Anatomy of a Song: "American Pie" Quiz

Answer: Plane crash

On 3 February, 1959, a plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J P Richardson (the 'Big Bopper') crashed in Iowa during a snowstorm.

It is generally considered that the lyric "The day the music died" is McLean's tribute to the influence that these three performers had on the early stages of Rock and Roll.

Answer: February

"But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step"

According to www.songfacts.com: "McLean was a paperboy when Holly died. He learned about the plane crash when he cut into his stack of papers and saw the lead story".

Answer: Chuck Berry

Holly, Valens and Richardson all perished. Chuck Berry continued to record and perform through into the 21st century.

Answer: Chevrolet

"So bye bye, miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee"

According to www.wikipedia.com: "The chorus is simple, with most reviewers equating "Miss American Pie" with all types of American music or everything that is good about the country. There is also an unconfirmed rumor that McLean dated a Miss America contestant for a time. The chorus ends with "this'll be the day that I die." Holly had a popular song called "That'll Be The Day", in which the line "that'll be the day that I die" is repeated in the chorus. "Bye, bye Miss American Pie" may also refer to the loss of innocence caused by the assassination of John F. Kennedy, since "American pie" may be an oblique reference to apple pie, a symbol of traditional American values and morality".

Answer: Whiskey & Rye

"Drove my Chevy to the levee
But the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "this'll be the day that I die"

Answer: Eight Miles High

"Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast"

According to www.songfacts.com: "The line "Eight miles high and falling fast" is likely a reference to The Byrds' hit "Eight Miles High".

Answer: Helter Skelter

"Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast"

Regrettably, "Helter Skelter" had been immortalised for all the wrong reasons by Charles Manson and his cohorts.

Answer: In the gym

"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"

According to www.wikpedia.com: "Rock and roll from the 1950s included frequent slow songs, played at sock hops and other dances. Sock hops are referenced later in the second verse, with "I saw you dancing in the gym" (sock hops were frequently held in gyms) and "You both kicked off your shoes" (shoes would scuff the floor of gyms, hence teens danced in socks)".

Answer: Luck

"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"

Answer: Music

"Do you believe in rock and roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow"

Answer: Shoes

"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"

Answer: Blues Brothers

"Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye"

In the Blues Brothers, Ackroyd and John Belushi (Elwood & Jake Blues) turn up early to 'Bob's Country Bunker' and impersonate the attraction for that night, 'The Good Old Boys'. To their horror, the crowd expects them to play Country and Western, which leads to the classic exchange on stage:

"Who knows a country song"?
"What about 'The Wreck Of The Ol' 97'"?
"Okay, what key do we play it in"?
"F. Good country key"

Answer: Penalty

"It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast"

It is widely conjectured that the 'jester' in the lyrics is a refernce to Bob Dylan. According to wikipedia: "The jester returns to the song and is "on the sidelines in a cast", referring to Dylan's 1966 motorcycle crash that badly injured him".

Answer: Pink

"I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck"

Answer: They were broken

"But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken"

Answer: The marching band was still on it

"'Cause the players tried to take the field"
The marching band refused to yield"

16 April 1977, Leeds United vs Ipswich Town, at Elland Road. This exact scenario happened following the half-time break. Presumably the band leader was a Don McLean fan! I could not find any web references to the incident itself but recall seeing it with my own eyes on the news.

According to www.wikipedia.com: "The following two lines ("Cause the players tried to take the field/The marching band refused to yield") may bring back the DNC of 1968, with the marching band being the protestors and the players being the Chicago police and Illinois National Guard. The players may also be the Ohio National Guard, referring to the infamous shootings of unarmed protestors at Kent State University. More generally, some have interpreted it as an indictment of the military-industrial complex's refusal to heed the desires of the people of the United States on the subject of the Vietnam War. Others intepret this line as the rivalry between intelligent, art rock (such as the Beatles) and fun, dance rock (such as the Beach Boys)".

Answer: Lost In Space

"Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again"

Ah! Lost In Space! How could we ever forget the immortal words from Professor John Robinson: "Man first landed on the Moon in 1970"! Hmmm, this incompetence could explain how they ended up helplessly marooned! I swear, they should have put the Robot in charge, he was the only one that made any sense!

(Yes, I know the date error was because the show was made prior to the moon landing and so therefore they had to estimate).

Answer: He did it because fire is the devil's only friend

"So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend"

According to www.wikpedia.com: "So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick" may refer to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and their 1968 song "Jumping Jack Flash" as well as a nursery rhyme with the same line. "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick" is also from the nursery rhyme and may refer to the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway. "Fire is the devil's only friend" may refer to "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, or "Friend of the Devil" by the Grateful Dead".

Answer: Delight

"And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight"

According to www.wikpedia.com: "Satan laughing with delight" may be Mick Jagger. However, the Rolling Stones recorded many roots-rock covers (which McLean probably liked) and were unusually dance-oriented for their time. "To light that sacrificial rite" may also refer to Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire in concert at the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967, though the rest of the verse seems to refer to 1968. Some have claimed that the end of this verse refers to McLean prophetically knowing that the plane would crash and kill his musical heroes but was unable to stop it".

Answer: She just smiled and turned away

"I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away"

According to www.wikpedia.com: "The sixth verse begins with "I met a girl who sang the blues", probably referring to Janis Joplin or Billie Holiday, who "smiled and turned away" (died of an overdose) when McLean asks her if she has any "happy news".

Answer: Four

"The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died"

Answer: The mothers tried

"And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed"

Answer: The sacred store

"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"

According to www.wikpedia.com: "But the man there said the music wouldn't play", may mean the discontinued practice of record stores allowing shoppers to preview music before buying it, or that listeners had stopped listening to Buddy Holly and similar rockers, or that good music was no longer being created".

Answer: Father, Son & the Holy Ghost

"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"

This verse always makes me smile. The way the line about the train going to the coast offsets the seriousness of the others always seemed really clever to me.

According to www.songfacts.com: "Don McLean was a practicing Catholic, and believed in the depravity of 60s music, hence the closing lyric: "The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died". Some have postulated that in this line the Trinity represents Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper".

Answer: Madonna

According to http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/l_reviews_s/12844.html: "The archetypal all-American 20th Century classic, Don McLean's folk-pop monster, 'American Pie', is a strange track for Madonna to choose to cover. After all, the whole thing is invested with so many years of American pastoral fantasies that imagining the song sung in a way even slightly less than reverential to Mclean's stylised organic folk is near impossible.

The fact that William Orbit was the man handed the unenviable task of producing this record is equally bad news for Don McLean and Madonna fans alike. From first listening it's clear that the result is amazingly weak and the whole project surely ill advised from the beginning.

Despite having acquitted himself admirably on Blur's '13', Orbit - without focussed and creative musicians to give structure to this kind of production - sounds like a fish out of water. Wishy-washy electronic swirling and regimented drum patterns rob 'American Pie' of its home-spun charm. The twiddly insubstantial production drifts along underneath Madonna's bored vocal, seemingly failing to either stimulate vocal passion or pin down and exploit what little is already there. Madonna's worst release for quite some time".

I will go further than that. It was plainly awful. How someone could take this song and turn in into a quasi-dance track defied description. The emphasis (or lack of) that Madonna puts on the last line here:

"Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so"

clearly indicates to me that she really had no idea regarding what the song was about. Incredible! 0/10 - that's MY review!