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| Miss American Pie by laFada |
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
I came across an interesting on-line article written by James Waller (2014), entitled "The Day the Music Died". "For a monster hit, singer-songwriter Don McLean’s “American Pie” was an unusual record: Clocking in at more than eight and a half minutes, it outdistanced the Beatles’ seven-minute “Hey Jude” and took up more airtime than another superlong 1970s standard, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Plus, its preternaturally catchy tune features lyrics—five verses, an intro and a refrain—as obscure as they are memorable. Partly an oblique autobiography, partly an allegory about the first generation raised on rock and roll, “American Pie” amounts to a riddle that listeners have relished trying to solve since its release."
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| Album Cover (Fair use) |
Most critics, fans, music buffs tend to agree that "the “long, long time ago” of the song’s intro refers to the February day in 1959 when a plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper went down in an Iowa cornfield" but they are not the only iconic personalities who have become associated with the song:
"Among those appearing in poetic disguise are Bob Dylan (as “the jester”), Elvis Presley (“the king”) and the Beatles (“the sergeants,” after their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). Three lines of the song’s final and most haunting verse may describe Janis Joplin: I met a girl who sang the blues / And I asked her for some happy news / But she just smiled and turned away." Don McLean has not proffered an in depth interpretation of his lyrics, saying: "They're beyond analysis. They're poetry."
Our challenge today is to consider the role of iconic people in society, how they shape memory and history; how they come to represent an era or a country; what they give to group identity or reveal of the human condition. You may speak of their passing, their legacy, their fall from grace. You may choose to make your icon recognizable or enigmatic.
For those who would like to listen to the song and review the lyrics, I have included this video.