A Defining Moment in American Music
No matter how open to interpretation the lyrics of “American Pie” have been over the decades, the emotional resonance of the song contributed to the birth of an American classic. It was clear from the beginning that McLean was referring to a defining moment in music, as the lyrics point to something that has been lost and can’t be retrieved. Opening with the death of singer Buddy Holly and ending with the catastrophic concert at Altamont Motor Speedway, we discover that the song’s lyrics cover the period between 1959 and 1970, as the third verse defines the timeframe as the “10 years we’ve been on our own.”
AGOURA HILLS, CA – NOVEMBER 03: Singer Don McLean performs onstage at The Canyon Club on November 3, 2017, in Agoura Hills, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
Referring to a decade that has been a defining one not only in music but also the entire American history, the sense of disillusion and loss that “American Pie” transmits is not just about the deaths in the music world, as we’ll see below, but also about a generation that could no longer believe in the utopian dreams of the 1950s and immediately challenged the assumptions of an old world.