REDISCOVERING PIE

Driving around doing errands on an uncomfortable morning during the worst summer in recent memory in a car with no air conditioning, I voluntarily remained in my sauna on wheels to listen to at least PART of a song I hadn't heard in a long while. "American Pie" by Don McLean.

I'm an old rock and roll guy,I admit,and songs from the 60s 70s and 80's populate my ipod. (Okay,I have given in to SOME modern technology) but "American Pie" recalls a time when music was available on vinyl and the song itself chronicled the very story of a music in its infancy--a story that continues to this day.

Don McLean wrote a masterpiece and when it first came out,had there been the internet and message boards and blogs and Twitter, all of them would be lit up with talk about the meaning of this tune. I vividly recall many columns and DJ radio chatter dissecting "Pie" and translating all of McLeans metaphors. On Sportscenter they'd call this "breaking it down". Decades later, it's a wonder we wondered at all. Though McLean has not gone on record (no pun intended) with official word , this is the story of 3 rock and roll pioneers and the effect they had,with of course,their music,on the life of a young man-Don McLean. The Big Bopper,Richie Valens and Buddy Holly-the holy trinity of McLean's musical world all met their tragic end in a plane crash and the song recounts his pain and the everlasting imprint these early idols,that time period and that music had on his life.

At the time of its release, this was my favorite song. I remember being angry when the song was snubbed for a Grammy Award. I sang it,I played it,I even interpreted it for a music column I was writing at the time. But the ensuing years pushed it further and further down on the lists of songs of which I loved to listen. Tainted by self indulgent off key karaoke singers who monopolized the mic for seven minutes of insult to this classic, it became a song I wished would go away so these off key crooners would quiet down.

And then this morning I heard it again as it was supposed to be heard. Don McLean singing his song and telling his story and reminding me of why I fell in love with this piece of music in the first place. An extra minute or so in a muggy vehicle, a small price to pay for a trip back into rock and roll history--both his and mine.