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To: elcid1970

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/908/what-is-don-mcleans-song-american-pie-all-about/


February made me shiver
: Holly’s plane crashed February 3, 1959.

Them good ole boys were singing “This’ll be the day that I die”: Holly’s hit “That’ll Be the Day” had a similar line.

The Jester sang for the King and Queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean: ID of K and Q obscure. Elvis and Connie Francis (or Little Richard)? John and Jackie Kennedy? Or Queen Elizabeth and consort, for whom Dylan apparently did play once? Dean’s coat is the famous red windbreaker he wore in Rebel Without a Cause; Dylan wore a similar one on “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan” album cover.

With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast: On July 29, 1966 Dylan had a motorcycle accident that kept him laid up for nine months.

While sergeants played a marching tune: The Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

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/ And as the flames climbed high into the night: Mick Jagger, Altamont.

I met a girl who sang the blues/ And I asked her for some happy news/ But she just smiled and turned away: Janis Joplin OD’d October 4, 1970.The three men I admire most/ The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost/ They caught the last train for the coast: Major mystery. Holly, Bopper, Valens? Hank Williams, Elvis, Holly? JFK, RFK, ML King? The literal tripartite deity? As for the coast, could be the departure of the music biz for California. Or it simply rhymes, a big determinant of plot direction in pop music lyrics (which may also explain “drove my Chevy to the levee”).

82 posted on 03/26/2019 12:49:41 PM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: sparklite2

Well played ...


83 posted on 03/26/2019 12:54:49 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: sparklite2

Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ is a heck of a lot easier to decipher. Hard to tell if McLean’s obscure lyrics actually referred to something or was just poetic imagery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g


93 posted on 03/26/2019 1:30:49 PM PDT by Pelham (Secure Voter ID. Mexico has it, because unlike us they take voting seriously)
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