Ο αρχιτέκτονας Don Mclean τραγουδά το American Pie
«ΚΛΑΣΙΚΑ» ΜΟΥΣΙΚΑ ΔΡΩΜΕΝΑ
ΣΤΟΙΧΟΙ ...
A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But 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
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
So
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
I started singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
Now, for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But, that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lennon read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
We were singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend
Oh 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
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
They were singing
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die...
Στίχοι τραγουδιού American Pie © Universal Music Publishing Group
What do American Pie's lyrics mean?
DON MCLEAN/CAPITOL RECORDSWhen people ask Don McLean what does American Pie really mean, he likes to reply: "It means I never have to work again."As the original manuscript for Don McLean's 1971 classic is sold at auction, fans may finally discover what his "Song of the Century" is really about. So what are the popular theories?
His eight-minute-long "rock and roll American dream" became an anthem for an entire generation - who memorised every line.
Their children in turn grew up singing it - fascinated by the mysterious lyrics with their cryptic references to 50s innocence, the turbulent 60s, and 70s disillusion.
Who broke the church bells? Who was the jester who sang for the king and queen? And what really was revealed "the day the music died"?
There are fan websites entirely dedicated to solving these mysteries, where literary detectives pore over the clues, line by line.
The song's 69-year-old architect has always remained tight-lipped.
But now at long last, the inspirations behind his Song of the Century are to be revealed after McLean put his original manuscript up for auction.
These 16 pages of handwritten notes, which have lain hidden away in a box in his home for 43 years, were sold for $1.2m (£800,000) at Christie's in New York, to an anonymous bidder.
But for McLean aficionados there is a greater prize.
The drafts, unedited, reveal the creative process behind American Pie "from beginning to end", according to Tom Lecky of Christie's.
"You see great moments of inspiration, you see him attempting things that then didn't work out. The direction that he was going in that he then didn't want to follow.
"Those words that we all know so well weren't fixed in the beginning."
DON MCLEANAs the singer himself said recently: "The writing and the lyrics will divulge everything there is to divulge."
For McLean scholars with pet theories, there could be bad news on the doorstep. This could be the day that they die.
But before we sing bye bye, and in honour of the American Pie fans everywhere, the BBC News Magazine takes a nostalgic trip back through the song's six enigmatic verses, and the popular theories that have grown up around them.
"So bye-bye, Miss American Pie..."
Contrary to popular rumour, "American Pie" was not the name of the plane that rock and roll legend Buddy Holly died in, says Jim Fann, author of Understanding American Pie.
Miss American Pie is "as American as apple pie, so the saying goes," he argues.
"She could also be a synthesis of this symbol and the beauty queen Miss America."
Either way, her name evokes a simpler, optimistic age and McLean bids her farewell.
"The day the music died" refers - of course - to Holly's untimely death on 3 February 1959, which McLean mourns as the end of the entire 50s era.
But if you think this is "what American Pie is about", you would greatly disappoint McLean, who is on record that his song has so much more to say in the verses that follow next.
"Do you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your mortal soul?"
Into verse two and the swinging 60s have arrived. "Faith in the music now replaces faith in God," Fann observes.
The religious imagery that emerges in the second verse becomes a powerful and recurring symbol of loss throughout the song.
From "the sacred store" to the broken church bells, from this point forward, "whatever is couched in religious terms can be seen as referring back... to the happier innocence and faith of the 1950s," says Fann.
The fickle girl who McLean saw "dancing in the gym" no longer cares for his "pink carnation and pickup truck", leaving him "out of luck".
HULTON ARCHIVE"When the jester sang for the King and Queen, In a coat he borrowed from James Dean"
Enter Bob Dylan, the court jester who becomes the revolutionary leader of the 60s generation, knocking Elvis, the king of the 50s, off his pedestal: "While the King was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown."
The jacket Dylan "borrowed from James Dean" can be seen on the iconic cover sleeve of his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
But by the end of the decade, we see that Dylan's "rolling stone" is gathering moss, in fat quantities.
"The old cliche is turned on its head, reflecting how the wholesale rejection of conventional values had become commonplace by 1970," as Fann interprets.
HULTON ARCHIVEBut if you think the case is closed on the true meanings in this third verse, think again - "no verdict" has been returned.
One alternative theory casts McLean's "King and Queen" as Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, the folk giants of the early '60's whose crown Dylan ultimately stole.
Another has the monarchs as President John F Kennedy and the First Lady Jackie Kennedy, with Lee Harvey Oswald as the "jester who stole his thorny crown".
Whichever way you peer at it, "the world [McLean] once knew is changing," concludes Fann.
KEYSTONE
BIPS"Now the half-time air was sweet perfume, While sergeants played a marching tune"
As the 60s reach their turbulent climax in verse four, and nuclear tensions rising, the Beatles have become the "sergeants" leading the march of counter-culture, leaving Dylan behind as "the jester on the sidelines in a cast" after his near-fatal motorbike crash.
But just at the peak of the sweetly marijuana-perfumed Summer of Love in 1967, the tension boils over into civil unrest. "We all got up to dance, but we never got the chance," sang McLean.
He looks on as the "players try to take the field; But the marching band refused to yield".
There are almost as many theories for this line as the single has sold copies (more than three million in its first year). One has the marching band as the police blocking civil rights protesters, another as the Beatles preaching non-violence with their 1967 hit "All You Need Is Love".
"Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died?"
HULTON ARCHIVEThis could be the song's most ambiguous line of all.
Some suggest it refers to a John Lennon and Yoko Ono album cover. Another popular theory is the Miss America contest of 1968 where feminist protesters had supposedly "burned their bras".
But the most likely reference, Fann believes, is the 1968 riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where police brutally cracked down on demonstrators.
What was revealed? "The dark underside of one of our most cherished institutions," he argues.
But perhaps "what was revealed" has nothing really to do with any of these events, and is really a harbinger for the tragedy that follows in the fifth verse...
HULTON ARCHIVE
"And there we were all in one place, A generation Lost in Space"
A giant gathering of people, all high on drugs. It has to be Woodstock, right? Not so, say Pie connoisseurs.
The lyrics more closely match the tragic concert at Altamont Speedway in December 1969, where "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick".
The Stones' frontman Mick Jagger really did appear on stage that night dressed in a flowing red cape, singing lyrics inciting fire and rebellion.
Meanwhile at the stage perimeter members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang - hired as security - engaged in bloody clashes with the rioting audience.
Jagger was later accused of failing to halt the performance, infuriating McLean's narrator: "I saw Satan laughing with delight; The day the music died".
APJust as Woodstock was heralded as the landmark of the counterculture movement, "Altamont was the event that signalled its demise. Reality steps in," says Fann.
The tragedy served to finally "burst the bubble of youth culture's illusions about itself," wrote Todd Gitlin, an eyewitness, in his book The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage.
And in the final verse of McLean's parable, when he "goes down to the sacred store, where I'd heard the music years before" he finds that sadly:
"The man there said the music wouldn't play"
And these words are not just symbolic. "Literally, the music stores that had once provided listening booths for their customers were by this time no longer offering this service," writes Fann.
But even more so, "the cynicism of this generation had annihilated the innocent world the narrator had grown up in."
That kind of music simply wouldn't play any more.
Forty-three years later, it would be nice to think that - whatever the revelations to come from McLean's original scribbled notes - they will not burst the bubble for the millions of fans who still dream of Chevys, whisky and rye.
CENTRAL PRESS
