Hello, Orwell Today!
re: BYE, BYE AMERICAN PIE

I was reading your article on the song "American Pie" by Don Mclean the other day. I was skimming through it and saw your inturpritation of it very strange for I had learned in school that the song was in fact about the tragic plane crash that killed "The Big Bopper", Richie Vallens, and I belive Charlie Parker, though I am not sure about the last name.

You can clearly see how the artist was talking about the crash in the lyrics; "The day the music died" and "as the plane takes off into the night" obviously reffering to the tragic plane crash. Also, the lyric "That February made me shiver", february being the month the crash accured, along with several other lyrics that specify the songs meaning. However, the lyric that talks about the nuclear fall out shelter COULD possibly mean nuclear hollocaust, reffering to the communists. But I am pretty sure that what I was taught in school is correct.

Get back to me,
Troy M.

Greetings Troy,

I'm sure the song is ALSO about the Big Bopper and Richie Vallens or whoever (they were before my time, I came in at Elvis Presley). But of course I too was "taught" that the song was about their deaths. But it didn't really matter to me one way or the other. Maybe the music died for Big Bopper fans etc but for me it was a non-event. On the contrary - in my opinion - music was just coming alive, ie the Beatles etc.

So as I mentioned in my American Pie article I didn't really give the words much thought and just sang along to the nonsensical chorus like half the rest of the planet until the idea occurred to me to go and check out the meaning of the words for myself, once my curiosity had been piqued by the phrase "the last piece of American pie".

As I say, I was AMAZED when I read the words, and the words that amazed me I bolded and underlined.

But I know it is a fact that people who read the actual words of the song still choose to believe the "hidden meaning" because I have received several emails. I haven't previously put most of the emails up because they were interjected with insulting comments, unlike yours which was polite and truthseeking. But for purposes of showing details of the status quo meaning of American Pie I'm posting them now:

AMERICAN PIE READER #1
AMERICAN PIE READER #2
AMERICAN PIE READER #3

By reading the above emails, which don't support my interpretation of the song, I at least learned a bit more about the "official" meaning, ie:

1. "It was all about the death of Buddy Holly."

2. "It was about the unfortunate deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper in a plane crash...and guess what the plane was called...American Pie."

3. "It is about the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly in the 1950s. The crash also killed Ritchie Valens, famous for his song "La Bamba".

As I mentioned earlier, it seems the song has TWO meanings, ie the hidden one about Buddy Holly et al and the OBVIOUS one about the Communist takeover of America by Satanic forces. And amazingly, it's the HIDDEN one that everyone believes in this particular case, and not the OBVIOUS one. It gives new meaning to the expression "can't see the forest for the trees" or "the best place to hide something is right out in the open because that's the LAST place anyone will ever look for it."

All the best,
Jackie Jura

To Orwell Today,
re: thanks for posting

Just saying thanks for letting me speak my mind on your website...

-Troy M.