Jammin’ With Josh: American Pie

This is Jammin’ With Josh. Each week I take a look at one of the bands that I love. Or perhaps it will be a band that I just discovered and think you should check out. Or maybe it will just be a way for me to post music videos. Honestly, no one will ever know.

Way back before the days of the internet (or at least the internet in a regular person’s household), we had to figure out song lyrics by listening. One song that always stuck out as that pre-internet favorite was Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Everyone knows the song and I think most people get the gist of what it is about…the death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. When I was a kid though, my dad would explain each line of the song.

It is insane to think about now. He would pause, ask what I thought, then he would say “the jester is Bob Dylan, when Elvis was drafted, Dylan kind of took over rock ‘n roll for a time.” Or he would explain all of the Beatles references. It was actually fun and gave me some pretty cool information to wow folks with anytime the song played. However, I was wondering how close my dad was on his interpretations and decided to look it up. And guess what? He was pretty spot on.

I guess that is something that is lost with the ability to quickly search lyrics (or go to a forum and discuss the meaning). Whoa, am I getting nostalgic thinking about a bygone era, while writing about a song, which is about nostalgia for a bygone era? Mind=blown.

Author: Ngewo