THE Story in THE Song DON Mclean American PIE 1971
by Few commentators agree as to what this song really means. Here are my interpretations.
THE STORY IN THE SONG DON MCLEAN AMERICAN PIE 1971
This is a challenge of a song to decode as it is often highly cryptic with even its composer / performer McLean being very tight-lipped about many of the lyrics.
The overall theme is straightforward. A boy delivering newspapers discovers, probably from the headlines on the papers in front of him, that his hero, Buddy Holly, has died (3rd February 1959). It ruins much of his life and his sense of the American Dream from there on. The boy is considering a career as a rock and roll singer himself. The song is quite autobiographical and McLean charts the effect of Holly’s death over the whole decade up to the release of his own song.
The death affects the narrator’s mood so much it ruins his chances of getting a date with the girl he most admires. He sees her dancing at a gym concert, and knows that she loves a figure referred to merely as ‘him’. This is the most ambiguous line in the song. It could be a mutual admiration she and McLean had for Holly, or a reference to some other boy the girl is dating, and possibly with when the young McLean seeks consolation in her company. He is devastated by her rejection. The young McLean has rushed to see her for comfort following the death of his icon, only to stumble upon her infidelity.
The good old boys singing and drinking refers to his sense of the establishment going on despite the fracturing revolutionary dreams of youth. The singer resents the lack of a sense of mourning from the people around himself. Family and older friends just carry on as if nothing monumental has taken place.
The quartet is almost certainly Rolling Stones. The same verse refers to “moss growing fat on a Rolling Stone” giving a sense that there once radical shocking liberated lyrics have lost their edge.
“Helter-Skelter” refers to the Charles Manson killings, allegedly inspired by a Beatles song about a fairground slide ride. The words Helter Skelter were scrawled in blood on the walls of one of the Family’s murder scenes. The murders are often seen to epitomize the end of the free love and peace vision of the 60’s for many.
“Eight mile high and falling fast.” The eight-mile high refers to a song by the Byrds, and the reference shows how a drug-induced euphoria deflates and comes down again. The utopian vision acquired becomes a cruel illusion.
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