The Rolling Stones, and particularly their performance at Altamont in 1969, represent the darker side of the 1960s in American Pie. Jumpin' Jack Flash was a rollicking 1968 hit for the Rolling Stones, and McLean uses the title to segue into the Stones' infamous concert at Altamont Speedway in December 1969. "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick / Jack Flash sat on a candlestick / Cause fire is the Devil's only friend / Oh, as I watched him on the stage / My hands were clenched in fists of rage" Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album, but tackle darker and more difficult subjects, such as social rebellion, sexual obsession and suicide. There, they would not only break new sonic ground with records such as Sgt. Exhausted by the demands of touring, the Fab Four decided to focus their energies on the studio. 29, 1966, according to Jim Fann, creator of the website Understanding American Pie. "The quartet practised in the park" is a reference to the Beatles' final concert, in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, on Aug. The Beatles are thought to play a cameo in American Pie's overarching narrative. John Lennon, in particular, took an interest in leftist politics, although he all but repudiated it by 1968, the year the Beatles released the song Revolution. Here, McLean appears to examine the cultural influence of the Beatles, who began the '60s as lovable mop tops and eventually came to represent the artistic, political and pharmacological experimentation of the mid to late '60s. "While Lennon read a book of Marx / The quartet practised in the park / We sang dirges in the dark" Earlier in the song, McLean rhapsodizes about a person who sang in a "voice that came from you and me." This is a reference to "Dylan's untrained, common voice of the people," writes Levitt. The song on the whole reflects McLean's nostalgia for a time when music was intended as escapism and an excuse to dance - which is pretty much the antithesis of Dylan, a scruffy bard whose tunes exposed the lies and hypocrisy of the establishment. If Elvis Presley was "the King of Rock 'n' Roll," the "jester" was folk icon Bob Dylan, according to Saul Levitt, creator of the Ultimate American Pie Site. With this lyric, McLean is thought by some to be addressing the changing winds in popular music and society on the whole. ((William Claxton/Sony BMG/Associated Press) ) Many people believe the references to "the jester" in American Pie are allusions to folk icon Bob Dylan. The accident, which snuffed out three major figures of early rock 'n' roll, has come to be known as "the day the music died." "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens in Iowa on Feb. "February made me shiver / With every paper I'd deliver / Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step / I can't remember if I cried / When I read about his widowed bride / But something touched me deep inside / The day the music died."ĭespite his reticence to explain himself, McLean has acknowledged that the February event that shook him was the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, J.P. Here's a closer reading of some of the song's key passages. McLean has famously refused to divulge the meaning of his lyrics - which seem to jump between the literal and the metaphorical - so the task has been left to music critics, cultural theorists and millions of amateur sleuths. pop charts in 1972, its cultural significance has reigned much longer - it remains a staple in karaoke bars and around summer campfires. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)Īlthough the song spent four weeks at the top of the U.S. The handwritten American Pie manuscript sold for $1.2 million US on April 7.
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