American Pie lyrics question.....?

Question

Okay, in the song American Pie by Don McLean, he says, "drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry." I used to live in a town on the banks of the Mississippi, and there was a levee that ran up and down that river by that town. You could drive your Chevy (or Ford or Dodge or whatever) to that levee and drive all up and down the top of it, and it was dry, because the whole purpose of that levee was to keep the Mississippi from exceeding its banks and flooding the town.

So..... why wouldn't the levee be dry, and why isn't that a good thing? :)

Answer 1

this is what the interprtation says...
"Chevy represents America. The Levee is the bar where McLean and his friends hung out in his hometown of New Rochelle, NY. It closed down."

Answer 2

The chorus contains the line Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry that may have multiple meanings. The first is derived from lines in the 1956, General Motors jingle, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet", advertising that brand of vehicles [Fann]:

1959 Chevrolet Impala (modified street rod) On a highway or road along the levee, performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her, life is completer in a Chevy.

Since traveling is a common metaphor for making one's way through life, driving a Chevy meant living in a patriotic, middle class lifestyle that the owner could be proud of. A drive on a "road along the levee" beside a river or other body of water represents a scenic, fulfilling sojourn, so, the missing water along the levee implies that the trip, life, became empty.

Answer 3

The chorus contains the line Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry that may have multiple meanings. The first is derived from lines in the 1956, General Motors jingle, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet", advertising that brand of vehicles


1959 Chevrolet Impala (modified street rod)On a highway or road along the levee,
Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her,
Life is completer in a Chevy.
Since traveling is a common metaphor for making one's way through life, driving a Chevy meant living in a patriotic, middle class lifestyle that the owner could be proud of. A drive on a "road along the levee" beside a river or other body of water represents a scenic, fulfilling sojourn, so, the missing water along the levee implies that the trip, life, became empty. In this interpretation, the loss associated with the departure, passing, or separation from Miss American Pie befits a mournful drinking song:

Them good ol' boys were drinking whisky and rye singing
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
That separation is similar to the one feared by the guy with his gal in the Buddy Holly and The Crickets' song "That'll Be The Day". [Dearborn, Kulawiec, Fann, Levitt]

It is possible that "the levee" also refers to the name of the bar in New Rochelle, New York (now known as the Beechmont Tavern) where McLean imagined he and his friends mourned the death of Buddy Holly. The next chorus phrase meaning whiskey in rye rather than whiskey and rye may refer to the nearby town of Rye where McLean would often go with his friends after The Levee closed. [alternative of Levitt]A sample of the song is currently in use on the Chevy commercial for one of their cars. The line "put the Chevy to the levy" is conveniently used as a marketing tool for the company.

The Chevy and the levee may refer to a famous lawsuit regarding an easement in which an owner of a Chevrolet truck owned an easement to cross a neighbor's land to get to the main highway. Unfortunately, over time, the dirt road on the easement would begin to flood during heavy rains. The original owner of the property with the easement road built a levee to keep his land [and the easement road] from flooding. Many years later, the subsequent landowner refused to repair the damaged levee and the easement road was impassible during a significant part of the year. The owner of the Chevy sued to require the owner of the levee to make repairs so that the easement could be used. The analogy here is the loss of the musicians in the crash are symbolized by the dry levee and the Chevy represents American culture.

Answer 4

American Pie

Answer 5

Even after 30 years many questions still remained about the meaning of this enigmatic song. By far the biggest error I noticed in most approaches to interpreting American Pie was the lack of a better grounding in the historical conditions that had inspired it, often producing some fairly problematic interpretations. An essential bit of deductive reasoning, move from the general to the specific, seemed warranted here: identify the song's central theme first, and the rest should fall into place. More or less.
In my own approach to understanding the song, I tried as much as possible to discern what the songwriter had most likely intended when he wrote it, relying on the few comments Don McLean himself has made about American Pie over the years to better support my interpretation. I also tried to avoid some of the errors that seemed to get passed down and accepted as gospel: a good example of this can be found in the chorus, as "American Pie" was never the name of the airplane that Buddy Holly died in, but which remains a persistent rumor that only serves to further obscure the song's meaning.

Answer 6

I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry, Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye Singing "This'll be the day that I die, This'll be the day that I die."

Driving the Chevy to the levee almost certainly refers to the three college students whose murder was the subject of the film 'Mississippi Burning.' The students were attempting to register as black voters, and after being killed by bigoted thugs their bodies were buried in a levee. Them good ol' boys being: Holly, Valens, and the Big Bopper, They were singing about their death on February 3. One of Holly's hits was "That'll be the Day"; the chorus contains the line "That'll be the day that I die."

Answer 7

The song's about the death of Buddy Holly (and Richie Valens, and the "Big Bopper").

The lyric is just a symbol that people aren't sad and honoring those musicians' talents (i.e. the levee was dry (no one's crying about their death)).

Answer 8

That song is from my growing up years. Have you ever heard of a "dry town". The levy being dry (I think) is not having any booze. No drinking would mean it's not a good thing for a partying bunch of people.

Answer 9

It may mean that the river was so low that the "side" of the levee was dry... just a thought.

Answer 10

It's symbolic, as are most of the lyrics in the song. Do a Yahoo search for "American Pie meaning" and there are several sites out there that give detailed information on the lyrics. It's very interesting once you know what it all means.