TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

I was reading in the most recent edition of Guitar World: Acousitc that Don McLean's "American Pie" has reached some milestone (35 years-ish) and what the obvious translations were (Dylan is the jester, the king is elvis, satan is jagger) and thought "wow I'd never really thought that those figures in the song were actual famous people I'd heard of, I figured that it was just another interesting story about something only personal.

So then I figured, I wonder what else is in that jem of a damn song (im sorry I went to school for Literature).

In what is argueably the quintessential folk song, have you picked out anything that could help peice this peice together (do you see what I did there)? I think this song deserves its own thread, though my threads are often deleted (ill find you )

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“The night falls gracefully for those who have a love to call their own. But alas, for those to whom love has turned a blind eye – love, it falls like a guillotine”

“No more waiting for fate to befall me, no. I have my dreamboat, and together we will find our destiny, choose our ladder to the sky” - Markus Pierson

TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

/bump

__________________
“The night falls gracefully for those who have a love to call their own. But alas, for those to whom love has turned a blind eye – love, it falls like a guillotine”

“No more waiting for fate to befall me, no. I have my dreamboat, and together we will find our destiny, choose our ladder to the sky” - Markus Pierson

either/or

nice thread. good song. the bob dylan being the jester thing makes so much sense to me.

well it's obvious though that the chorus refers to the death of buddy holly in a plane crash- his plane being called 'american pie'.

Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone - could be a reference to dylan's like a rolling stone.


And while Lennon read a book of Marx- reference to lennon's increased interest in communism.

With the jester on the sidelines in a cast- after bob dylan's motorbike accident.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the Sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield - i think this is a reference to the cover of sgt peppers album cover, which also has dylan on it, on the side.


Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan's spell - it seems he doesn't like jagger that much.

great song though, open to many different interpretations.

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Painstaking devotion and love
Surrendered to self preservation
From others who care for themselves
A blindness that touches perfection
But hurts just like anything else

Isolation, isolation, isolation