I learned a lot about references from the "Did you write the book of love" verse, of which I knew little. Despite the critical derision, McLean had good things to say about Madonna's cover.
NextWe knew we had something on our hands that was pretty special.
Also, the words, "You know a rolling stone don't gather no moss" appear in the Buddy Holly song "Early in the Morning," which is about his ex missing him early in the morning when he's gone.
FAQ maintained by Rich Kulawiec, started in 1992 and essentially completed in 1997. I further believe that McLean may also have harbored at one point the hope that American folk-singers like he and Joplin would take back this country's rock and roll legacy. The second meaning is that the Rolling Stones wrote the hit "Jumping Jack Flash", and they performed I think at Candlestick Park.
NextHow American Pie is about a nostalgia for youthful innocence, for Mclean and America.
I am confirmed in this supposition by the harsh manner McLean references British Bands throughout the song, but I am not insensible to an alternative construction that holds that McLean was merely decrying the state of popular music at the end of the British Invasion.
Great tune by Don. He IS the King...
NextRetrieved January 16, 2021.
An interpretation of the lyrics based on a supposed interview of McLean by DJ.
Recorded and released on the American Pie album in 1971, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972 and also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The song was used in their movie Finch, and also in the first episode of the series The Morning Show.
Retrieved December 10, 2018.
Do you recall what was revealed? Then one day, in a blaze of glory, I just wrote the whole rest of the song, and I tied together musical imagery of unspecified meaning with this story about America.
This incident is chronicled in the documentary film "Gimme Shelter. Common way to make heroin? Holly's death, and there wasn't, at least to his mind.
NextHelter Skelter refers to Charles Manson.
Retrieved April 16, 2020.
Retrieved November 6, 2021. After the 60's, rock and roll was no longer the same, or no longer had was the same type of simple entertainment value, because the listeners of popular music had themselves lost their innocence since 'the day the music died. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
McLean's song therefore presaged the approaching 50's Rock and Roll revival in this country.
That's what happened to me.
Retrieved February 10, 2009. It's a great song, full of interpretation, but most importantly, full of history. I mean, I went to school and mentioned it and they said, 'So what? And your whole "It landed foul on the grass" interpretation is off base.
NextMuch of what follows was inspired, in part by the article found at.
Retrieved December 20, 2016.