Don McLean’s seminal “American Pie” turns 55 today. When asked what it meant, he iconically declared: “It means I’ll never have to work again.”
The over-eight-minute song remains shrouded in secrecy about its significance. Over the decades, fans and critics have come up with their interpretations of the lyrics. However, the singer has kept most of its meaning up to interpretation.
The Real Meaning Of ‘American Pie’
The original manuscript was sold in New York, according to The Financial Times, fetching $1.2m. In an interview in the auction catalog, McLean admitted, “Basically in “American Pie” things are headed in the wrong direction. It is becoming less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song, in a sense.”
The song takes inspiration from the tragic 1959 plane crash which took the life of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, known as “the day the music died.”
“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,” he once said.
The song also references other specific pop culture figures like Bob Dylan (jester), Elvis (the King) and The Beatles (quartet). The song mentions, “While Lenin read a book on Marx” and “The quartet practiced in the park .” This park is Candlestick Park, where the British band played their last live concert.
Many believe, including The Guardian, Jack Flash is Mack Jagger, whose band sang “Jumping Jack Flash” and seemingly references the Altamont concert where the Rolling Stones’ Hell’s Angel bodyguard stabbed a man.
“A girl who sang the blues” is widely considered to be Janis Joplin, and “The Father, Son and Holy Ghost” refers both to the three singers who died on Buddy Holly’s plane and possibly to the three most prominent assassination victims of the sixties, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy and JFK.
“American Pie” was the album’s first single in November 1971. It spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in January and has since been certified 6x Platinum by the RIAA.
