Don McLean's classic, "American Pie," has been
the subject of interpretation and reinterpretation since its release almost
45 years ago. Some verses are not very thinly veiled (the "girl who sang
the blues" likely refers to Janice Joplin, for example), while others are
much more cryptic. McLean himself famously will not reveal what the lyrics
meant to him when he wrote them, saying instead that they mean whatever we (the
audience) believes they mean. Fair enough, such is art. But the overall theme
of the song, especially when taken in context with McLean’s history and other
professed beliefs, speaks of a theme we hear a lot of - especially during
election time.
The song is a lament, a funeral oration - it is mourning the
passing of a happier, purer time. It memorializes the post-war 50s and the
"good times" that disappeared in the 60s. The turning point, for
McLean, was "the day the music died," but the plane crash that killed
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper is simply a place holder.
However, if you weren't male, white and Christian, the 50s were not so great
for you. The strides made in the 60s and since, although they came with a great
deal of upheaval and even though some things - some would argue some good
things - were lost along the way, were absolutely necessary for this nation to
live by what its founding documents say. Apparently, by 1971 when “American Pie”
was released, McLean (and others) had had enough. Some, like Nixon and his
"silent majority," tried to regain what was lost. Others, like
McLean, were more realistic. McLean's response was his famous funeral oration.
For him, the day the music died was the day America died - at least the Utopian
America he believed existed in his youth.
Still, the song does what all good art does - it opens a new
perspective. It means different things to different people and what those
things are depends significantly on what we experienced in the years of our
lives. It places a lens on the past and offers a vision to the future. And that
interpretation (if it is really good art) is open to multiple
reinterpretations. So it has been for me with "American Pie." While I
can certainly see how McLean and others feel as though the idealism so often
cast into the 50s was lost to the 60s, it is also worth noting that that Utopian
idealism is more fabrication than it is reality. If everything was so great for
everyone, the 60s would have looked just like the 50s, and, truth be told,
rock would be, in fact, quite dead. By the time 1960 rolled around, the
dripping sweet, substance free music was already being panned as vacuous and a
passing fad. In the meantime, real serious things were going on in the world.
There are numerous accounts in “American Pie” of musicians
who have passed – and prophetically, at least one who would be shot down in his
prime in the coming years. Some died due to their own excesses, others for
other reasons, but none died from old age. None died a “natural” death (as
though any death could be anything but natural). With them and the many other artists
of all stripes who have passed since, their talent and their continued work
necessarily died with them. And, as these early rockers age, they are beginning
to succumb to “old age” as well. But there is something in McLean’s masterpiece
that he fails to grip, something that is also true of “American Pie.” The art
itself lives on. It is true of “American Pie” already. Those who listen today
can find much more recent events to link its metaphors to and, likewise, find within
its lyrics an entirely different and, hopefully, more optimistic future ahead.
For Mclean, however, it could be that parts of the 50s (and earlier)
are not so easily set aside. Although this recent turn of events does not mean,
in and of itself, that misogyny is part of what McLean is mourning, it is true
that misogyny was but one of the many paradigms the 60s helped to redefine. No,
this recent turn of events might not mean anything at all in terms of life then
and life now. It could just mean that McLean is an asshole. I guess that is up
to us (the audience) to decide that as well.
