American Pie

[Recently I wrote this out and added this after my father was telling me that lyrics were more or less meaningless and I had to disagree completely. I believe a poem or a song is the shape of a human heart, like lifting up the soul of a person and examining them for just a moment in time that they existed. A fraction of being. A point of light in life itself.]


A 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

[Throughout these lyrics there are several main themes. One of them is *TIME*. Another is *MUSIC*, being *HAPPY*, and the last one is *GOD*. The first line is "A long long time ago". The third line is "That music used to make me smile". That line is about a point in time about being happy. "Chance" in the fourth line is also a reference in time, followed in the fifth line "I could make those people dance" which finally circles back to the idea of playing music to end the first stanza with "happy for a while" dealing with a state of being happy.]

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

[February is a month that connects to a season and a time of year, which could also be a time in someone's life, firstly starting out in life. In the second line "With every paper I'd deliver" the job of a paperboy would be something done early in life, a first job perhaps. In the third line "Bad news" is a state of being unhappy and also "News" deals with the passing of time.]

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
So

[Second line "widowed bride" deals again with a point in time of a relationship, while "deep inside" in the third line a state of being happy. Then in the last line "music died" brings the audience back to the music theme that plays through the piece.]

Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die

["Bye, bye" deals in time once again, since you begin by greeting someone with a "hello" and you leave them by saying "Goodbye". In the last line "Singing" is a reference to the music theme and the fact that the music would finally "die" is coming back to a point in time.]

This'll be the day that I die
Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

[The first line repeats this notice of things ending in time, while the second line, "Book of Love" deals with time, as in a book has both a start and an end, "love" deals with a state of being happy and possibly a state with God that is remarked about in the third line "faith in God above", then in the fourth line, "If the Bible tells you so?" Then a remark about music with "rock and roll", followed by "mortal soul" coming back to God, to end the stanza with "dance real slow" back to music once again.]

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

[First line "love with him" a state of being happy. Second-line the music theme and fourth line "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'

["lonely teenage" plays in the themes of both love and time of someone's life. Whereas the fourth line "music died" is both time and music.]

Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Now, for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling 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

["for ten years we've been on our own" is a passage of time, followed by "moss grows on a rolling stone" is more to the time theme. Then the last line the use of the word "voice" is a connection back to music.]

Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lennon read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died

[The last three line of this stanza deals with music.]

We were singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And 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

[In this stanza "players" in the second line and "cast" in the last line might refer to people in general on the world stage, as "forward pass" might deal with the passage of time once again.]

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance

["half-time" back to time and "sweet perfume" back to being happy, while in the second line "marching tune" and the third line "up to dance" back the music theme. Then in the last line "chance", as that word refers to the theme of time and also the catch-all phrasing of the many themes of life and how out of many things one thing can be true as the whole is more than the sum of all its parts.]

'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 ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again

["A generation lost in space" could be a reference to the "Space Race", which is a moment in time itself, followed by "With no time left to start again", this line leads us back to the idea that all things end and the lyrics strike this home again and again by telling the audience that music has no hope to last forever, but to end at one day in the future. Also, "America Pie" is the longest song in history to make its way to the top of the charts, yet even though this is a stated fact there can also at the same time be a fact that no matter how many times this song has been played, every time, no matter what, it always ends the same way. That's just the simple nature of time itself. The cycle of life cannot be broken.]

So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

[This stanza ends with a remark about the "devil", pulling back God into the conversation, the Bipolar cross between good and evil, light and darkness. I have noticed that when you write song lyrics you mostly can't let any of the themes die out and you often have to keep repeating them throughout the song, words like the repeating of the same notes, played over and over again until they are made part of the audience's collective memory. Without these touchstones the emotions that call back these feelings based on these images used wouldn't be as meaningful.]

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

["watched him on the stage" is a calling back to remarking how we enter on to the World Stage, little things playing out larger than life, as this song is a reflection of life and the passing of time itself and the bipolar war between greatness and doing the work of the Devil and somehow always fighting against your greater darker nature. "No angel born in Hell" as somehow the dual nature of being bipolar is able to find goodness in evil and evil in goodness. For in every end there is a beginning. I think it is important to state that no matter what is actually stated could, in fact, be taken in more than one way and one could disagree with the final phrasing. This would make all difference between something that is less in line with a math equation or computer software than something that was designed to spell out the mystery of what makes life matter and what makes it most meaningful. Love and loss, all things between God and the Devil can't be summed up with a single digit.]

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 ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away

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

[In the second line, "poets dreamed", that is a catch-all phrase like "American Pie" itself. A poet is much like a songwriter, as there is not much difference between a song and a poem, so, in fact, the lyric could have said, "the songwriter dreamed". Poems and Songs are not bounded by much, often that doesn't paint with exact things in mind and instead use very wide brushes to illustrate what they mean. Poets are said to look for the truth in the human heart, while adults who act like children "scream" and those "lovers" who suffer loss will "cry".]

And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died

[The last line in the last stanza "The church bells all were broken" and this stanza is all about God has forsaken you really leaves a great sense of melancholy, which really drives this point over and over again. Saying, "bye, bye", "levee was dry" a state of being empty, "good ole boys", men at the very end of life, "drinking whiskey and rye", numbing themselves to their life long-lasting pains, as they sing over and over and over again to the very end of their lives, "This will be the day that I die."]

And they were singing

Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

They were singing
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die

Behind The Song: "American Pie" by Don McLean