American Pie

Knowledge of a Song: American Pie

In post-modern America, few songs have enjoyed the staying power possessed by Don McLean's
1971 classic, "American Pie." I chose to research this song because of its vast appeal to both adult and
youth audiences. The results my research yielded astonished me. Previous to my lyrical examination of
"Pie," I was unaware of McLean's many references to music, politics and religion. Neither was I aware of
the song's actual meaning, outside of the reference to the deaths of then-popular artists Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, who all died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. McLean made
many points, some clear and others ambiguous, about the state of society at the time. In fact, the lyrics
"American Pie" are so polysemous that it is quite impossible to summarize the song's symbols and
meanings in two pages.

After I decided on a song, all of my research was done via the world wide web. I used two search...