are identified by name in the song itself. Asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean once replied, "It means I never have to work again."[1] Later, he more seriously stated, "You will find many 'interpretations' of my lyrics but none of them by me...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."[2]

Components

Autobiographical theme

Don McLean's website describes the songwriter's purpose:

"['American Pie' is] autobiographical and presents an abstract story of Don McLean's life from the mid 1950s until when he wrote the song in the late 1960s. It is almost entirely symbolized by the evolution of popular music over these years and represents a change from the lightness of the 1950s to the darkness of the late 1960s."[3]

Years after the original recordings, McLean said in 2000:

The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it's part reality and part fantasy but I'm always in the song as a witness or as even the subject sometimes in some of the verses.

He later went on to say, "The song was written as my attempt at an epic song about America, and I used the imagery of music and politics to do that."[3]

The Day the Music Died

Main article: The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died is the name McLean gave to February 3, 1959, the day an aircraft carrying musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper crashed, killing all three. But, as he explained on his web site, the date has a profound meaning to McLean because it marked a major change in his life:

"In Don's life the transition from light (the innocence of childhood) to the darker realities of adulthood probably started with the death of Buddy Holly and culminated with the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 and the start of a more difficult time for America."[3]

Covers, parodies, translations, and inspirations

  • Tori Amos has performed the song often as a piano solo in her live concerts.
  • Country singer Garth Brooks would also sing this song during concerts in the early to mid-1990s and, during Brooks "Live in Central Park" concert, he performed this song as a duet with McLean himself at the end of the concert. The audience of over 100,000 people were also invited to sing the chorus lines near the end of the song.
  • In 1999, parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic did a Star Wars-inspired lyrical adaptation of "American Pie" entitled "The Saga Begins" in which the lyrics recount the whole plot of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace through the eyes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. While McLean gave permission for the parody, he did not make a cameo appearance in its video, despite popular rumour. McLean has stated he was very pleased with the parody, and even admits that he has almost sung Yankovic's lyrics at live shows, due to the fact that his children played the song so often.
  • Singer Lori Lieberman attended a McLean concert; in describing the experience to songwriters Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, she said he'd "killed her softly." Gimbel and Fox wrote Killing Me Softly about Lieberman's experience, and the song became a huge hit for Roberta Flack, and many years later for the Fugees. This created a unique Grammy situation: in 1973, Flack won Record of the Year, beating out American Pie, a song by McLean; in 1974, she won the same award for a song about McLean. Flack and McLean have performed Killing Me Softly together in concert at least once.

Bye, bye pro-American guy
Things are heavy with Lord Levy
And my luck's running dry
Those history boys will be the ones who decide
Whether this will be the day the dream dies

Don McLean and I shared the same manager, so I used to open for him. Until one night, I came out on stage and sang American Pie. Now, I don't know if any of you will ever have the opportunity in your life to open for Don McLean. It's a mistake. It turns out, it's a song that he wants to do. So you live and learn.

  • Finnish rock musician Hector (Heikki Harma) made a Finnish cover of the song "American Pie" in 1971, under name Suomi-Neito (Maid Finland). While the original song covered the American issues, Hector's version was likewise "translated" to deal with the Finnish post-WWII history and loss of innocence in the Finnish popular culture.
  • The United States Air Force 36th Fighter Squadron based at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea adopted American Pie as its squadron song. Squadron tradition is to sing along with the original Don McLean recording but substitute "Soju" (a Korean gin) for "Whiskey", and shout, "No shit!" after the first "This'll be the day that I die" of each chorus.
  • In the Futurama episode The Why of Fry, a pack of alien brains are trapped "for eternity" in an alternate universe, and, wondering what to do with their time, one of the brains suggest that "We could sing American Pie", alluding to the song's length.
  • The song inspired an upcoming musical entitled "The Day the Music Died" in Syosset,NY. It will premiere at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in January.
  • A parody, "American Diet" ("I'm too heavy for my Chevy; I belong in a sty...") played on radio stations in Baltimore, MD during the late 70's or early 80's.
  • "The day the routers died" is a parody of this song that was written and performed by Gary Feldman at the conclusion of the RIPE 55 meeting.

References

  1. ^ Howard, Dr. Alan. "The Don McLean Story: 1970-1976". Don-McLean.com. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  2. ^ "What is Don McLean's song "American Pie" all about?". The Straight Dope. 1993-05-14. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c "Don McLean's American Pie". Don McLean online. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
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