Bye, Bye Miss American Pie...............

 

American Pie, Don McLean, Explicit

 

I feel like I could have written the song.

The song

 

Here's my interpretation of the background of the song for people my age: Elementary school teachers and visiting staff in the late 40's and early 50's told us children that a bomb can go off at any time. You might see a very strong flash of light that would be followed very soon by the blast wave that would kill or burn everything it touched. If you saw the flash you were supposed to drop under your desk and cover you face and head with your arms. You might be killed by flying glass from the windows or incinerated by the blast.

 

If we were very lucky, we might receive an advance warning that the blast is coming. We might get as much as an hour - 60 minutes - or maybe less.

 

We lived our lives under that threat. At any moment we could be snuffed out. And it would snuff out everybody else too. Nothing and nobody would be left.

 

The song is about what I and some others might do after we get the warning that we have 60 minutes to live, and then you and I and everybody we know and/or have heard about will die.

 

In those 60 minutes, maybe I'd remember things I used to do, like a run paper delivery route and listen to popular music like Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and the early DooWop bands.

 

Here are the lyrics:

 

 'Long, long time ago

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver

With every paper I'd deliver'

 

It would be bomb day, that day that the music would die, along with everything else in our lives. I read an article about a wedding where the groom had died immediately after the ceremony.

 

 'Bad news on the doorstep

I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died'

 

 With an hour to go, I would wish all our American life as Miss American Pie good bye. Then I'd drive somewhere to be with some people, maybe to a levee.

 

'So bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

There was a real Book of Love back then, before the Pill. If you liked a girl or a boy, you could go out on three dates, but after that third date, you'd have to meet the parents and get engaged. Most adults rigorously enforced the limitation or prohibition on touching your dance partner.

 

Once in a while the school would sponsor a Sock Hop. In a Sock Hop, you went to the school gym and danced to recorded music on the basketball court with your shoes off. I remember asking a girl if she loved a boy because I saw them at a sock hop.

 

When the warning was given I might have been heading to pick up my date for a dance, but I did not make it there.

 

'Did you write the book of love, and do you have faith in God above

If the Bible tells you so?

Now do you believe in rock and roll

Can music save your mortal soul?

And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you're in love with him

'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym

 

You both kicked off your shoes

Man, I dig those rhythm and blues

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck

With a pink carnation and a pickup truck

But I knew I was out of luck

The day the music died'

 

 'I started singin', "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie"

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

And singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

We had been receiving the warnings of possible imminent doom for many years. But, we still had to live anyway. And there was music, the popular music that reflected what we thought and felt. There were constant doom warnings that stole away our comfort and did not provide any closure at all - just more doom from Lenin and Marx.

 

Now for ten years, we've been on our own

And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone

But that's not how it used to be

When the jester sang for the king and queen

In a coat he borrowed from James Dean

And a voice that came from you and me

 

It seemed like, even then, that the politicians were a clown show. But, we just went about our business.

 

Oh, and while the king was looking down

The jester stole his thorny crown

The courtroom was adjourned

No verdict was returned

And while Lenin read a book on Marx

A quartet practiced in the park

And we sang dirges in the dark

The day the music died

 

We were singin', "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie"

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

Helter-skelter in a summer swelter

The birds flew off with a fallout shelter

Eight miles high and falling fast

It landed foul on the grass

The players tried for a forward pass

With the jester on the sidelines in a cast

 

Now the halftime air was sweet perfume

While the sergeants played a marching tune

We all got up to dance

Oh, but we never got the chance

'Cause the players tried to take the field

The marching band refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day the music died?

 

We started singin', "bye-bye, Miss American Pie"

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

And singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

It was hot when we were required to sit in a stuffy auditorium, but maybe the bomb was falling from 8 miles high and we did not know it. There was football as a distraction with marching bands that looked like military bands. Maybe the bomb would hit while we were watching the game. Then we'd have all the answers.

 

Oh, and there we were all in one place

A generation lost in space

With no time left to start again

So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Jack Flash sat on a candlestick

'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

 

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage

No angel born in Hell

Could break that Satan's spell

And as the flames climbed high into the night

To light the sacrificial rite

I saw Satan laughing with delight

The day the music died

 

He was singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

And singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

During that last hour, maybe I would meet a girl. But, there was no future and no music - just misery and death.

 

Well, I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news

But she just smiled and turned away

And 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

While they caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died

 

And they were singin', sing it for me now

Bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry (everybody)

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singin', "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

They were singin' (what do you say?)

"Bye-bye, Miss American Pie"

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singin', "This'll be the day that I die"