American Pie - Verse One

"A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile: The song starts out A long long time ago." The boy singing this song is remembering his past. But, the boy's past is America's future. The kind of music that made him happy was sacred music. This is revealed later in verse six where you will find, I went down to the sacred store where I heard the music years before." Also, in that same verse he sings, the church bells all broken. So he is singing about his memories of Christian Churches. He recalls the Christian way of life that made me happy." But he laments, that way of life had been broken."

I knew that if I had my chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while: But he couldn't make them dance or be happy for a while. He felt unable to do anything about the situation. The boy was Christian because in verse six he says, "And the three men I admire the most the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost." He continues his remembrances with;

But February made me shiver, with every paper I'd deliver. Bad news on the door step. I couldn't take one more step: The time was February. Shiver is more than cold weather, it also symbolizes trembling. He was a newspaper boy. He was trembling because each newspaper he delivered told about bad news on the door step. The song was about America, and the news is about something on America's door step." The door step is the entrance to a home. Our national door step is the border. Something was at America's border. The news was so bad he said, I couldn't take one more step."

I can't remember if I cried: The news was so upsetting that he couldn't remember if he cried, but he probably did when;

When I read about his widowed bride: Someone is called a widowed Bride. Another person is identified with the code word his." The his is identified later in verse three with the words and while the King was looking down the jester stole his thorny crown." The his was a king and he wore a crown of thorns. That his is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. That also makes the widowed bride American because the song is about Miss America."

Something touched me deep inside the day the music died: This Christian boy despaired about the bad news on America's door step. The news was so bad, he expected to die, so he sang a funeral hymn in anticipation of America's death. In verse three we find and we sang dirges in the dark the day the music died. Will America live or die? In Isaiah 54:9 we find the widowed bride saying, For this (bad news on the door step) is as the waters of Noah unto me." (I'm doomed.)

American Pie - Chorus
 

So, Bye Bye, Miss American Pie: The Miss signifies America's unmarried condition. The pie refers to America being divided among the heathen like so many pieces of a pie.

Drove my Chevy to the levee: There are many kinds of levees." Most contain water, some contain oil. This symbolic levee contained oil. He drove his Chevy to the oil levee, But the levee was dry. He drove his Chevy to the Gas Station, but there was no gas. This song came out about a year before America's first energy crisis. There was a second energy crisis in 1979.

Those good-ole-boys were drinking whiskey and rye: When you try to tell your friends about the situation in America, they don't want to hear about it. They will tell you, What you have to say makes me feel bad. I don't want to feel bad. I can't do anything about it anyway, so just shut up. They would rather hide their heads in the sand with sports, entertainment, drugs, and other forms of escapism. They would rather be good-ole-boys, drinking, whiskey and rye."

This'll be the day that I die, this'll be the day that I die: Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. The good-ole-boys also expected America's death.

After 30 years have passed American Pie is still available at record stores.

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