Retro Buddy Holly circa 2004

Drove my Chevy to the levee

But the levee was dry

An them good ol' boys

Were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singing

This will be the day that I die

This will be the day that I die

Don McLean wrote "American Pie" in 1971, recorded it the same year and enjoyed tremendous success with it in 1972 as it hit the charts. Ever since Don penned the words and lyrics to "American Pie," it has been a colorful part of our Americana musical lexicon. It is said that he wrote the song in tribute to Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson. According to Don McLean, himself, Buddy Holly inspired him to write it. Since that time there have been many scholars trying to unravel the meaning of the song, and for each scholar, there is yet another meaning. Bottom line is; it was a song that stuck with us simply because it was written with great lyrics, great music and had a sound we all liked. I never, in all the years I have heard Don McLean, and others, perform "American Pie," tried to derive meaning from the words. I just simply enjoyed it as great music.

Incidentally, when asked what the words to "American Pie" meant, Don McLean said, "It means I never have to work again." To this day, Don has refused to tell what the lyrics meant. Many pseudo-scholars believe the song to be a history of rock and roll up until 1971.

Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper were killed when their rented Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed just outside Mason City, Iowa. Going against folklore, I have to tell you that the plane they crashed was not named "American Pie." The plane had the identification number N3794P; that's it. It had taken off from an airfield in Clear Lake, Iowa, during a snowstorm and flew about eight miles before coming down in a field. The prevailing theory is that the snow was coming down so heavily, that the pilot could not tell the difference between air and ground. He simply drove the plane into the earth. No other explanation has ever been offered.

Throughout the years, since the crash, there has been a growing list of people who were said to have given up their seat in that plane, to another, and were fortunate enough to survive. From what I have personally heard, there were enough people said to have given up their seats that quite possibly the Clear Lake, Iowa airfield would not have held them all. So let's set the record straight. One person, who by the toss of a coin, gave up his seat to Ritchie Valens, was Tommy Allsup, one of the band members. Waylon Jennings, a seventeen-year-old kid and bassist for the group, also gave up his seat on the plane to the Big Bopper, lived and went on to become a country super-star and legend. Now you know the truth. There were only two persons who gave up their seat on that ill-fated flight, February 3, 1959. The day that Don McLean believed the music died.

Like "Field of Dreams," set in another time and in another Iowa cornfield with "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, we would hope to see that long ago, musical trio of our youth, stepping from the other side of a snowstorm, from that fateful cornfield in Iowa. The plane crash in 1959 never happened and the music lived on.

The day the music died

And they were singing,

Bye, bye Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy……….