Don mclean, american pie ... what is he singing about?
961531
American Pie" is an eight-and-a-half minute long classic rock song by singer-songwriter Don McLean, about "the day the music died."\n\nRecorded in 1971 and released that year on the album of the same name, the single was a number-one U.S. hit for four weeks in 1972. The song is an allusive history of rock and roll that starts with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, Jr. (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959, and ends in 1970. .\n\nThe song's lyrics are subject of much debate. Although McLean dedicated the American Pie album to Buddy Holly, none of the singers in the plane crash are identified by name in the song itself. Music performers are also alluded to with easily decoded identifications, leading to much discussion, encouraged by McLean's canny lifelong refusal to explain the lyrics. Asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean once replied, "It means I never have to work again." Later, he more seriously stated, "You will find many 'interpretations' of my lyrics but none of them by me Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence.\n\nhope that is of some use.\nPHIL
542993
Wow, I play that song so much, and I have never sat down to try and make sense of the lyrics. Being an American, I probably wouldn't be much help to analyze it, but letting you know there are Americans who do like the song.
981613
the song is "i am". anything else i can't tell you unless you refraise the question.`
143055
He's talking about cheating.  There's a section of the song when he's singing with a woman (presumably the one he's dating) and she asks him about all the things se wants him to do for her, and he readily agrees.  At the end, she goes, "But sooner or later, you'll be screwing around," and he responds, "I won't do that!"
107971
To be honest Id never heard of this (knew the song) until now.\n\nIts what they say, learn something new every day.\n\nJust got to work out if its a good thing to learn lol\n\nCheck the link for some possible material ideas.
1093758
Yes, I know what you mean.  Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen wrote tunes that were not only nice to listen to, but they had a great deal of meaning.  The (c)rap that passes as music today is mindless drivel TRYING to pass as poetry, and young people who enjoy it now will find out that it's sh*t later on!!  The only music that seems to speak from the heart these days is Country Music, and I NEVER thought I'd hear myself say that!  Who can ever forget songs like American Pie and Abraham, Martin, and John, GREAT tunes with a social consciousness to them!  And the two you mentioned--outstanding!  Read the lyrics that Jackson Browne wrote TWENTY YEARS AGO in his tune, Lives in the Balance--they are timeless, and they mean so much to the situation in Iraq, even now!!!  Really good question, and thanks for reminding me about great music gone by!!
419056
Oh, what a dilemma.  Ace is beautiful and when he sings..wow.  But Chris, he just draws you into the song and makes you believe.  I guess Chris but I'd prefer BOTH!  =)
1128101
dan seals. the bop.\n\nbrings back memories of my mom. i was only a kid but wanted to get her the cassette (remember those?). i finally got it for her for christmas. i unwrapped it and forwarded it to the song. christmas morning, we danced to it. \n\ni can hear it in my head right now. thanks for the memory.
813480
I haven't picked it up yet, but I have to admit, I like Meat Loaf!  I think he's got a great voice.  The duet for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now"- either he should have done it with Celine Dion, who popularized the song in the first place, or he should have done it alone.  That girl he sings it with, I don't know who she is, but I think her harmony sounds a little off, like it doesn't go with the melody, but I guess I could be wrong.
273913
I;ve said that I don't care for Chris. Can he sing?...yes.\nBut, who does he sound like?....Creed, Pearl Jam, and all the other singers who scream with angst instead of sing with emotion like Taylor Hicks does.\n\nThe whole angst thing in music is getting old, and I think there's going to be a backlash.  Singers can sing about emotional things without the gravelly screaming.\n\np.s. I watched "Bo Bice" perform on AI, and he totally sucked. How the hell did he ever land a recording contract?
1088915
It's an awesome song, but I'm not quite sure what it means.\n\nIt might mean that the writer of the song wasn't writing about heartbreaks and how much love sucks and stuff(tragedies), but instead, he wrote about sins and stuff.\n\nI dunno.
1153967
In the song "You're So Vain" Carly Simon is allegedly talking about Warren Beatty. Mick Jagger sang back-up vocals.\n\nHere some excerpts from Carly Simon's website that may not solve the mystery, although she does admit it's a LITTLE BIT about Warren Beatty.\n\nThe Washington Post - 1983\nWP: Who was ‘You’re So Vain about? Mick Jagger?\nCarly: No.\nWP: Warren Beatty?\nCarly: It certainly sounds like it was about Warren Beatty. He certainly thought it was about him - he called me and said thanks for the song….\nWP: You had gone with him?\nCarly: Hasn’t everybody?\nWP: No.\nCarly: That only means you haven’t met him, though at the time I met him he was still relatively undiscovered as a Don Juan. I felt I was one among thousands at that point – it hadn’t reached, you know, the populations of small countries….\n\nFAME - 1989 \nFor the record, Simon acknowledges the song is a little about Beatty; it's a composite of three men from her L.A. days. Warren, it seems, was not a particularly good boyfriend. "And I never took him seriously," she says. "He was great fun and very, very, bright. But noooo ... as a boyfriend. \n\nA lot of women like somebody who's that smooth. In the beginning Warren was pretty good at pretending he was only smooth on the outside and a bowl of jelly on the inside. But he doesn't do that secondary act very well now." Carly Simon\n\nVH1 - One to One - 1990\nCarly Simon: "People have been questioning for a long time, who it's about - I mean, who I wrote the song about. It always strikes me as funny. That people would be THAT into what I was thinking about, that's the greatest ego trip anybody could have....that they would be THAT interested in what you were thinking about when you wrote a song. And for that very reason, of course, I can never give it away."\n\nThis Morning - 1995\nMark McEwen: How did you get Mick Jagger to sing on You're So Vain?\nCarly: I guess it was kind of chance in a way. I was in London, it was 1972 and he happened to call at the studio while I was doing the background vocals with Harry Nilsson. Mick said "Hey, what cha doin'?" and I said "We're doing some backup vocals on a song of mine....why don't you come down and sing with us?"\n\nSo Mick and Harry and I stood around the mike singing you're so vain and Harry was such a gentleman - he knew the chemistry was between me and Mick; in terms of the singing, so he sort of bowed out saying "The two of you have a real blend - you should do it yourselves." \n\nAnd that's how it happened.\n\nMM: So, who is You're So Vain about?\n\nCarly: I don't know.\n\nMM: We've heard it was Warren Beatty. It was Mick Jagger. But you've never really said who it was.\n\nCarly: Yeah.\n\n\n\nCharlie Rose - May 2000\nCR: Tell us about You're So Vain\nCarly: Well, there was originally a song that had the melody of what is now You're So Vain, called Bless You Ben. It went "Bless you Ben, you came in, where nobody else left off.....There I was, by myself, hiding up in my loft"....\n\nIt never went anywhere, I could never fall in love with it. And then I was at a party and somebody walked in and my friend said to me "Doesn't he look like he's just walked on to a yacht?". So, I thought to myself - hmmm, let me write that in my notebook. \n\nAnd then one day, when I was playing Bless You Ben on the piano, I substituted "You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht" and the exchange was equal. And it felt natural and it felt good and then I could get into that man, I knew who I was talking about.\nCR: Warren Beatty?\nCarly: Well.....not at all.\nCR: Not at all?\nCarly: Well, maybe a little bit.\nCR: Was it one man? Was it Warren or was it a composite for you?\nCarly: Most songs are a composite....most songs are.\nCR: Was this one?\nCarly: I don't
616995
Here is one possible interpretation of this "camp-fire song."  The auto-formatting feature of this forum will not allow me to reprint your request in "fake book" style for all to see and so I, regrettably, must direct you to the web-source at:\n\nhttp://xenia.media.mit.edu/~kristin/songbook/OnAndOn/HoleAtTheBottomAtTheSea.html\n\nAll my best to you!
1109422
It's a great song but I too am trying to figure out what it means.The meanings I have going around in my head are probably so far off.
332299
KnowledgeSponge had it right.His music teacher, a clarinetist.\nI am surprised that OneRunningMan did not include the comment by his source i.e "If you are American , you won't like this song".This theory is blown right out of the water by the link below.
953155
It's from an old Nursery Rhyme\n\nLittle Jack Horner\nSat in a corner\nEating his Christmas pie\nHe put in his thumb\nAnd pulled out a plum\nAnd said" What a good boy am I!"\n\nNow, having said that I couldn't begin to tell you if it has any underlying meaning!\n\nHere's a link to a theory on the "back story"\nhttp://www.rooneydesign.com/JackHorner.html\n\nAnd here's yet another link:\n\nhttp://www.rhymes.org.uk/little_jack_horner.htm\n\nAnd finally dear old wikipedia has a bunch of alternative rhymes that are quite amusing:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Jack_Horner
670396
Dragged kicking and screaming into retirement by the ongoing changes in a youth oriented music business, he has had his mortgage paid, for 40 years by Royalties from a little song he wrote in an idle moment, called Limbo Rock. He manages to get by comfortably tho not lavishly, on residuals from motion pictures and recordings and songs he's written over the years.\n\n\nThe checks trickle in from David Cassidy's Partridge family theme, "I Think I love You", to "These Boots Are Made For Walking", to "Viva Las Vegas" and others, but and especially from , Elvis Presley's classic "Memories", co-written with friend Mac Davis.