What Is “American Pie” About?
According to McLean, the song represents the shifting from the naïve, innocent 1950s to the darker decade of the 1960s. Even though some of the events mentioned in the song are easy to decipher, such as Buddy Holly’s death on February 3, 1959, most of the lyrics have a deep meaning. McLean himself has generally avoided any question that asked him about the true meaning of the song’s lyrics, stating that the lyrics shouldn’t be analyzed because they are poetry.
The wreckage of the plane crash that killed rock stars Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley), Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela), and The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.) On February 3, 1959, outside of Clearlake, Iowa. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
When asked about how he composed the song on British show Songbook, McLean answered: “For some reason, I wanted to write a big song about America and politics, but I wanted to do it differently. As I was fiddling around, I started singing this thing about the Buddy Holly crash, the thing that came out (singing), ‘Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.’”
Over the years, it has been speculated that “American Pie” contains references to multiple post-World War II events such as civil rights and a wealth of pop culture elements.