“Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock n’roll,
Can music save your mortal soul?
Don McLean, American Pie
As we grow older we think more about past times. I guess that’s a truism, brought to mind by an old blog post of mine about the transforming power of music (I’m reviewing these for an ebook, “Reflections of a Catholic Scientist.”) In that post I mentioned Don McLean’s “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie,” the greatest American song. So I decide to hear it once again, and again, I teared up thinking of that time in the ’50s when I was twentyish and the world and this country were full of promise. And so, no more to say, other than hearing the song once again. (Here’s Don McLean’s explanation of what the song means, 50 years later; his early explanation was “I’ll never have to work again, if I don’t want to.”)
McLean’s best piece of songwriting was a song off the American Pie album called The Grave. It’s something of an anti-war anthem, but it’s chilling.
https://youtu.be/29XO3iGLVLE
You were pushing 40 when that song came out, no?
There was a great deal of anxiety in mass communications about matters nuclear (which my parents did not share). That aside, I think if you’d given my mother in 1957 a precis of the social and culture evolution of the next 25 years, she’d have been aghast. Neither she nor my father were from their upbringing unfamiliar with the ways people can make each other miserable.
AD, 41 to be precise (or more precise). But I didn’t listen to rock’n roll then. The song became my favorite when I was in the 60s and one of my grandchildren played it for me.
Thank you very much Dr. Kurland.
I read the interview, Nashville Tennessean, and appreciated DM’s humility and style. Poetry is a truth being revealed and American Pie surely did that. I was too young to appreciate the words in ’71 but that didn’t stop me from singing the chorus. At 10, baseball cards little league practice and a cold Tahitian Treat after practice, made life complete. My eldest brother was on a support ship, USS Barry, in ’71. My mother started to wear her POW bracelet soon after that. I recall it had a POW service mans name on it. She and my dad prayed for him, the other POW’s and all the service personnel in Vietnam after dinner. The Rosaries that were prayed did escort him back stateside. Praise be to God.
Thanks for the post BK.
The 1950s were not all that wonderful. True, the corruption wasn’t quite as blatant then, but the trajectory was well in place.
“”Can music save your mortal soul?” from sin? from death? God gave man immortal souls.
The 1950s were not all that wonderful. True, the corruption wasn’t quite as blatant then, but the trajectory was well in place.
You got a better era in mind?
About that ‘trajectory’: you determine that how? Social deterioration you saw during the 1950s was manifest in youth culture – more school disorder, more juvenile crime, and changes in popular music which had some agreeable features and some disagreeable features. Also, you had the advent on a mass scale of a certain sort of urban planning which had some agreeable and some disagreeable features. You’re never going to find an era where life improves across the board.
Were you there, Janet? I was.
After the 1950s followed the 1962 removal of the mention of God and prayer from the public schools and places owned in joint and common tenancy by every citizen.
Atheism was imposed on the country. Violation of our Founding Principles, our national motto and our freedom of religion.
Separation of church and state, not in the Constitution was enforced.