loss of american innocense

[Optimist Prime]

okay, i might lack spelling skills, but I've put a lot of thought into this.....
A long, long time ago (the 1950's)
I can still remember, how that music used to make me smile (he liked rock and roll)
and I knew if i had my chance, i could make those people dance (back in those days, the mark of a good musican was his ability to make people dance.)
and maybe they'd be happy for a while
but feburary made me shiver (the plane that Buddy Holly JP Richardson and Riche Valens was on crashed in feburary,1959, was later dubbed by this song as the day the music died)
with every paper I'd deliver (the only job besides singer Don MacClean ever had was a paper boy)
bad news on the door, i couldn't take one step
i can't remember if i cried, when i read about his widowed bride (holly was recently married)
but something touched me deep inside, the day the music died
so bye bye miss american pie (some people disagree, but miss american pie is none other than marilyn monroe)
drove my chevy (his favorite car, representive of the 50s) to the levy but the levy was dry (this means nothing good will ever happen again. All songs will empty the levy, or well, is dried, no more good things. Ever.) Them good ol' boys (in this case they are Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and John Lennon, and posibly Jerry Lee Lewis) were drinking whiskey and rye (they were all party animals) singin' this'll be the day that i die, thisll be the day that i die (That'll be the day, a populor song by Buddy Holly, contains the line "that'll be the day that i die")
Did you write the book of love (this is a referce to a song, and doo wop music in general, which greatly influenced rock and roll).
and belive in god above, if the bible tells you so (MacClean went to catholic and is now questioning his faith/ the common faith of the american people)
Now do you belive in rock and roll, can music save your mortal soul, and can you teach me how to dance real slow?
But i know that you're in love with him,
Because I saw you dancing in the gym (while dancing with multiple people was widely practiced and accepted, even slow dancing, you could still how serious people were by how the girl held him and how close her face was to his during the slow songs)
you both kicked off your shoes (it was a sock hop)
and i dig those rhthym and blues (r&b was the same thing as rock and roll until the 1980's, esp. the early works)
i was a lonely teenage brockin buck
with a pink carnation (pink carations are the ones you give to people you want to date, but have no interest in at all as far as really caring about him. This means he wanted to be some one's sweet heart, but was probbaly only known amoung the young ladies as the one guy that knew how to eat box, for example)
But i knew i was out of luck (he was never getting any again, because he knew was going to be all moody the rest of his life)
the day the music died.....
now for ten years we've been on our own (this song was written ten years after the plane crash)
and moss grows fat on a rolling stone (he's calling mick jagger a sell out)
but thats not how it used to be
when the jester (Bob Dylan) sang for the King (Elvis, baby) and queen (its marilyn agagain)
in a coat he barrowed from James Dean (the red one from rebel with out a cause)
and a voice that came from you and me (folk music=the common people feelings)
but while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown (elvis was getting boring and old and now dylan was more popular)
the court room was adjoured, no verdict was returned (I have no idea what this means. Some one who was around back then help.but for some reason i think its about Martin Luther King)
And while Lennon read a book on Marx (not the russian communist thing, but its a play on that. It was John Lennon reading about Groucho Marx and brothers and the fact that Lennon was a Marxist of Groucho variety.)
The quartet practiced in the park (the beatles were playing in the time period he is refering to)
and we sang dirges in the dark (dirgers are funeral songs)
the day the music died.........
Helter Skelter in a summer swelter (the beatles thing and woodstock)
the byrds flew out with a fall out shelter (i guess that band lost its popularity the same time people were abandoning the idea of having bomb shelters in case of nuclear attack from the russians)
eigh miles and falling fast (somebody he knew was on a bad acid trip) it landed foul on the grass (didn't mix well with ganja) the players tried for a forward pass (protesters asserted themselves at the democratic convention)
with the jester on the sidelines, in a cast (Dylan was hurt i guess, or not there supporting his people he sang for)
now the halftime was sweet perfume (tear gas) while the sergents played a marching tune (police with whistles and sirens)
we all got up to dance, but we never got the chance (they were beaten down before anything happened)
cuz the players tried to take the field (the protesters actully stood their ground. Hippies were a lot tougher back then, it took more than hit the skull with a night stick to keep them from coming. Not like now. Sorry for the slight digression)
the marching band refused to yield (of course the police won, it was guns versus picket signs)
do you recall what was revieled (i don't cuz i wasn't born yet, but if one of the more mature memebers of gamma chi/greekchat would like to enlighten me it would be much aprreciatttted)
the day the music died.....
so there we were all in one place (woodstock)
a generation lost in space (a tv show, also a slang term for trippin on lsd)
with no time left to start again (too late to go back with anything, wheather they agreed with any of it any more or not)
so come on jack be nimble, jack be quick (a nursrey rhyme)
Jack Flash sat on a candle stick (this seems late, but MacClean is all over the place in this verse. Its a refernce to John Kennedy.)
cuz fire is the devil's only friend (something from religion i think)
and as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage (I don't know...maybe Elvis, or any other music person, Something tells me its Rick(y) Nelson, and then the whole garden party incident makes a lot more sence)
No angel born in hell, could break that satan's spell (whoever he's talking about was a good preformer)
and as the flames climbed high into the night (from the plane crash)
to light the sacrifical rite (the deaths of those people were avoidible and unneccary)
i saw satan laughing with delight (his religion's creeping in there again)
the day the music died....
(this next part makes me want to cry)
I met a girl who sang the blues (Janis Joplin)
and I asked for some happy news, she just smiled and turned away (she died of a herion overdose)
I went down to the sacred store,
where I'd heard the music years before (the place where he bought his first records held a special place in his heart)
but the man there said the music wouldn't play (they used to have listening stations, were you could listen to the records before you buy them, as they were mostly 45s it didn't matter. Then latter in the era of the full length lp, they were sealed, and the stores lost money if they were opened, because people thought they were used.)
and in the streets the children scream (i think this is about the guy who went nuts in texas and went up into the clock tower and started shooting everyone)
the lovers cry (John and Yoko)
and the poets dream (Paul and Linda)
but not a word was spoken,
the church bells all were broken (church bells ring when people die, and there have been plently of refereses to dead people so far.)
and the three men i admire most,
the father, son, and holy ghost. (Its the guys in the plain, Valens=Son, Big Bopper=Father, Holly=Holy ghost)
they cought the last train for the coast ('they' does not refer to those who died, it refers to those who lived. Especialy eddie cochran, one of Holly's best friends, who blamed himself for Holly's death. This feeling of guilt led to his own death. The death of Holly AND Cochran was too much for Vincet, who went nuts)
the day the music died....

Okay, i hoped you like what I thought about it. I know its not the whole song, since the whole thing takes up the half of one side of an lp playing at 33 r.p.m.s But its all that was on the cd I have. Please feel free to share your own opinions.

When I used to work at Waldenbooks, there was a book that talked about different songs and what they mean...kinda like VH1's Storytellers...but in print. I think a lot of what you wrote is similar to what Don MacLean had in mind. I wish I could remember the name of that book.

Today...I was so bored. I sat at my piano and tried to figure out Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles". A 3:48 song took me 2.5 hours to figure out.

[Optimist Prime]

I didn't know you played keyboard I'm trying to learn "in the jungle" to sing as an audition piece

[LeslieAGD]

Cool, but you must have a lot of time on your hands!

[LeslieAGD]

Cool beans, but you must have a lot of time on your hands!

[SilverTurtle]

Yeah, Billy, I think you're probably very close to what the song's about. Something weird about this song... when I was a little kid I always loved it... one of those songs that was sad, but sort of made you happy in reminiscent sort of way I guess. I couldn't have had a clue as to what it was about at the time.

When I got older, I found out that my older brother used to play that record over and over after his father died (my brother was only 3 years old at the time ) It reminded him of his dad for a few reasons I guess. I always thought that was weird that I had liked it so much and so had my brother, for different reasons. After my brother died, it's meant a lot to me.

When I was in college, there was one fraternity in particular that we hung out with a lot. They had a big party at the beginning of the year, and then another one towards the spring. (And possibly a few in between ). The night almost always ended with the last few party-goers (usually members of their fraternity or ours) singing along to this song (the version that goes on forever). Kind of a strange bonding moment between friends.

So that song still makes me happy in sad kind of way.

[teke4life]

the jack flash line, fire is the devils only friend, watched satan laughing w/ delight, hand clenched in fists of rage: were all references to the stones. and joplin suffocated on her own puke after passing out from drinking, not a heroine OD.

[xok85xo]

I heard an analysis of this song years ago, and you are pretty close Billy, ,but there are some parts i have to disagree..

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Optimist Prime
a generation lost in space (a tv show, also a slang term for trippin on lsd)with no time left to start again

woodstock was in the summer 1969, as was the when americans walked on the moon..which is what i think that he was referring to

so come on jack be nimble, jack be quick (a nursrey rhyme)
Jack Flash sat on a candle stick (this seems late, but MacClean is all over the place in this verse. Its a refernce to John Kennedy.)
cuz fire is the devil's only friend (something from religion i think)
and as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage (I don't know...maybe Elvis, or any other music person, Something tells me its Rick(y) Nelson, and then the whole garden party incident makes a lot more sence)
No angel born in hell, could break that satan's spell (whoever he's talking about was a good preformer and as the flames climbed high into the night (from the plane crash)
to light the sacrifical rite (the deaths of those people were avoidible and unneccary)
i saw satan laughing with delight (his religion's creeping in there again)

i'm pretty sure that this is referring to mick jagger & the rolling stone's performance and the riot that insued afterwards at the altamont music festival

[xok85xo]

Originally posted by teke4life
and joplin suffocated on her own puke after passing out from drinking, not a heroine OD.

uhm, FALSE, janis joplin died from a heroin overdose, she took a dose of heroin that was more pure than what she was used to. jimi hendrix suffocated on his own vomit.

Originally posted by Tibi
Lot's of memories to this song...

Also, the thing with Helter Skelter most likely refers to the whole Charles Manson thing, which was connected to the Beach Boys in a way but I can't quite remember how, it was in a bookI read about Lynn Fromme.

The late Dennis Wilson (drummer for the Beach Boys and younger bro of Brian and Carl) was a follower of Manson for a REALLY short period of time. He got sucked in and got out pretty much when they tried to burn his house down (or something to that extent)

[Hootie]

WoW! That's all I have to say!

[Optimist Prime]

there are so many meanings to the symbols in that song...i've heard recently that *the courtroom was adjuoured, no verdict was returned* was the warren commision/or the fact that oswald was killed by ruby and so now we will probably never know who killed John Kennedy. Too bad, he could have been one of our greatest presidents.

[KSig RC]

Um, don maclean has said many times that this song doesn't hold a lot of meaning in the ways people connect it - he enjoys conjecture. Billy, I think you get a lot of the included metaphor, but this song was his "yellow submarine" - it was meant to stir the ish so to speak, and not to change the world.

[Optimist Prime]

He also said he refuses to comment at all on the song, and then he said he chose what he did becaouse of the strong connections with them. He is a typcial artsy fartsy self centered eccentric, like me. I think thats why I get it.