When I found this out, I immediately thought of the song "American Pie." It's one of the classic songs of the 70's. If you are too young to know about the song, feel free to Youtube it and listen. It's also one those songs that we used to roll down the windows (as in grab a handle and turn it around and around to make the window on your car go down) on the car and sing to the top of our lungs. I loved that song. I also had no earthly idea what it meant. We had a lot of those kinds of songs in the 70's.
Here are the lyrics to the chorus: So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
I knew what a levee was- I grew up in South Louisiana and there were levees along the Mississippi River and many of the bayous to keep the water where water was supposed to be and out of our houses. I understood drinking whiskey. Rye was a type of grass we planted to draw deer in so we could hunt them more effectively. I never thought about drinking rye grass. I also had no idea who Miss American Pie was or why she was leaving. I did grow up going to church and the idea of this would be the day that I die and I spend it drinking sounded like a really bad idea.
Not a Chevy, but a Hyundai. It is all I got
Miss Hannah Grace; not Miss American Pie
So, my "first" for today was looking up a website and reading about the meaning of "American Pie" in honor of The Day the Music Died Day. After reading it, I think I like the song better when I did not know what it meant. That would probably hold true for several songs of the 70's that I really liked.
Here's a summary of what the website explained:
"Miss American Pie"* is "as American as apple pie," so the saying goes; she could also be a synthesis of this symbol and the beauty queen Miss America. Either way, her name evokes a simpler time in American life when these icons held more meaning. She is the America of a passing era, and he is bidding her farewell.
It seems McClean is bemoaning something of a golden age in America and especially the music of that era (the era being the 1950's). I'll not bore you with the rest of the hidden meanings of the song, but suffice it to say that he's let down by the chaos and upheaval of the 60's. I really did not know that Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley are mentioned in the song. I had figured out the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were in there.
I was particularly interested in who the "Father, Son and the Holy Ghost" were mentioned in the last verse of the song. As McClean never has come out with an explanation for the song, there are several guesses as to their identity. They include Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper who died in an Iowa cornfield that fateful day in 1959. They could also be symbolic of the three political assassinations of the 1960s—John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. He also mentions the Crickets as a possibility (the music group not insects).
Here's the take-away for me as I think about this "first". As a Christian, I sing a good many Christian songs in church and when I'm by myself. Many of these songs have tremendous meanings. I need to think about what the songs mean. Some are so full of truth about a glorious God that they literally can take your breath away. A lady sang "There is a Fountain" at church yesterday that just undid me. One verse goes, "The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away." That's worth a hallelujah to me.
So, the abundant life includes not only singing enthusiastically, but with deep thought as well. That would also be true of Bible Study. I need to give deep thought to what Scriptures mean; especially how I'm to obey.
Thinking deeply about God and the abundant life
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. My car
2. The song "There is a Fountain"
3. I never have to say good-bye to Jesus
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