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The chorus, as all good choruses should, states the theme.
But as with the rest of the song, it states it allegorically.
Bye, bye, Miss American Pie
This line tells us in three words what is dying: a pure (Miss)
American art form: rock and roll. The fact that McLean feminizes his musical
love makes the song work on still another level: that of a tragic love
story between a romantic young man and his favorite music.
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the
levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey
'n' rye
The Chevy, like the pie in the line before, are American
icons (symbols). The levee was somewhat of a mystery for years. I
speculated that it could refer to the city of New Orleans. Why?
Two reasons: this city, home of jazz, could be considered a birthplace
of rock 'n' roll. Chuck Berry referred to it in Johnny B. Goode.
The second reason is that New Orleans is below sea level and depends on
levees.
I now know the meaning is much more literal than that. Don
McLean grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y. He went to a bar called "The
Levee" to drink and listen to music. The bar closed during McLean's early
years, forcing him and "them good ol' boys" to drive across the river to
Rye, N.Y. for entertainment. What a nice pun on rye this is.
And, if you listen very carefully, it appears McLean is singing "whiskey
in Rye" rather than "whiskey 'n' Rye."
I found this out through an email from a native of the area
who told me it was common knowledge there. In the summer of '99, I happened
to be driving down I-95 when I discovered a Rye exit. I took it and
asked the first person I met, a young lady working a concession stand at
the oceanside, if she knew anything about McLean's line "whiskey in Rye."
She confirmed almost exactly the story I'd gotten from email.
(Click here to see the interview.)
And now we know the meaning of another of McLean's clever
puns.
Singing, "This'll be the day that I
die,
A very clever line by McLean. He makes his point that even
the originators of rock have given up while using a Buddy Holly lyric (a
twist on "That'll Be the Day"). This, like so many of the lines in the
song, plays on words without getting overly cute or tricky.
One might wonder: McLean had, somewhat negatively, called
Dylan a jester. Isn't he doing the same? His clever puns, his winding allegory,
his use of high and low imagery: is he no different? Furthermore, isn't
this song itself, American Pie, more on the order of a Dylan folk song
than a Holly dance tune?
It's a complicated question. On the one hand, McLean's
life after the song shows that he wasn't just in it for the money. He had
a period of self-imposed exile. He never seemed to milk the song for excess
commercial gain. Again here he reminds me of Bill Watterson who decided
not to follow in the line of Charles Shultz, selling out in every respect,
producing
a comic strip (Peanuts: RIP, at last) well past the time it had any
semblance of humor
On the other hand, one can't help but believe that Don McLean
really isn't lamenting the loss of a certain type of music; he's lamenting
the loss of his childhood. He spoke well of many of the performers he denoted:
Dylan, the Beatles, Janis Joplin, and others.
Don McLean wasn't being clever for clever's sake but for
the sake of his theme. He is not a mere jester; he's a poet along the lines
of Homer. Anyone who studies this song should admit as much.
My prediction: in the next wave of high school anthologies,
this song will find a place. It deserves its place alongside Whitman, Frost,
and Poe.
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