Rock School; American Pie; Part 1

Oh! Oh! Scooves! I fall ever! Oh! I've got a fan, so pay I'm a teacher It's time for school Rock school With your hosts, Dr. Joe Burns So when you played the 45 to American Pie Yeah? It went about four minutes And then you had to flip it over right And Chad P Little four -seater Class is in Rock school Good

afternoon everyone My name is Joe Burns We are broadcasting from the campus of south -eastern Louisiana University I am a professor in the communication department Sitting to my immediate right as always is Chad P He is a former student of mine and one who must learn You think I would have by now By this point in time you would think When did we do the first one of these rock school shows? Oh! Rock school goes back to I think April of 2007 Somewhere in there And if you remember when we first pitched this show To the guy who runs this radio station We'll call him Todd Todd, yeah I pitched a lot of ideas One of the ideas was What do the lyrics to American Pie meme I remember that As crystal clear That's right, I remember that This is the first two -for -show of 2008 What do the lyrics of American Pie meme And there's a lot of them That sounds like eight minutes long Eight minutes and a bunch So this is from almost the beginning Of my time in radio I

mean I loved this song from I can't tell you how it went Don McLean, born October 2nd, 1945 New Rochelle, New York He put out the album American Pie In 1971, it's an album with the same name If you remember it Don McLean is on the front You see him sort of in repro On the back of the album He's got his right hand I think forward and his thumb Is painted with a star And then some red and white stripes This thing's sad at number one For four weeks in 1972 And I owned the 45 Now you can't get eight minutes of song On 145 So when you played the 45 to American Pie Yeah It went about four minutes And then you had to flip it over It faded out You flipped it over And then it faded back up and you had the whole thing So what do the lyrics to American Pie meme Don McLean has been next to no help What's so ever And there are websites Glor When I was in radio

This was one of those late night We have been working forever We're all, you know, just punch drunk What does it mean? And we start throwing all these things around I have put together Over my years in radio And over my research What I think they mean So I'm going to use the next two hours This show, next week's show To tell you what I think the lyrics To American Pie meme Question, yeah When he wrote it And do you think that there was a possibility that he said Okay, and, you know, deep down inside I'm not going to offer any insight to what the song means And I predict that it will give people Fits for years and years to come Guaranteed because I can tell you where it came from Because he looked at another song That did exactly that And copied it Stay with me Now let me tell you what Don McLean has said about the song What's that? He has said this It is semi -autobiographical He has said he was a paper boy Yeah He said he wrote the song in the late 1960s He has stated that the line This

will be the day that I die Is a reference to Buddy Holly In a 1972 interview With Casey Kasim on the show America's Top 40 He admitted two things The Jester, where he says the Jester In a sideline on the cast That's Bob Dylan The flame that grew higher into the night Is Alta Mont And I'll tell you what Alta Mont is The album American Pie Is dedicated to Buddy Holly Okay, we know two things that aren't true What's that? Number one, American Pie is not The name of the airplane That crashed, carrying Hollins, Holly, Valens And the Big Bopper It was not the name Or some strange conflagration of the name of the pilot The pilot's name was Roger Peterson The name of the plane was only its tail number Which was N397 At 4N Yeah, it was just like a little bitty A little four -seater A plane that looked like it was built from Titliwings That's right, a little four -seater American Pie is not a reference

to a pizza That was served in Don McLean's hometown Other than that That's all we know for sure Other than that, it's all speculation So let's hear it We're gonna hear the song, we're gonna come back I'm gonna tell you where it came from Where the idea of writing such a song came from And then we'll begin to go line by line And that should give you a good estimate too It's gonna take two shows, two hours Two hours to break this eight -minute song down Easily, Don McLean American Pie A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music Used to make me smile And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people dance And maybe they'd be happy for a while But February This will be the day that I die Everybody knows it I gotta tell you, the day the

music died This will be the day that I die I feel like I'm gonna die It goes on for a while, doesn't it And I mean, as an added degree of difficulty He doesn't break off into an instrumental Or anything like that At any point in time, no This is lyrics over and over and over Now where did it come from? Where did the concept of this song Let's write a song where the lyrics are a trick Where there is a concept of I don't really know where it comes from Well, Don McLean, at the point of writing the song He said he wrote the song in the late 1960s And of course it was on the 1971 album American Pie Don McLean had already had a hit Before American Pie Castles in the air was the hit From his debut album Tapestry Well, the sophomore album was coming out And that's always the hardest And he looked around and said, okay, who's big? Who's big? Who's having the hits? Well, the biggest one at the time Was a woman named Bobby Gentry Bobby Gentry was a singer -songwriter From Chickasaw County,

Mississippi Who had moved out to California And she had a song Called Ode to Billy Joe And Ode to Billy Joe Billy Joe? No, Billy Joe And Billy Joe died The day that Billy Joe McAllister Jumped off the towel a hatchy bridge And the question in the song is always Why did Billy Joe die? And there's a line in there that says Because this little girl that holy through it This mother's talking to this girl And it's pretty obvious through the song That this girl is in love with Billy Joe And this nice little preacher man Is supposed to marry this girl You glean this from the song And the preacher man says He saw you and Billy Joe Up on Choctaw Ridge And you two were throwing something Off the towel a hatchy bridge Well, the question is always Well, why did this guy kill himself Well, what were you throwing off of that bridge And the song never explains what the situation is Most people believe that they were throwing a baby

Off of the bridge And by the way, this Bobby Gentry Did not shy away from nasty topic She has another song called Fancy That was a hit That Ariba McIntyre redid it Oh, that's fancy Yeah, it's about a woman's fancy Don't let me down That's right, it's about a woman selling her daughter into prostitution Yeah, so Bobby Gentry did not shy away from topics The song was made into a movie A little while later that had Bobby Gentry Actually as one of the producers And the movie suggested that Billy Joe Jumped off of the bridge Because he was homosexual Also, there's no real answer to it And what happened was Don McLean listened to the song And said that's what I want to do I want to write a song That has that kind of a concept I'm not going to tell you what it means You draw your own conclusion So why did Billy Joe McAllister Jump off The towel a hatchy bridge There's Bobby Gentry You decide on Rocks Goal Was a third of June Another

sleepy dusty day Today I was out chopping cotton And my brother was bailing Hey And at dinner time We stopped and walked back to the house To eat And mama hollered At the back door y 'all And then Okay now you tell me Chad P Why does Billy Joe jump off that bridge Why does she go to the Choctaw bridge Why does she throw flowers into the muddy water off Why did he kill himself I feel guilty about it That's why I think They threw a baby didn't they I believe that they had a baby They threw a baby And that was their Method of abortions There you go, there you go We're coming back and I'm going to tell you about that We're coming back I'm going to tell you the story of the Winter Dance party Today the music died and

we will begin With the lyrics to American Pie In one minute on Rocks Goal This is Rock School as we talk about the lyrics to American Pie But before we get there Let's talk about the three people that actually died Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Big Bopper What's the story Generally people when they're asked what are the lyrics to American Pie mean Oh, it's the story of the death of those three guys El Rongo It is the story of what happened after they died Listen to the lyrics It's not the story

of their death it's the story of what happened after their death We were just talking about this not too long ago on the instrumental show Right One of my all time favorite movies with Lou Diamond Phillips Is the story of Richie Valens And I know this story so well Based on the song What they did with the movie Let me tell it again The Winter Dance party was a tour that was set to cover 24 Midwestern cities in 1959 The main people were Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J .P. Richardson That was the Big Bopper He was a disc jockey out of Texas One of them was from Louisiana Not sure, Buddy Holly was from Texas Richie Valens, I believe, was from California J .P. Richardson was from Texas Deon Demucci, who was Deon in the Belmonts, was from New York Those were the four headliners I thought it was from Louisiana I'm not so sure about that I have to check it out The surf ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa Was where they played the night before everybody died And by the way, that was never intended to be a stop on the tour A lot of times when tours are going along they have off nights

And if there's a little tiny town You can play somewhere else For like half price or something like that They'll fly up there or they'll drive the bus up there in Bango The night they played was February 2nd, 1959 Hey, wait a minute, today the music died is February 3rd Stay with me The next stop on the tour was supposed to be an armory and more head Minnesota Well, the heater on the bus wasn't working Holly hadn't washed his clothes in a long time And because Clear Lake, Iowa apparently rolled up the streets at five o 'clock at night There wasn't a place to wash your clothing So Buddy Holly chartered a plane It was a little beach craft bonanza Single engine aircraft for cedar, three people And the pilots 36 bucks per person The original passengers were supposed to be Holly And the two bandmates Well, Big Bopper had the flu So Whalen Jennings gave up his seat And by the way, this part is true Some people say, well that's an urban myth It's not, the Big Bopper joked to Jennings I hope your bus freezes Jennings joked back, I hope you're playing crashes

Wow And Jennings stated that it was one of the reasons he became an alcoholic And it took him years to get over saying that Is the part in the movie where they flipped a coin? Yes And Valens won, is that fair? Yes As a matter of fact, Valens flipped a coin with who was supposed to be the third person on there Tammy Alsup, he was a cricket However, the coin flip did not take place on the tarmac The coin flip took place at the site of the dance party Okay They're in Clear Lake They just added that in for dramatic purposes Dramatic effect The plane took off, 1 a .m. February 3rd That's how it becomes Right, 1959 That's right From Mason City Municipal Airport, Iowa, it traveled five miles The NTSB stated the cause of the crash Roger Peterson, the pilot was not rated for nighttime flight Nor winter flight Just the plane got up, it didn't get enough altitude And went straight into the ground Rolled And when it rolled, it threw the passengers out killing them all

Here are the people that died that day Number 1, Richie Valens Rock School with Donna's boyfriend Yeah Ricardo Valens, he was 18 when he died Oh, can you believe it We were talking about it off mic Just a good, good guy A flat out good guy Yeah, bridged racial relations back then That really did The next guy Rhoda Song, sang a song about a type of looped lace Normally with flowers

From a little section of France It's called Chantilly Lace Here's the big bopper on Rock School Hello, baby Yeah, this is the big bopper speaking Oh, you sweet man Do I want Will I want Oh, baby, you know what I like Chantilly Lace and a pretty face And a pony tail Oh, baby, that's what I like Yeah, this is Rock School as we go through With the lyrics to American Pie By the way, when are you guys going to get the lyrics of American Pie Welcome to them By the way, we're going to skip the stumps Yes, special show And all of that Special show We're going to continue just straight forward with the lyrics If you wish to come see us, we do have an email address And we do have a website

Real quickly, website kslu .org When you arrive there, there's a Rock School A little clipper or a little chalkboard On the right hand side, click on it You can get old shows and all that good stuff On the right hand side Let us begin Wait a minute, you're not playing Buddy Holly You said three people died on the day the music died I know, I'm getting there It begins This is what the first section sounds like There are numerous verses It begins, I'm going to go line by line And when a song pops up that's needed, we'll play it But line by line, many people go, well the lyrics are about the death of Buddy Holly Only the first verse and the refrain are about the death of Buddy Holly What about Valens and Bopper? You got to understand, this really is for Buddy Holly When you're talking about American Pie, you're talking about Buddy Holly So, begin Okay A long, long time ago What does he mean? Well, it happened

in 1959, he wrote the song Right, he wrote the song in late 1960s So it's almost a decade or more I can still remember how that music used to make me smile I think that one's pretty straight forward Yeah And I knew if I had my chance, well that makes sense, this is a young man he wants to become a songwriter That I could make those people dance Remember where were these people before they perished in this plane crash They were at that show The winter dance party And maybe they'd be happy for a while And that's I think it is a reference to a concert But February made me shiver Well, in February And in what months did it happen? February February, right? With every paper I deliver You said it used to be a paper boy Don McLean used to be a paper boy Right Bad news on the doorstep Well, I think that makes sense, he was a paper boy, where does the paper land? Right I couldn't take one more step Okay I can't remember if I cried Okay, well his

idol has died When I read about his widowed bride This is the first line that takes a little bit of research Who's widowed bride? Buddy Holly's widowed bride When Buddy Holly died He had been married to a woman named Maria Elna for less than a year at that point in time The thing about it is The marriage was kept silent for one reason What's that? It was an interracial marriage Oh wow And she was pregnant And she had a miscarriage very soon afterwards I see But something touched me deep inside And then he coins the term The day the music died Okay, so the first verse simply describes what has happened So now the refrain Okay So buy, buy, miss American pie Well what does it mean? What does buy, buy, miss American pie mean? I think it's innocuous I think it is just the concept Good buy apple pie America I think

that's what it means Basically, things are changing That's right, things are changing It used to be good Drove my Chevy to the levy Chevy An American car An American car I believe that Now here's the levy What are you talking about? Well we're from New Orleans The levy to us is a big giant pile of dirt Rungo What's the levy? The levy is a bar In New Rochelle, New York Where he used to grow up Oh it makes sense now Drove my Chevy to the levy But the levy was dry I were out of alcohol No he was too young to drink Oh it makes so much sense But the levy was dry Now listen to this last and this next line And them good old boys We're drinking whiskey In Rye Rye New York Okay Not whiskey and rye Nobody thinks rye anymore In rye, rye New York Singing this will be the day that I die It's a drinking song It's awake This will be the day that I die This will be the day that I die What could that be referencing This will be the day that I die This will be the day that

I die Well it will be the day When you say goodbye It will be the day When you make me cry You say you don't live You know it's a lie I'll be the day when I die when you give me all your love and energy To earn a love and all your hugs and kisses and your money to a hell You know you love me baby, so do you tell me maybe that someday we'll hug Do you know we'll have to be the day when you say goodbye Everything the stars are starting to line up doesn't it make sense? It makes perfect thing Yeah, so Miss American pie is simply the concept of life used to be good life used to be good Let's go to the verse the verse two second verse it starts to go wrong in this second verse now You see his hero is dead buddy Holly has died away and in the second verse People

start to stick their nose in that he doesn't like and this second verse references two songs Okay, so we're very quickly going to say the line that has the song play it come back and finish it up What is luckily the first verse has the first song, okay? Did you write the book of love? Here you go. This is the song he's talking about monotones 1958 we'll come back and tell you why he cares about the book of love I love you darling baby, you know I do but I've got you see this book of love

Like a little barber shop quartet there That's a monotones great stuff that again when you listen to that old rock and roll stuff There was just something and you were pointing us out to me earlier there's just something about how I don't know polite Safe nice it was it looked like good clean font. Yeah, and I'm so envious whenever I see it depicted on television I just I want to go there. Yeah, I want to go there to just have some fun Yeah, so why the monotones book of love it sets date when you go through each one of these verses in American pie The first line of each verse sets date it tells you what date he happens to be talking about It's like a timeline you got it. It's exactly what it is in 1958 the monotones re -released book of love So we're in 1958 here. Now did you write the book of love and do you have faith in God above? Well, he just wrote that because it rhymes. Oh, no, no,

no, no, no listen to the next run. What is it? Did you write the book of love and do you have faith in God if the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock and roll can music save your mortal soul? Don Cornell wrote a song in 1955 called How do I know the Bible tells me so? I believe that what what Dom McLean is upset about here is the concept of rock and roll had lost its purity And a lot of people who were religious were beginning to stick their noses into it and say that this is the devil's music You know blues jazz You know picked whatever music was popular at the time devil's music devil's music devil's music Well, it happens now that rock and roll was starting to be the devil's music We'll pick on you. We'll pick on you next and can you teach me how to dance real slow No, I don't know what it was like when you were growing up,

but when I was growing up slow dancing had speck Tacular importance in my in my school. Yeah, was it the same with yours? So so so it was unbelievably important in my school especially high school and below Mm -hmm. Well, I know that you're in love with him because I saw you dancing in the gym Mm -hmm, which tells to me he's still in high school. Yeah, because most high school dances were in the gym That's right in the gym with all that bad, you know paper and foil Hang it from the back of all that You got it you both kicked off your shoes sock hop sock hops you got it see once you start to deconstruct this It all starts to make a little bit of sense now here's the next line most people listen to this line and they go Man, I dig those rhythm and blues well, so what I like rhythm and blues too Whoa, okay, we're at 1958 Rhythm and blues was keyword for African American I see an African American at the time had a bad connotation

There were these things called race records. Yeah, I mean we told me about that. That's right and when we did a show not too long ago on Band music on band music race records were seen as bad yeah, and they brought in people like Pat Boone Yeah, to re -record songs like tutti fruity from little Richard from little Richard because little Richard was on specialty Which was a race record Label yeah, and you had to bring in these squeaky clean guys you couldn't have you know Get out in that kitchen and around those pots and pans by the original blues artist you had to have it done by you know Squeaky clean bill Haley in the comments. Yeah, so when he says in this song Man, I dig those rhythm and blues. He's making a social statement. I know that sounds weird Mm -hmm, but that's what that line does. I was a lonely teenage Broken buck with a pink carnation and a pickup truck. That's a Weird statement a pink carnation and a pickup truck. Where did that come from? Marty Robbins 1957

at that point in time the most handsome you could possibly be in America Was a white sport coat a pink carnation and an American pickup truck on rocks? A white Sport coat And a pink Carnation I'm all pressed up for the dance A white Sport coat Yeah, a pink carnation and a white sport coat. Marty Robbins from 1957. Let me finish out the verse. I'll start back a little bit Man, I dig those rhythm and blues. Yeah, I was a lonely teenage Broken buck young man strong throwing elbows With a pink carnation and a pickup truck. Did you hear he was getting ready during the song? He was getting ready for a dance

But I knew I was out of luck. Well, why is he out of luck? Why? His idol is gone. The day of As you talked about innocence is gone The day the music died I started singing no longer is it the guys at the bar now I started singing We're gonna go on to verse three. We're gonna move 10 years into the future as verse three begins in one minute on rock school Programming on KSLU is under written in part by home theater, etc With the Super Bowl right around the corner home theater, etc. has various brands of flat panel displays including pioneer Elite sharp LG Sony and many others you can even inquire about special home theater Projectors that display a 120 inch screen home theater, etc. is located at west more street across From Florida parishes bank the telephone number is area code 985 340 777 777 home theater, etc. a proud supporter of 90 .9 FM KSLU This is rock school as we

talk about the lyrics to American pie and what do they mean? We've gone all the way through the song we've gone through the back run of the song we've gone through the story of buddy Holly And the death of the day the music died Big Bopper Richie Valens We've gone through verses one and two we will begin with verse three. As my clock shows we have 11 minutes left I will get as far as I can through verse three I doubt I'll finish it wherever we stop We'll pick up next week and I guarantee you will get through the entire show We will tell you what every lyric means. We begin with verse three now for 10 years We've been on our own time line. What did I say about the first line? It establishes the date. It's probably 1969 now 10 years after the death All right 10 years we've been on our own and Moss grows fat on a rolling stone Stones stones rolling stones well why would Moss grow fat on the rolling stones? Well they moved to France to not pay taxes that sounds kind of dumb Jimmy Hendrix well he states it in in in a couple of his songs he talks about rolling stones Nah he's talking about

Brian Jones the former rolling stone who died on July 10th 1969 he drowned the next line how do I know it's or why do I think it's it's Brian Jones Because the next line says but that's not how it used to be Reiterating my music heroes didn't dope themselves to death Everything's changed now for 10 years we've been on our own and Moss grows fat on a rolling stone But that's not how it used to be here's Brian Jones with the stones painted black on rock school I see the red door and I want it into black No colors anymore I want them to turn black I see the girls

but by dressed in that song of snow We're excited first three on rock school I gotta tell you yeah out of all the lectures I've ever sat through for you Yeah from me yeah this is probably the most enjoyable I'm I am learning stuff and it's just a wonderful experience Good I'm glad you're enjoying it we are we are rolling through what do the lyrics of American pie mean we are inside of verse three We just finished up now for 10 years we've been on our own Moss grows fat on a rolling stone But that's not how it used to be now we move along we got what time for one more song So I'm not going to finish the verse I'm just going to get to this When the jester sang for the king and queen what we already know who the jester is That's Bob Dylan that's right Adam McLean already said that well who's the king and queen Well on his first trip to London Bob Dylan sang his first gig at a pub called the king and queen That could be it okay Dylan also sang at the martin Luther King's Day march in Washington That's where he did the eye had a dream speech that's king he sang with Joan Baez that could be the

queen yeah He could have also performed for the king and queen in London that would be just literally yeah maybe even he's talking about President and Jackie Kennedy they were said to have watched him on TV so it could be any one of those I'm guessing he actually met the king and queen pub in London That's what I think makes the most sense in a coat he borrowed from James Dean that one's easy If you look at the coat from the rebel without a cause movie And then look at Bob Dylan's second album it's called the free wheel and Bob Dylan He's wearing that coat on the front cover now you go in a voice that came from you and me Bob Dylan has been called the voice of the people since he started since he started actually putting out music The voice of you and me we're the people of you and me the voice of the people we end on this one we will pick it up right here next week This is from the album the free wheel and Bob Dylan we're going to finish with one of his most famous folk songs This is called the Masters of War my name is Joe Burns I'm Chad P be right here this time next week And we will

finish up the lyrics to American Pie on rock school classes dismissed Come your Masters of War Here that build the big guns Here that build the death planes Here that build all the bombs Here that hide behind the walls Here that hide behind the rocks I just don't want you to know I can see through you