For your reading enjoyment:
http://understandingamericanpie.com/
In addition to all I've said before, this song is emblematic of Boomer navel-gazing. Yeah, everything was so much better in the 50's. We just don't understand how cool music was then. I'm pretty tired of hearing that, or anyone who focuses too much on the past.
I like to envision sappy, nostalgic Don in his Chevy on the levee when...
A CATACLYSM OF POUNDING ZEP GUITARS AND HARMONICA BLASTS THROUGH THE DIRT WALL, DROWNING HIM IMMEDIATELY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Levee_Breaks
Imagine that Don's whining came out just as a groundswell was building just out of his sight. He just couldn't see it because he was looking back.
Don McLean does have a whiny tone. I'm sure more than a few have wanted to smash him with a Les Paul. I remember in sixth grade our teach played his song 'Vincent' for the class, saying it was really awesome, beautiful, deep, etc. We were all Wha..? this is boring. our teacher was obviously a hippie trying to indoctrinate us into an awareness of art appreciation or love or something. Bastard!
anyway, the link. interesting stuff. I just read through what each verse is supposed to mean, per the web site author. Don McLean wrote a personal song that became a huge hit, that's about all I know or care about it. When I hear it on the radio, I don't run to turn it off like I used to, but I don't want to be accused of navel gazing. (I do enough off that over less interesting stuff.) I had heard it was about Buddy Holly, et al, dying, but never listened too closely to the rest. I like pop, I like a lot of crappy music, and often they are the same thing. That time in college I mentioned, when all the frat boys and sorority girls were cheering the lyrics "...the three men I admire most: the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost," I was thinking two things: 1. goddam, you guys are REALLY Catholic; and 2. How the hell did you learn all the words to this oldie? Maybe one of those frat boys wrote that site.
However, I would like to answer the web site author and posit MY own interpretation of one specific passage. Mr. McLean mentions "forward pass" in Verse 5. Few people know that the verse originally alluded to, in version one, a "double-reverse," and then later to a "flea-flicker." However, the NFL, in collusion with General Motors, had traction with certain government operatives that pressured the music publishing company to change those lyrics because they feared a backlash from the ghost of recently-departed Vincent Lombardi (which I shall explain further when I create my own web site byebyemissamericanLIE.info). McLean folded under that threat, but still wanted the album cover to show a red white and blue MIDDLE FINGER. Under further threat (deportation to Canada), McLean caved completely and we have the supposed "classic" that has been fooling American white people for years.
