American Pie, Pt. 1
I can still remember how that music
Used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now, do you believe in rock ‘n’ roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
‘Cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage bronckin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone
But that’s not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
A quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
‘Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So, come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
‘Cause fire is the Devil’s only friend
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die”
The song is about the loss of innocence & naivety and the American Dream during the 1960s which began (in the song) with the deaths of three major teenage pop music idols in a plane crash.
It’s followed historically, but in the song indirectly, by the more serious assassination of the Kennedys and MLK, and the disabusing of youth of the blind acceptance of American exceptionalism that the Vietnam war brought, which the songwriter parallels by describing the increasing gravity and complexity of popular music.
The Chevy and the levee are not just nice rhymes, the Chevy was the desirable US car that indicated success to the middle classes. The levee invokes for the listener the deep south along the Mississippi River where racism thrived and the Good Ol’ Boys just keep drinking their liquor – doing what they’ve always done, blind to the changes around them while the civil rights and other movements emerged… etc.
That the levee is dry reflects the failure of that which sustained the culture till that time.
I like what Paul Myers added below too, about not being able to dump the old chevy when its dry.
What does the lyric ”Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry” in Don Mclean’s “American Pie” mean?
Once we start worrying too hard about the meaning of “American Pie,” we can get ourselves into a bit of a tangle.
Firstly, in answer to your actual question, as J.J Mac says, it’s not “levy” but “levee.” But why “took my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry” (actually it was “drove my Chevy…”)? What was the speaker in the song hoping for, and why?
Don McLean has been asked numerous times about the meaning of the whole song; his most famous (and famously unhelpful) answer was simply, “It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”
You can read more about it here, if you like: American Pie (song) – Wikipedia. All I know is that during my first year (1971 to 1972) at university, it was just never not available on the jukebox; we must have very nearly worn the record out, because there was never a day when it was not played several times. And everyone stopped what they were doing, and sang.
Never mind the meaning. It’s just a great song.
