help finding site with ..meaning of "American Pie" by Don Mclean?

Question

i am doing a research report for school on it and icannot b\found a site that looks legitimate. i need a site that gives me the author of the writing (the information of what the song mean) and the date the information was published. i got to do research on what verse 1 of the song American pie means....can anybody help me? i hope this is enough info

Answer 1

Despite what others have said, Don McLean HAS let the public know what the song is about! Rarely talked about and not 100% details are given by him, but he has indeed let it be known what the song is about.

The subject of the song is the fatal plane crash of February 3, 1959 that killed rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper). Although McLean has admitted that connection, he has steadfastly refused to reveal the meaning of the many other characters and events depicted in the song.

http://oldies.about.com/od/70spopandsoul/f/americanpie.htm
http://ask.yahoo.com/20040819.html

The following is a statement made by McLean himself:

As you can imagine, over the years I've been asked many times
to discuss and explain my song "American Pie" [June25]. I have
never discussed the lyrics, but have admitted to the Holly
reference in the opening stanzas. I dedicated the album
American Pie to Buddy Holly as well in order to connect the
entire statement to Holly in hopes of bringing about an
interest in him, which subsequently did occur.

This brings me to my point. Casey Kasem never spoke to me and
none of the references he confirms my making were made by me.
You will find many "interpretations" of my lyrics but none of
them by me. Isn't this fun?

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.

- Don McLean
Castine, Maine

Answer 2

any website that tells you exactly what it means is wrong, because Don McLean has never said exactly what it means.


The closest he came to a definitive meaning was in 2000: "The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it's part reality and part fantasy but I'm always in the song as a witness or as even the subject sometimes in some of the verses."

Answer 3

This link is one man's analysis on Don Mclean's American Pie.

Answer 4

Though the narative is a big part in the song...what good is it if it is that secretive? The song is about grieving, feeling lost because something important in your life, something that gave you comfort ( the one that made the music that did that) is gone. It simply is about feeling sad and alone.

Though all the others are probably also right in whats behind the song.......just listen to it and tell me I'm wrong.

Answer 5

You and the rest of us would like to know the meaning of the lyrics. Don McLean refuses to give us any information.

One good place to start is http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_398b.html

You could also try the old standby, wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie

Answer 6

...AMERICAN PIE by Don McLean ..
http://www.history-of-rock.com/american.htm#Usenet%20group
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http://www.amiright.com/artists/donmclean.shtml
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Source

the day the music died
In his song "American Pie," Don McLean referred to the day that rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson died in an airplane crash as "the day the music died." The date was February 3, 1959.

Buddy Holly was already famous for his songs "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue." Richie Valens was a hit with "La Bamba." And the Big Bopper was a Texas disc jockey who had found fame with his hit "Chantilly Lace." The plane they had hired to take them from Clear Lake, IA, to the next stop on their winter tour went down in a snowstorm right out of the airport in Clear Lake, killing the three musicians and their pilot.

Last updated: February 08, 2007.
The Day the Music Died
This article is about the plane crash. For May 10, 1982, see WABC (AM). For June 3, 2005, see WCBS-FM. For the famous lyrics, see the memorial song containing them, American Pie.
Monument at Crash Site, September 16 2003.The Day the Music Died refers to a small plane crash which took place near Clear Lake, Iowa, United States on February 3 1959, killing three popular American rock and roll musicians: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The phrase itself, "The Day The Music Died", was coined by Don McLean in his 1971 tribute song about the crash, "American Pie".


Events leading to the crash
"The Winter Dance Party" was a tour that was set to cover 24 Midwestern cities in three weeks. A logistical problem with the tour was the amount of travel, as the distance between venues was not a priority when scheduling each performance. For example, the tour would start at venue A, travel two hundred miles to venue B, and travel back one hundred seventy miles to venue C, which was only thirty miles from venue A. Adding to the disarray, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was ill-prepared for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began. Drummer Carl Bunch developed a severe case of frostbitten feet while on the bus and was taken to a local hospital. As he recovered, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens took turns with the drums.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called the manager of the ballroom at the time and offered him the show. He accepted and the date of the show was set for February 2.

When Buddy Holly arrived at the ballroom that evening, he had had enough of the tour bus, and asked his bandmates that, once the show was over, they should try to charter a plane to get to the next stop on the tour, an armory in Moorhead, Minnesota. The destination of the flight was Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota (directly across the Red River from Moorhead), as Moorhead did not have an airport.

Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. A fee of $36 per person was charged for the single engine Beechcraft Bonanza, which could seat three passengers in addition to the pilot.

Richardson had developed a case of the flu during the tour (erroneously thought to have been caused by riding on the unheated bus) and asked one of Holly's bandmates, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane; Jennings agreed to give up the seat. When Holly heard about this, his reply to Waylon was "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up!", to which Jennings replied, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!" This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for many years afterward.

Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and asked Holly's remaining bandmate on the plane, Tommy Allsup, for the seat. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat". Contrary to what is seen in biographical movies, that coin toss did not happen at the airport shortly before takeoff, nor was Buddy Holly the one who tossed it. The toss happened at the ballroom shortly before departure to the airport, and the coin itself was tossed by a deejay who was working the show that night. On the toss of that coin, Ritchie won a seat on the plane.

Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts, who was the fourth headliner on the tour, was approached to join the flight as well; however, the price of $36 was too much. Dion had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay an entire month's rent for a short plane ride.[1]


The crash
At approximately 1:00 AM Central Time on February 3, the plane took off from Mason City Municipal Airport. Around 1:05, Jerry Dwyer, owner of Dwyer Flying Service, could see the lights of the plane start to descend from the sky to the ground. At the time, he thought it was an optical illusion because of the curvature of the earth and the horizon.

The pilot, Roger Peterson, was expected to file his flight plan once the plane was airborne, but Peterson never called the tower. Repeated attempts by Dwyer to contact his pilot failed. By 3:30 AM, when the airport at Fargo had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.

Around 9:15 in the morning, Dwyer took off in another small plane to fly Peterson's intended route. A short time later he spotted the wreckage in a cornfield (43°13′12″N, 93°23′0″W) about five miles northwest of the airport. The manager of the Surf Ballroom (who drove the performers to the airport, and also witnessed the plane taking off) made the positive identification of the performers.

The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 mph. The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet across the frozen landscape before the crumpled ball of wreckage piled against a wire fence at the edge of the property. The bodies of the three entertainers were thrown from the wreckage and lay nearby, while Peterson remained trapped inside. All four had died instantly from "gross trauma" to the brain, the County coroner declared.

Investigators came to the conclusion that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error. Peterson had done poorly on previous flight instrumentation tests and had not been rated for nighttime flight, when he would have to rely on his instruments rather than his own vision. It was also found that Peterson was not given an accurate advisory of the weather conditions of his route, which, given his known limitations, could have possibly deterred him from taking off that morning.


Alternative theories
Two months after the crash, the farmer in whose field the plane had crashed discovered a gun registered to Holly that had been uncovered near the wreckage - and many took Dwyer Flying Service's accident report suggesting that pilot Roger Peterson must have been "incapacitated" to mean that he had possibly been shot.[2]

In January 2007, Richardson's son announced his intention to exhume his father's body to see if there was any evidence of bullet wounds or lead fragments. He also mentioned a possible belief that Richardson had survived the initial crash, since his body was found 12 metres from the crash-site, while the other three bodies were all within the plane.


Memorial
In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. The monument is located on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles north of Clear Lake.

He also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians located outside the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens played on the night of February 1, 1959. This memorial was unveiled on July 17 2003.


*****************Trivia**********************
In the 1987 film La Bamba, Ritchie Valens, rather than the Big Bopper, is represented as the one who came down with the flu.
When John Lennon was killed in December 1980, Time magazine put a portrait of him on the cover with the headline "When the Music Died."
The crash of American Airlines Flight 320 occurred on the same day as the crash that killed Holly, the Big Bopper, and Valens.
Often associated with the number 23 enigma.
Eddie Cochran recorded the single Three Stars as a tribute to Holly, Valens and the Big Bopper. Cochran's voice broke during the lyrics about his close friend Holly. (Ironically, Cochran himself died in a tragic touring-related accident the very next year—a car crash in Chippenham, England.)
The Day the Music Died is a comedy radio series that satirises music.[1]

Reference
^ Dion the Wanderer, Back 'In Blue' NPR's Fresh Air
^ http://www.airportbusiness.com/article/article.jsp?id=9742&siteSection=1




External link

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
http://www.answers.com/topic/day-the-music-died
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..........YOU MUST OPEN THE LINK FOR THE ENTIRE EXPLANATION....
http://www.moseshand.com/studies/ampie1.htm
.........Words of verse one...............
American Pie - Verse One
A long, long time ago,
I can still remember how
that music used to make me smile.
I knew that if I had my chance that,
I could make those people dance
and maybe they'd be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver,
with every paper I'd deliver.
Bad news on the door step.
I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried,
When I read about his widowed bride.
Something touched me deep inside,
the day the music died.


"A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile:
...........Explanation of song.........
Open above link for the rest
The song starts out A long long time ago." The boy singing this song is remembering his past. But, the boy's past is America's future. The kind of music that made him happy was sacred music. This is revealed later in verse six where you will find, I went down to the sacred store where I heard the music years before." Also, in that same verse he sings, the church bells all broken. So he is singing about his memories of Christian Churches. He recalls the Christian way of life that made me happy." But he laments, that way of life had been broken."