The direction that he was going in that he then didn't want to follow. As 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.
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. Either way, her name evokes a simpler, optimistic age and McLean bids her farewell. 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.
Into verse two and the swinging 60s have arrived. 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 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".
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.
But by the end of the decade, we see that Dylan's "rolling stone" is gathering moss, in fat quantities. But if you think the case is closed on the true meanings in this third verse, think again - "no verdict" has been returned. Whichever way you peer at it, "the world [McLean] once knew is changing," concludes Fann. 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 , the tension boils over into civil unrest. 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 hit "All You Need Is Love".
This 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 where feminist protesters had supposedly "burned their bras".
But the most likely reference, Fann believes, is the riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where police brutally cracked down on demonstrators.
What was revealed? 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 A giant gathering of people, all high on drugs. Soon his focus and passion was not about mastering songs of the past, but creating his own new ones.
And in this cataclysmic tale of American rock and roll turning so suddenly tragic, he found a way to piece together many disparate pieces, to create a song unlike any other. It was the music of the youth in this young country, the first one before all others to leave the planet to touch the moon, and then return.
This song came less than two years since the moon-landing. The song is filled to over-capacity with references to the momentous musicians who delivered this mystic music, as well as musical events of our time, and resonated precisely because it celebrated, and elaborated, on these touchstones.
It sang of a generation united and empowered by a new religion, one based on youth as well as spirituality and sacred song. But it also reflected in each verse and the chorus the dark side of this thing. Revolving around the heartbreak of losing our young heroes right while their songs are on our lips, and our hearts and radios, it predated the deep sorrow that was to come of losing so many we loved. It resulted in the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter right there in the audience.
As the song progresses, the darkness takes over: Satan is laughing in delight as the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost leave town forever. In almost every verse he delivers the poetry and power of rock and roll, as well as the flip-side, the obsessional danger inherent in that poetic power, when in the wrong hands or mind. He took on a new aspect of modern pop music, which is that these songs filled with often-surreal and drug-inspired imagery, while benign in intention, were often and easily misinterpreted as galvanic prophecies of impending disaster needing some action.
But none of it would have mattered if not for a key ingredient that came straight from the heart of this gifted songwriter: A great melody.
But that melody on the chorus of this complex song is beautifully simple and sweet. This songwriting tour-de-force was remarkable, but to then transform this sprawling story into a modern pop song — a radio hit — is another whole achievement, and one perhaps more unlikely than the writing of the song. That achievement, as Don says in the following, was one he shared gratefully with the producer, Ed Freeman, and his concept for its dynamic, multi-tempo arrangement.
When Madonna covered it many years later, her version also went to number one. Since it first emerged, people have been hungry to understand each line, and Don was forever beseeched with questions about its meaning.
He did seem to indicate, at one point, that the jester wearing a borrowed coat from James Dean was meant to be Dylan.
Generally, if Bob Dylan offers advice on any subject related to songwriting, it makes sense to take it to heart. So we went to the source, to Don McLean, to get all the answers about this singular song. So there were lines in there that were dream-like almost in order to connect other concepts that I had that were semi-real. But it was a dream, and the idea came from the idea that politics and music flow parallel to one and other.
I love that. I thought it was great. I love the title, "American Pie. My thumb is up like I just pulled it out of the pie. I had so many creative people around me, like the guy that did the cover, George Whiteman. He heard the song and I went to his studio and he told me he was going to paint my thumb.
I said, "OK. BH: By the way, one of the greatest album covers ever! I knew about you a little bit. I probably bought five copies of the vinyl because I wore it out. DM: Everybody picked up on this. The producer understood what I was doing. The guy that did the cover understood what I was doing.
So off we went. We put this together. The cover was tremendous. I loved it. It was so simple and still looks great. BH: Let me ask a couple specific questions about the song. I was a year-old DJ in a rural town when that song came out. I went and bought the album at the record store because of your thumb and put it on. Pretty soon, we got a shipment of an edited version that was a little over four minutes long.
How did that make you feel? I always played the long version. DM: There must have been a lot of that because people started to hear the long version and clammer for it. It just kept going. When it got played, you got double from BMI. BH: To explain that, when a song is over a certain length of time, the songwriter gets twice the rate.
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