A reference to “the jester on the sidelines in a cast” was generally interpreted to be a nod to Dylan’s infamous 1966 motorcycle accident that forced him to cancel all his public appearances while he recuperated. “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” is believed to be a reference to the jacket Dylan wore on the cover of 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and the way it resembles the coat the actor wore in Rebel Without a Cause. One commonly held theory is that “the jester” referenced multiple times in the song is Bob Dylan. “This film was a concerted effort to raise the curtain.”Īs anyone who’s ever heard it surely already knows, “American Pie” is packed to the gills with pop cultural and historical references, and there’s been debate for decades over McLean’s intended meaning of certain lines. “I told Don, ‘It’s time for you to reveal what 50 years of journalists have wanted to know,’” producer Spencer Proffer told The Guardian. Richardson (and, of course, inspired the track) had on him, the documentary features the very first line-by-line deconstruction of the song’s lyrics. In addition to a look at McLean’s early life and the profound impact that the 1959 airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J.P.

It’s been a little over 50 years since Don McLean released his nearly-nine-minute epic “American Pie,” and the song and the musician are both subjects of a new documentary called, fittingly, The Day the Music Died.

American pie song lyrics meaning