October 24, 1971: Singer Don McLean releases "American Pie," which goes on to be a Number 1 hit for 4 weeks early the next year.
As it appeared on the album of the same title, it runs 8 minutes and 42 seconds. For its 45 RPM single release, it was broken into a Part 1 and Part 2, but radio stations still played it in its entirety.
For over half a century, people have wondered what McLean, then 26 years old, meant with his lyrics. The 1st verse is pretty clear: "The Day the Music Died" was February 3, 1959, when early rock-and-rollers Buddy Holly, J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash in snowy Iowa. Or, perhaps, it was the next day, February 4, when the news got out, and a 13-year-old McLean delivered the paper, possibly The Journal News, the White Plains, New York-based main newspaper for the Lower Hudson Valley, including McLean's native New Rochelle.
McLean briefly attended Villanova University in 1963, where Jim Croce, also influenced by folk music, was then a student. It has never been publicly revealed whether they ever met. Unfortunately, in 1973, nearly 2 years after "American Pie" was released, Croce would also die in a plane crash.
The 2nd verse is also set during McLean's teenage years, but a little later, when he was at Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle. The 3rd verse has a time-jump: "Now, for 10 years, we've been on our own." This suggests that the 3rd and 4th verses covered events between 1959 and 1969. The 5th verse seemed to reflect the 1969 events of the Woodstock and Altamont concerts. The 6th and last verse seems to be in the present day, 1971, right after the closing of the Fillmore East music club in New York: "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."
Who else can be inferred to be in the song? Doo-wop group the Monotones: "Did you write the Book of Love?" Chuck Berry: "I dig those rhythm and blues." Elvis Presley might be "the king" in the 3rd verse, but then, who would be the queen? "The jester" seems to be Bob Dylan, especially since he returns in the 4th verse, unable to participate in the activities due to his 1966 motorcycle accident: "With the jester on the sidelines in a cast." The Beatles: "The quartet practiced in the park," and the "Lenin" who "read a book of Marx" might actually be John Lennon.
The 4th verse uses the words "Helter skelter," which could be another Beatle reference, but it could also be a reference to Charles Manson and the murders committed by his "Family." "The birds flew off for the fallout shelter" could be a reference to the band The Byrds." "Sergeants played a marching tune" could be another Beatle reference, to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. "Jack Flash" and "Satan" in the 5th verse are both obviously Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, who sang "Sympathy for the Devil" while Meredith Hunter was murdered by Hell's Angels at Altamont.
The "girl who sang the blues" in the 6th verse? It could be the recently deceased Janis Joplin. But "the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost" at the end? Your guess is as good as mine.
In a recent interview, McLean denied that Elvis was the song's king, that the girl who sang the blues was Janis, and that Dylan was the jester. Dylan has called himself many things in his own songs, including, on a few occasions, a thief: In "All Along the Watchtower," he's the thief talking to the joker, not the joker or the jester. In a 2017 interview for Rolling Stone, he said, "Sure, the jester writes songs like 'Masters of War,' 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall,' 'It's Alright, Ma.' I have to think he's talking about somebody else."
The end of the song is pretty bleak, just as the world seemed to be in late 1971 for liberals, hippies, civil rights workers, etc. It felt like "The Sixties" had failed, and McLean had written the era's eulogy.
"American Pie" is also a song chock full of contradictions. It's a folk song about the spirit of rock 'n roll. It's a protest song about how everything was better before pop music had to make a statement. It's a Dylanesque ballad that in part blames Bob Dylan for ruining everything...
The reason "American Pie" has remained so popular over the years is that the overall message of the song never becomes irrelevant. It's a song about mourning the death of a bygone era and how great everything was in the good ol' days before everything turned to garbage. It's a metaphor for our culture continuing to lose its innocence to the point that we no longer recognize the world we once knew. Everyone can relate to that feeling. It could even be your entire worldview if you're cynical enough.
Don McLean has stated in interviews many times how no one could get away with making a song like "American Pie" today. And you know what? He's right!" American Pie" hit at just the right time. Don McLean captured lightning in a bottle. The lyrics came to him so easily because life wasn't that great in 1971, and by looking back on all the turmoil of the '60s, it was pretty easy to think, "Man, I really miss the 1950s!"
There really hasn't been any other period of time since then where that kind of serendipity could take place. Likewise, there hasn't been a generation since then that has been able to have the same rose-colored nostalgia as the Baby Boomers. It's not like any Gen-Xer in 2006 could get away with writing a song about how great things were before Kurt Cobain died and the boy bands took over.
That said, we'd love to hear people try to parse out obtuse lyrics about grunge in 1993. ("If 'The Mumbler' is Eddie Vedder, and 'The Laughing Boys' are Beavis and Butthead, who's 'The Man in Plaid?'")
Lori Lieberman has said that "American Pie" was the song that inspired her song "Killing Me Softly With His Song," which also became a Number 1 hit, for Roberta Flack in 1973, and was a hit again for The Fugees in 1996.
In 1999, in connection with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote "The Saga Begins," which tells the story of the movie in 4 verses to the tune of "American Pie." "Bye, bye Miss American Pie" becomes "My, my, this here Anakin guy." McLean loved it.
In 2021, the 49-year reign of "American Pie" as the longest song ever to hit Number 1 finally ended, with the 10-minute-13-second "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" by Taylor Swift topping the Billboard Hot 100.
As of October 24, 2022, McLean is still alive, age 77.
UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.
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October 24, 1971 was a Sunday. The baseball season ended a week earlier, when the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series.
There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-93 at the Cleveland Arena.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 113-103 at the Hofheinz Pavilion (now the Fertitta Center) in Houston. Elvin Hayes had 35 points and 19 rebounds for the Rockets, but, for the Lakers, Gail Goodrich scored 31, Flynn Robinson had 23, and Wilt Chamberlain had 17. Jerry West did not play.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns, 105-104 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 119-101 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:
* The New York Nets lost to the Memphis Pros, 111-103 at the Mid-South Coliseum. Rick Barry scored 44 for the Nets, but it wasn't enough.
* The Utah Stars beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 119-116 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* And the Kentucky Colonels beat the Miami Floridians, 116-110 at Freedom Hall in Louisville. Dan Issel scored 44 for the Colonels.
And there were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 1-1 at the new Madison Square Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The California Golden Seals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.
This was also the day on which Chuck Hughes became the only NFL player to die on the field during a game. I have a separate entry for that event. In that game, the Chicago Bears beat Hughes' Detroit Lions, 28-23 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. In the other NFL games:
* The New York Giants lost to their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins, 30-14 at Shea Stadium.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints, 28-6 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Houston Oilers, 23-16 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 26-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the other Native American-themed team in the NFL, the Washington Redskins, 27-20 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The Dallas Cowboys beat the New England Patriots, 44-21. This was the 1st-ever game at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. I have a separate entry for that event. The Cowboys had played their home games in their 1st 11 seasons, and their 1st 2 home games of this season, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Green Bay Packers, 30-13 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 31-27 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* The day before, the San Diego Chargers beat the Buffalo Bills, 20-3 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).
* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Baltimore Colts, 10-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
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