Added: 5 years ago
From: lonestarsound
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  • It's a shame I only have one Favorites list to add this one to. Thanks for posting!

  • lot of misinformation out there. the guy killed at Altamount was not prevented form 'shooting people' for heaven's sake, this is all on film. the Angels plain over-reacted, macho'ed out, and killed him.

    the lennon reading marx was inded john in this song, not V.I. Lenin. that was the whole joke of that lyric. 'race music was a phrase from the 30's and earlier, not the 50's unless you lived in Mississippi. and so on

  • at 3:24 during the verse "And while Lenin read a book on Marx" you put a picture of John Lennon but it is actually Vladimir Lenin who read a book by Karl Marx "The Communist Manifesto" which lead him to create the soviet version of Communism...

  • @Diablo4643

    No. Lenin died in the 20's, this has nothing to do with Lenin.

  • @jeebiskebowski yes i know but Don Mclean still directed that verse to him

  • @spongeyspikes09 Satan as Mick Jaggar? crowd entranced by muisc at Altamont? That was where Hells Angels stopped a black man from shooting people, possibly even Mick Jaggar and the Stones, by using stabbing him before he could shoot people. Hells Angells prevented murders. I don't understand your references regarding this event and this song.

  • Nice try. The much better fit is Igor Stavinsky. The Rite of Spring is the day the music died. At least you got kennedy right. LOL

  • Thank you! I was always drawn to this song, but never quite understood it. After hearing it for almost 30 years, it finally makes sense, but it probably made most sense to those that lived through the 60's.

  • I dont like music from this age but for some reason this is one of the greatest songs ever. And today I learnt two things, this is one long song but also has some of the most meaningful lyrics of any song , ever. Thanks for helping explain it.

  • @youfaild0torg Actually the plane had no name, so that isnt where Miss American pie came from.

  • Nice Work.

    But i have to say the part where "Break that Satan's spell and as the flames etc."

    was the part where their Pilot lost control of their plane and the flames was the crash.

  • @spongeyspikes09 But that doesn't make any sense with the placement in the song. Satan is Mick Jagger and during the stones performance of Gimme Shelter at Atlamont, the crowd was said to be entranced by the music (Satan's Spell)

  • I heard helter skelter was possibly a reference to Charles Manson and that the sweet perfume was marijuana.

  • @MangaHeroYK Helter skelter i think is just what the mood felt like, but I do agree with marijuana being the sweet perfume

  • are you sure it's "Lenon read a book of Marx" instead of "Lenin"?

  • @crestingostoso Yes. It's a joke, sort of.

  • @crestingostoso The lyrics are Lenin, but the meaning is John Lennon putting socialist references into the Beatles songs

  • WHY SO FUCKING GLITCHY!

  • "the players tried to take the field ... the marching band refused to yield" possibly that rock had changed and the Beatles had taken over and that was it for dancing to the rock of old

  • the sargents played a marching tune is about sergent pepers lonley hearts club band

  • the players for a forwad pass its not talking about roits

  • Lenin not john Lennon Lenin was a comunast

    

  • i used to think that this song is in memory of the brave young men who died in the vietnam war at the prime of their youth when they should have been drinking beer at home and be carefree. then i think the song goes on about how the public is slowly is becoming more liberated and aware. i think the singer wants the public to wake up and voice their opinions or the corrupt and greedy politicians would eat america alive; i think that's what the jester stealing the thorny crown from the king means.

  • not a bad interpretation but the verse about the band taking the field was about the Kent State riots which also inspired Neil Young to write Ohio which also went to number 1.

  • Rightly or wrongly so, since most of us see it slightly different to one another, it really makes no odds. Some of the symbolism seems very clear while some does not. What I do know is this, in my view anyway, is that it is one of the best songs ever written. It has remained with me all my life and always will, thanks to one of my school-teachers. if I could thank him for anything it would be that he was first to play it for us at school. That was over 30 years ago now.

  • This doesn't even come close in so many parts. It's good, but sorely lacking in so much understanding. That said, I couldn't do a better job or even close to as good of a job of putting something like this together, so well done for a really good try

  • best explanation of american pie ever

  • im 34 and compared to the world that we live in today those times 50s 60s 70s seem so innocent.i wish i could have lived during those years...

  • @badtothebonz1 All hell broke lose in the 60's but the 50's were an era of quiet and few wanted for anything including piece of mind. Or so we thought.

  • Goosebumps. Great vid.

  • Don't fight about coin toss guys, this song is awsome, and this video too, thak you for uploading such an instructive video !

  • Waylon voluntarily switched gave up his seat to someone who had been sick so they didnt have to ride in the cold bus. No coin toss folks......

  • I love this song! Glad to now know the meaning behind it.

  • Very nice montage and interpretation. However, the statement that a "Pickup truck represents sexual potency" was quite a laugh. Rather it indicates inbreeding and a red-neck mentality. That being a much more accurate description. 

  • @at7004 what is wrong with a pick-up you snob. you think that just because someone isnt as rich as you and were raised with respect, they must be an inbred hillbilly that screws sheep?

  • @at7004 the truck represented it at THAT time in the 50's and yeesh man whats with all the negativity? no need to go on a rant

  • @at7004 Accurate description of you, perhaps. This isn't your style of music anyway.

  • This interpretation of the lyrics makes perfect sense to those of us old enough to have live through the 60"s and early 70'S

  • i was always told it was about the plane crash that killed buddy holly nd the big bopper

  • "This will be the day I die" is a reference to the moral of soldiers going into Vietnam for the first time.

  • it all makes sense now

  • i knew all this but what i dont quite get is when he refers to the father son and holy ghost is he talking about jfk, mlk, and bobby kennedy or is it buddy holly, valens and bopper. i cant figure it out

  • @cooldood416 no bro it is lennon. he was a into the new world ideas and the newest idea was communism. honestly if you read it. it actually sounds like the perfect peoples government. but it doesnt work in real life

  • Beautiful song, isn't it?

    This is a very good interpretation of the lyrics and a wonderful analysis of all those events there in.

  • ;( beautiful...

  • very good. I think it's more descriptive than mine, but I had to create it for a class of mainstream lovers who would have no idea what I was talking about,.

  • ...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.

  • my day doesn't get over if i don't listen to this and "don't worry-bobby mcfferein" before going to bed. GOOD NIGHT.

  • It's like firing an arrow into a wall and drawing a target around it afterward.....some main facts are true but others pure conjecture and many other things could be made to fit (Almost)....An Iconic song..true Americana...EVERYBODY knows the chorus....40 years later it has never become tired (Madonna's version lasted a week) Don Mclean produced a masterptece....wonderful!.....­.a kid came into our school classroom and said 'you'll never guess what's happened'.....from England

  • @tony00165 - Madonna had a version?!? Jeez...

  • Wait, ''Drove my chevee to the levee but the levee was dry''

    I dont get it

  • No Virginia, "the father the son and the holy ghost" in American Pie lyrics do not really refer to the Kenndeys and Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Whoever put this video together read some random articles and stuck some pretty superficial images together to coincide with McLean's lyrics.

    "In a coat he borrowed from James Dean" accompanied by a pic of James Dean.

    Eeew, unexpected.

    *shrug*

  • Great, Thank you

  • Its not anything but telling about Buddy Jiles and Richie dying and semi autobiographical about his feelings on it and his abstract life after the fact. He has remarked this in the past.

  • Lenin, not Lennon.

  • A lot of the claims in this video are purely conjecture. Anybody's claims are purely conjecture. Nobody lives inside Don McLean's head except Don McLean himself, and I don't think he has ever explained the meaning of the song. Probably better that way.

    One omission of a few I caught - if the Jester is Bob Dylan, then the line "the Jester on the sidelines in a cast" - 4:20 - is a reference to Dylan's serious motorcycle accident in 1966 .... he didn't tour again for 8 years.

  • ....... just wanted to add that "the day the music died" was indeed the day Buddy Holly died .... that has been firmly established.

    One of the very first songs I learned to play on my guitar .... very easy to play .... if you play guitar, give it a try.

  • I love this song, thanks for posting.

  • ok all u people tht r sayin shit bout how this is not about the plane crash or how its about other shit YOUR SO WRONG!!!!! get the fuck off here and go get a wife and/or a job k BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Good work. I enjoyed it and it was informational. Quite nostalgic. New music is mainly not any form of art, but cheap tunes and tricks to maximise profits and dumb down the masses. Hail the old kings of music. Perhaps their spirit and soul can one day spread back into the 'main mass' of music.

  • @zebelih what the fuck? informational? nonstalgic? what the fuck r u a teacher? if u r GET THE FUCK OFF OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @pony8181 why do people feel the need to say "u" and "r" instead of typing out the simple three and five letter words? does it really save so much time?

  • i'm doing the buddy holly story for my school show :D its amazing!<3<3

  • I always thought it was about VIETNAM

    I Always thought "the Players tried to take the Field, but the Marching Band refused to yeild" was about Kent State.

  • I always thought it was about VIETNAM

  • Not sure if any of these inferences are anything more than contrived coincidence in a nonetheless well constructed montage. More than likely, it was simply a hit record with a catchy hook.

    In an unrelated opinion, it did revive my personal lifetime hatred towards Jagger and the Stones. Mick thought it would be hip to use a known blatantly racist, violent group of thugs called Hells Angels to be the "Security" for his band at Altamont. That man's blood will forever be on Jagger's hands.

  • fascinating video. I wish more youTube videos so excellently combined entertainment with education

  • I think this song is the longest song ever made.

  • @TheNewRiflemanBob not even close

  • @MrNadseven so what is then? -_-

  • @TheNewRiflemanBob try xanadu, by rush

  • @MrNadseven try this one "Devil Doll - The Sacrilege Of Fatal Arms" lol!!!

  • @TheNewRiflemanBob  ?!!!!!

  • @MrNadseven I know right haha :)

  • That was great! :)

  • Comment removed

  • ok somehow i don't think mick jagger is exactly the devil...

  • beatles, "the sergeants played a marching tune", hells angels, "no angels born in hell", war thru cuban missile crisis, " the birds flew off to the fallout shelter", bob dylan, "the jester on the sidelines in a cast", Janis Joplin, "the girl who sang the blues", rolling stones n jack moss, "moss grows fat on a Rolling Stone", Helter Skelter was the song that Charles Manson got his demonic messages from that told him to kill people. next time get ur facts straight b4 commenting

  • LOL

    The pickup truck represents freedom & sexual potency

  • He's saying "Bye, Bye" to "American Pie" - the USA the way it was during the time of Buddy Holly's music. Maybe you had to be there - and Don McLean was. I was a little older than Don when Buddy Holly died, and I remember the day very well. I think it affected everyone my age - and Don's age.

  • Great video. One image I question is the ship in dry land for "Drove my chevy to the levee, But the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye" In some parishes, they were called "dry" parishes and sold no alcohol. I think maybe this is about a parish/levee area that was alcohol-dry & the whiskey& rye may be a bootleg reference

  • one of the best songs ever written ... it could probably only have happened in a unique set of circumstances ... mcclean's experiences & the end of the 60s, projected back to buddy's death and mcclean's feelings then ... i just wonder why there's no mention of jimi ...

  • Not to sound picky, but you spelled Moorhead incorrectly. Thanks for your take on this classic song!

  • @davida861 Just watched your response and see you fixed the error. Great vid!

  • if you go to his website McLean admits that the song is about Holly he was delivering papers when he read the headlines that Holly had died. the rest is just pure speculation McLean had never talked about any of the other lines.

  • All commentary on the meaning of the song -as long as it's believably explained- is correct. The song does not mean anything. Writer said so himself.

  • my mum used to sing this till she passed away it just brigs bak so meny mems

  • I think the quartet practising in the park may refer to the rolling stones suddenly being a quartet after losing brian jones 3 days earlier and playing in hyde park london which I attended. I know mick taylor came in, but for the poetic licence they were a quartet who were unintentionally preparing for altamont 6 months later. also, I think the dirges in the dark could refer to paint it black, which has that dark dirge like feel and is a precursor to sympathy for the devil.

  • Wow...absolutely brilliant. I'm sure you blew Don McLean's mind with this.

  • best video ever

  • thats my faverot rock and roll back then when buddy holly was alive they called it black music because it was so intence

  • 'Iceland: Beyond Sigur Ros' (2011). A new Anglo-Icelandic Music Documentary! Enjoy for FREE! :)

  • Waylon Jennings was Holly's bass player and I'm not sure it was a coin toss or what but he had to ride on the bus without heat and by doing so lived to tell about it and have a long and successful career himself.

  • @tufnuff - incorrect. I've met the owner of the plane and it had no name. Only tail numbers.

  • @lonestarsound This song has nothing to do with anything written here. Don McLean has no idea of

    what the verses mean since he isn't the real composer...but he sure knows about the 40 year lie he's

    kept going. If only the original songwriter was here to prove it..perhaps she can, from beyond the grave...

  • @lonestarsound

    you need to look up the manufacturers of air craft. the plane type was beechcraft bonanza. so there was technically a name to the plane. you know like if it was chevy camero. so i guess this means that you to are wrong from a literal stand point.

  • @lonestarsound he didnt say anything about the name...

  • @tufnuff it was a coin toss.

  • American Pie was the name of the plane.

  • GREAT JOB HERE<<<

  • @JHBorn2fly45 you know..I feel the same way!

  • @lonestarsound

    Nice video, I'm planning on using this song for one of my class projects. I haven't even done any research and I know that this guys information is completely wrong. I can beleive he would give you such a hard time.

  • @JHBorn2fly45 True

  • @JHBorn2fly45 then thats just an awful lot of coincidences huh?

  • @JHBorn2fly45 then that's just an awful lot of coincidences huh?

  • @JHBorn2fly45 umad

  • @JHBorn2fly45 the Lyrics say LENNON dumbass and ROLLING STONES

  • @JHBorn2fly45 you have no idea what you are talking about. I don't even have the time to show how wrong you are. But, for starters, Holly was killed in 1959 not 1951. Don Mclean was not a member of Holly, Valens, or Richardson's bands. Waylon Jennings was the one who had to flip the coin. God, do you just come on here to piss people off?

  • @JHBorn2fly45 - You're not even close. Don McClean was a 12 year old paper boy when the crash happened...in 1959, not 1951, he wasn't a part of the coin flip.

  • @lonestarsound Hey I heard that the plane was actually called American Pie... is that true? Also just pointing out that when he refers to Lennon he is actually talking about the communist who read Karl Marxs book and rallied the revolution.

  • @whodliketoknow34 Its a major debate, but the group claim is no the plane didn't have a name, only numbers

  • @whodliketoknow34 I am a Corprate pilot, and i WILL TELL YOU the plane didnt have a name. To be technical about it the plane is called- "Beechcraft Bonanza V35". All Aircraft regardless of origin have a tail number. In America Tail numbers start with N and have 2-5 numbers, or 2-4numbers and 1-2 alpha numeric. Example: N99PN, or N35906. Love the song but it was a dumb idea to fly a piston aircraft with a ceiling of 12000ft. no De-icers in Idaho in the winter in the mountains is an idiot. Sorry

  • @whodliketoknow34 No, he isn't; hes referring to John Lennon. Lenin would be out of context. BUT, if you want to be faggot it can be seen as a doubletake.

  • @TAFKASYFY Faggot??? really??? What do you mean????

  • @mjtny2 It can be seen that he is referring to John Lennon or Vladimir Lenin since communism was becoming interesting to the sub-culture at the time.

  • @lonestarsound Yeah it was Waylan and Big Bopper who flipped the coin toss. Mclean is who sang this song though regardless about him being 12 at the time. And i meant 59, that one is my fault.

  • @JHBorn2fly45 thanks for informing me before i made a fool of myself too lol i thought it was about elvis:/

  • @JHBorn2fly45 true that plane is now called a buddy holly special but it was tradgic that buddy had died he probly would set an example of how music should be today i do like some of the music today but buddy is my fav singer of all time

  • Two million of contact for this video!

    This is the real meaning: people love rock and roll.

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH "LONESTARSOUND"!

    (an italian brother)

  • holy shit im 13 and i think this songs good also i thought 4:18 to 4:51 they were talking about the jets lol fuckin steeler

  • "Bye Bye Miss American Pie..." aww The good ol' days...

  • Nice interpretation.

    The music is some kind magic. I don't know how explain.

  • the song is about ritchie valenz! not Buddy Holly...

  • I think this song says a lot about the way

    our lives was lived back then with good things

    about being alive

  • look up bluebadgerz and you'll find the best ameican pie music video ever

  • That really sucks how he died after 6 months of marrage and his wife had a msscarriage and mothe fuckin Madonna had to fuck this song all up bitch!!!

  • I'm not American. But this song is one of the reasons why I love America. Thanks, lonestarsound, it was beautiful, and educated.

  • "the jester on the sidelines in a cast"

    may be bob dylan during his period of reclusion after a motorcycle accident. During this time the hippie movement went forward and Dylan was mostly silent.

  • 3:21 - "the court adjourned" on the Kennedy assassination?? Wow, the song was written a year before JFK was killed. I don't think Don had ESP

  • The song was written in 1971, 8 years AFTER JFK was killed.

  • @lonestarsound 69 actually. Ten years later. it was released in 71

  • @unibrow5 DUH!!!!!

  • nice !!!!!

  • Listen i love Buddy Holly (Peggy Sue is MAGIC) but "the day the music died" is mostly associated with the murder of John Lennon. Now i know this lyric is about Buddy Holly having just read and discovered it now and was written before Johns death.. but its mostly Lennon as i say. Very good vid tho.

  • Actually Don Mclean has stated in interviews that the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, was the main motivation for this song. the first verse is talking directly to the day he learned of Buddy Holly's death. while the song hits on John Lennon, it also hits on Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis (while the king was looking down the jester stole his thorny crown) and dozens upon dozens more musical and film idols. This is not about 1 person, but everyone from 1950-1970

  • Judo how can you call them idols when we are talking abought some of the best singers that ever was and will ever b??? They set the stage for some of the best music that is and will ever b.

  • Im so sorry abought what i had just writen i miss read what you had said JUDO im so very sorry please forgive me im a dum blond

  • "..with the Jester on the sidelines in a cast."-Dylan was recovering from his motorcycle accident around that time and not singing so many protest songs either. David Bowie's song 'Bob Dylan' on the album 'Hunky Dory' offers an interesting insight into how people of that generation felt about Dylan being on the sidelines as it were. Well worth checking out for anyone who wants to understand the sixties better. "We'd rather be frightened together than alone..."-Bowie says to Dylan in the song.

  • WELL DONE!!

  • overwhelming

  • He's obviously talking about the day the Jonas Brothers got signed by Disney Channel

  • Of the thousands of comments I've rec'd on this video, that one actually cracked me up.

  • @QuapProductions LOL. but i think music has been dead for quite a while. it's sad really.......

  • Don McLean sings "American Pie"

    I knew the song had lots of meaning, but I didn't know all of the meanings... this was really helpful

  • who sings this song?

  • is it lennon or lenin?????anyway both of both of them red marx...

  • R.I.P to all the great men who sang this song!<333333

  • beautiful song that remind me about my dad who love this song and sing it everyday. Its just a masterpiece its beatiful.

  • great man,thanx for using lot time to make this..nicely put....

  • A sad eptiaph on the eve of this great nation..The sixties were the last hurrah.

  • wow this was awesome! thanks!!!

  • wow i could cry

  • i had no idea this song was so deep... thanks man!!!

  • I noticed that you had John Lennon in there when really it was Vladamir Lenin who read Karl Marx's book.

    Also, many things in there are Spiritual like the Bible, The Father Son and Holy Ghost, the church which is the bride of Christ so that would explain the widowed bride as well as Buddy's wife, and the end of the world which would explain the Father Son and Holy Ghost leaving and Satan on the stage.

    I'm not sure what the song was meant to mean, but this is a theory I've heard before.

  • Greaaat song, great video :D thank u

  • This was awesome. Some facts I already knew, some I didn't. Thanks.

  • this is a great song even if it old!!!!!!☺☻

  • this is a great song

  • what is the tittle of this song and the band??its cool...

  • Don MacLean

    American Pie

  • thank you so much...

  • thank you for a great video..

  • the part about the boy at the prom is about ritchie valens, he was in love with a girl named donna, and they could'nt date.