On February 3, 1959, a single-engine plane crashed. Photo by Andrew Benge / Redferns via Getty Images. Even though neither Jagger nor any of the other members of the Rolling Stones had any idea that someone had just been killed 20 feet away, their seeming callousness by continuing their set was seen as a punctuation mark that close out the 1960s in much the same way as the tragic plane crash closed out the 1950s in the mind of McLean. Don McLean’s 1971 hit American Pie is the subject of a new documentary. The catastrophe that was the Altamont Music Festival on December 6, 1969, where a group of Hells Angels were hired to provide security for the event for $500 worth of beer, involved one of the Hells Angels murdering 18-year-old Meredith Hunter for brandishing a gun. Satan Laughing With Delight at Altamontĭespite McLean’s protestations to the contrary, it seems to follow that Jagger would be the ultimate villain in the song. The eternal chase for the true meaning of American Pie has led to countless debates about the interpretation of its lyrics, McLean’s intended message, and the events referenced in the song. But if you think the case is closed on the true meanings in this third verse, think again. Using the line with a double meaning, McLean points to Holly as a symbol of the song, mourning the death of music as he knows it and a whole world with it. His main thrust to the lyrics was lamenting the loss of the American Dream at both the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 and “ The Day the Music Died,” the plane crash in 1959 that took the lives of Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper. American Pie is the longest song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, at eight minutes and 36 seconds.

Is Bob Dylan really “The Jester?” Did McLean hate Mick Jagger so much that he made him “Satan?” Is the “girl who sang the blues” really Janis Joplin? For the record, pardon the pun, McLean has disavowed each of these theories. McLean who describes American Pie as a kaleidoscopic, dreamlike song about America, has remained silent about the meaning of the lyrics, until now. In the 52 years since Don McLean recorded “American Pie,” there have been countless theories about what the lyrics mean.

Song meanings american pie