MSN lead story "the day the music died"

[hornet61]

The author states that the music didn't die as Don Mcleans claims in "American Pie" I posted the following on the MSN website

When Don McClean refers to "The Day The Music Died" he was refering to the fact that it was the first tragic death of three major Rock stars, in the infancy of Rock N' Roll. he didn't mean the world stood still and rock n roll disappeared. he plea for a moment of silence " the day the music died"

Preceeded in the song by :

But February Made me shiver (they died 02/03)

with every paper I deliver, sad news on the doorstep (you pick up your paper at your front door) I couldn't take one more step (stunned by The horror of the whole thing)

I can't remember if i cried (in shock)when I read about his widowed bride (maria elena Santos holly's new bride) but something touched me deep inside (a true fan was devastated) The Day The music died ( brings us full circle, the first tragedy in the early rock and roll era ,thus the metaphor, "the day the music died", nothing more than a metaphor)

By the late 70's when we had lost so many rock stars it was replced by a new term "Rock and Roll Heaven".

 

[deltas69]

i remember hearing a version of AMERICAN PIE that had someone explaining what he thought each verse meant,,as the song played he would stop the song and say this means.. then play the next verse..it's been years since i've heard this and only caught it once..so my explanation may be off a tad... i think i remember don mclean being asked about this back then..and said something to the effect..well thats just his interpitation..anyone know who did this ?

 

[hornet61]

yes it's on http://www.fiftiesweb.com/amerpie-1.htm...........it gives that authors interpetation. He states
"The same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly also took the lives of Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and The Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"). Since all three were so prominent at the time, February 3, 1959 became known as "The Day The Music Died".

 

[deltas69]

thanks ..that looks like what i heard..but i was also looking for the recorded version..now that i have a name i can find it..

 

[DeltaDon]

i remember hearing a version of AMERICAN PIE that had someone explaining what he thought each verse meant,,as the song played he would stop the song and say this means.. then play the next verse..it's been years since i've heard this and only caught it once..

You'll find it here - http://bobdearbornamericanpie.cjb.net/

It's the interpretation done by Bob Dearborn at WCFL-Chicago. McLean links to it at his website. Dearborn turned the text into a radio program that ran on WCFL and he syndicated it all over the world. That sounds like what you heard.

 

[TheFonz]

yes it's on http://www.fiftiesweb.com/amerpie-1.htm...........it gives that authors interpetation. He states
"The same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly also took the lives of Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and The Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"). Since all three were so prominent at the time, February 3, 1959 became known as "The Day The Music Died".

Here's another interpretation: http://www.rockin50s.com/AmPie.htm. It seems to make a lot of sense.

 

[hornet61]

wow that's amazing, all three versions are very convincing...the fact that Don Mcclean endorses Dearborns version, certainly might make his the defining version............I must disgree with Dearborn on one point,

Elvis is certainly the king, but every Rock N' Roll historian knows that the Queen of Rock N' Roll is

LITTLE RICHARD................."shut up"

PS... RIP Roger Petertson

 

[deltas69]

those are very similar to each other..but i distinctly remember hearing a reference in a version about the "players tried to take the field..but the marching band refused to yield" pertained to the US troops in viet nam as the players and the marching band as the north vietnamese army..and my faded memory seems to recall a video that shows joe nameth in a "cast on the sidelines" of a football game..was there a video made about the song..or am i just too old and beer boozled?? the bob dearborn version seems to ring a cloudy bell with me..i was a jock from late 70 til 88 and remember most of that time ..but there are balnks that need filling in..so to speak..lol ;D

 

[Limp73]

..it's pretty much a given that the song refers to Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson...but for me it goes further then that...it reads out as if it were a prophecy...of sorts


"And while Lenin read a book on Marx" (Das Kapital)

"I met a girl who sang the blues...and I asked her for some hapy news...she just smiled and turned away." (death of Janis Joplin)

"Oh,and as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage..."(The Rolling Stones 1970 Altamont concert)


As for MSN.com.... it is nothing more than tabloidized superficial trash geared to the undereducated,unemployed,underemployed and inpoverished.

"As the flames climed high into the night,to light the sacraficial rite,I heard satan laughing with delight the day the music died." (the rise of heavy metal,devil worship,the decline of preists and nuns in the Catholic Church amidst the continuing struggle between good and evil and the decline of Top 40 music and more specifically AM radio)


"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 (the decline of the popularity of love ballads and "feel good" pop songs,the rise of children's innocence lost due to molestation and other abuses..young people leaving Christianity in favor of worldly success and pleasures ingrained into them by our advertising media and our culture in general.)

"and the three men I admired most...the Father,Son and The Holy Ghost...they took the last train for the coast...the day...the music...died" ( the prophecised "departing from the faith," the prophecised rise (and fall) of the evil one...and the glorious return of Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation)

As for MSN..it is nothing more than superficial tabloidized trash!

 

[GridLeakBias]

..it's pretty much a given that the song refers to Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson...but for me it goes further then that...it reads out as if it were a prophecy...of sorts


"And while Lenin read a book on Marx" (Das Kapital)

The lyric reads “Lennon”, not “Lenin”. The literal meaning is probably John Lennon reading about Karl Marx; but figuratively, the introduction of radical politics into the music of the Beatles.

"I met a girl who sang the blues...and I asked her for some hapy news...she just smiled and turned away." (death of Janis Joplin)

"Oh,and as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage..."(The Rolling Stones 1970 Altamont concert)

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

While playing a concert at the Altamont Speedway in 1969, the Stones appointed members of the Hell's Angels to work security (on the advice of the Grateful Dead). In the darkness near the front of the stage, a young man named Meredith Hunter was beaten and stabbed to death -- by the Angels. Public outcry that the song "Sympathy for the Devil" had somehow incited the violence caused the Stones to drop the song from their show for the next six years. This incident is chronicled in the documentary film "Gimme Shelter".

"As the flames climed high into the night,to light the sacraficial rite,I heard satan laughing with delight the day the music died." (the rise of heavy metal,devil worship,the decline of preists and nuns in the Catholic Church amidst the continuing struggle between good and evil and the decline of Top 40 music and more specifically AM radio)

And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
The most likely interpretation is that McLean is still talking about Altamont, and in particular Mick Jagger's prancing and posing while it was happening. The sacrifice is Meredith Hunter, and the bonfires around the area provide the flames.

"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 (the decline of the popularity of love ballads and "feel good" pop songs,the rise of children's innocence lost due to molestation and other abuses..young people leaving Christianity in favor of worldly success and pleasures ingrained into them by our advertising media and our culture in general.)

The children,lovers and poets most probably refer to the Flower Children in the Haight/Ashbury district and the rise of psychedelic music in the in the 60s. "Not a word was spoken and the church bells all were broken" could mean -all is quiet, the music is dead

"and the three men I admired most...the Father,Son and The Holy Ghost...they took the last train for the coast...the day...the music...died" ( the prophecised "departing from the faith," the prophecised rise (and fall) of the evil one...and the glorious return of Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation)

The theme of this composition is the death of Holly, Valens and Richardson. McClean attended years of Catholic school, and I believe, he uses the Holy Trinity as a metaphor for those three; and “last train for the coast” is a euphemism for “they’re dead”.

 

[Limp73]

We all have a right to our opinion as well as an interpretation...All I did was share you mine.

 

[GridLeakBias]

We all have a right to our opinion as well as an interpretation...All I did was share you mine.

There have been many individual interpretations of the meaning behind the words and phrases in McClean’s 1968 composition.

What I posted was not an opinion, rather an interpretation which differs quite radically from yours. Sorry if you took offense, none was intended.