‘The Day the Music Died’: Don McLean decodes the real meaning of ‘American Pie’
In 1969, Don McLean landed a spot at Newport Folk Festival, where a conversation with rock ‘n’ roll legends the Everly Brothers changed his life in ways he never could’ve dreamed.
“The Everlys were there,” he recalls. “And they had always been my favorite group. Or one of them.”
The aspiring singer/songwriter approached Phil Everly. “I said, ‘I know that you knew Buddy Holly.’ And like a kid – I was just a kid – I said, ‘What happened? Can you tell me what happened?’ I wanted to know more than just, ‘He got on the plane.’ “
Everly shared what he had come to understand of the events that happened 10 years earlier, when Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in a plane crash after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour.
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This is before we started thinking of the date that plane went down – Feb. 3, 1959 – as “the day the music died.”
At that point, McLean hadn’t written those words in “American Pie,” his nearly nine-minute epic that’s the subject of the new documentary “The Day the Music Died” (streaming now on Paramount+).
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It was all the inspiration the songwriter needed to fire his imagination.
“I was casting around for the quintessential American rock ‘n’ roll epic I wanted to write,” McLean recalls.
“And I had the beginning of it now. I wrote that first part from ‘A long, long time ago’ right until ‘the day the music died’ in one go. I just wrote it as I sang. It came out of my mouth just like that. And I just had to figure out where to take it from there.”
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The real meaning of ‘American Pie’
To McLean, the words are poetry, beyond analysis. Which also leaves them open to interpretation.
“I don’t reference anybody in there other than James Dean by name,” he says.
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“That’s when you become a star of some sort,” McLean says. “Maybe a shooting star or maybe a real star, but you’re in that realm. And in my opinion, you go from being, like, a normal human to being some other kind of animal – like a cow or a duck or something. You’re not really a person anymore. Everything changes.”
He recalls attending a family event at a hotel with his mother after “American Pie” became a massive pop hit.
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‘I do not recommend fame’
And that extended well beyond his relatives. “People that had no use for me now were crawling all over me,” he says.
These are the downsides, he says, of succeeding in an industry where success leads to magazine covers, red carpets and envy. “I do not recommend fame,” he says.
“Money is great. If you want to learn how to be a good investor and build your wealth, that’s a terrific thing to do. But fame is a means in my business to getting people to come and see you. It all goes together. But it’s ugly.”
Still, he says, he’s thankful for the long career he’s had and and pleased to be the subject of the new documentary. “Folks who like that song – and there are plenty of people that really hate that song – are going to enjoy it,” he says.
“I told my manager, ‘We should print up some I Hate American Pie buttons because that’s what the Colonel (Tom Parker) did with Elvis.’ He wanted both sides. I Hate Elvis. I Love Elvis. I Hate ‘American Pie.’ I Love ‘American Pie.’ “
And with that, McLean let out a hearty laugh.
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