american pie

mentalimplosion

I need quotes, comments, personal definitions and favourite lyrics from and about American Pie by Don McLean. So if you've got some special personal (not TOO personal kthnx) meaning for the song that you'd like to share, it would be very much appreciated. I need as much feedback as possible so please contribute whatever you'd like. Thank you.

jono087

american pie defines ctyi closing disco........

Undergod

"The day ther music died" - as far as I know this refers to Buddy Holly dying (I guess you know this already, but thought I'd say anyway). Try wikipedia.

mentalimplosion

oh, k i didn't actually mean the ACTUAL definition of the song.. i already know that, i'm more talking about your own perspective on the song

StupidLikeAFox

mentalimplosion wrote:

blah blah and favourite lyrics from and about American Pie blah blah

''There we were all in one place
A generation, lost in space''

What does it mean to me? The chance to scream SEX SEX SEX SEX as loud as i can in (semi) public

jono087

ColHol wrote:

''There we were all in one place
A generation, lost in space''

What does it mean to me? The chance to scream SEX SEX SEX SEX as loud as i can in (semi) public

ya.....and not get booked for it! the opportunity is too great to be squandered!

doonothing

i quite like
"and in the streets, the children screamed [AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]..."

hehe, thats sorta new isnt it? dont remember it from 03, but at disco uno last year, andrew b. was beside me and aisling and that line came on and he *SCREAMED* at us...twas funny, pretty DAMN shockin, but funny... memowies..

Plunky

THat's ANCIENT! I remember that from as early as 2000...

"I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away" still sends shivers down my spine and makes my skin tingle - I guess cuz that bittersweet sorta smile is what sums up the last 18 hours of CTYI...

It wasn't me!

I think when it was played last year in the quad as a send-off for Dee and we all went mad was a pretty damn cool memory of it. Made me sad too but it was pretty amazing.

Plunky

I heard about that - that's pretty damn cool of all involved! If i was still eligible, and I had to leave early, then that's how I'd want to go...

Oisín Collins

Credit for that event must go to Dee's RA group and her RA who planned the whole thing, Darran Ward for finding a MASSIVE amp in about 10 minutes, John Bowler for the CD and my power socket. Also to Willie for not shutting it down despite it probably breaking noice pollution laws :P

"And while Lennon read a book of Marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died."

Means a lot to me cos that was the point at which all semblance of composure was lost, and the music took over. The whole song is powerful but thats the turning point.

Also:

"And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast"

Great chance to praise the Site Director "...father, son and FEARGAL CLOSE"

good times...

Piste

Ois&#237 wrote: »

Credit for that event must go to Dee's RA group and her RA who planned the whole thing, Darran Ward for finding a MASSIVE amp in about 10 minutes, John Bowler for the CD and my power socket. Also to Willie for not shutting it down despite it probably breaking noice pollution laws :P

*Cough*Isuppliedthecdplayer*cough**cough*

Matthewthebig

Were you session 2? I think not!

Piste

I most certainly was at session 2! I was in Philosphy! I was Jen's roommate!

Undergod

Heheh... oops, Matt?

Yeah that was really nice when it was played in the quad.

I always thought in the context of CTYI it was the point in which I got most covered in other people's sweat... quite often people I didn't actually know.

I really like the song because it's a family thing as much as CTYI (my whole family likes Don McLean) and I remember my sister singing it when she came back from CTYI '93 and I was small.

simply_dee

American pie in the quad was amazing, quite possibly the best night of my life (in a sad "damn, now I have to leave" kind of way). Thanks once again to everyone who set it up...

Favourite lines?
"But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died."

"Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again."

The last chorus is always so powerful too. I guess that's when it hits me that the course really has to end...

JenLorigan

Gummybearz!!! wrote:

I was Jen's roommate!

w00, acclaim

I was in the kitchen the other day and heard my brother humming American Pie. So I started singing it and then he joined in and 'twas cool... But he only knew the first two verses. Bah. (He's actually singing/humming a number of CTYI songs of late, sadly he's bever been and is over the age limit. Oh well.)

lemon_sherbert

That song is just so... Well I can barely describe it. It reminds me of growing up. In first year discovering a kindred spirit who also knew all the words.
Hearing it at my first CTYI disco and getting completely caught up in the madness.
At the end of my first CTYI, bawling and making ais and aine cry despite the fact we were all coming back.
Naturally Dee's farewell (who i don't really know that well, but hi anyway! I was hilary's roommate if you don't remember), of which i took some mental photograph's which I hope I never lose.
End of last year's cTYI sitting in the quad, crying cause I thought I couldn't go back (haha, yes I can!)
Hearing it in schuh a week after 2004 session ended and feeling so homesick for ctyi and my horrible orange room.

and the stupid girl in my school who i gave out to because she thought madonna wrote it. Pah!

TalkISCheap

"and the three men i admire most,
the father, son, and fergal close..."

it re-ally isn't time to be making me this ctyi-sick (i'm veeery tempted to be emotional and say homesick but DAMMIT MAN!!! pull yerself together!!).

we're only halfway through the other miserable eleven-and-a-bit months of the year, help!!! :eek:

ahh feck it, now ye've gone and made me soppy, i shall stop posting for now........

LiamD

The lines that I like are
'There we all were in one place, a generation lost in space
With no time left to start again'
because to me it just sums up what CTYI is all about.

Everyone there in DCU, a unique group of people and only they themselves can truly appreciate the people ther.They are stuck in Dublin, only really they know that they are there and why.At the end everyone wishes they could go back to the beginning and start again reliving the experiences and having more time there.

Thats my two cents anyways.

Awayindahils

just listened to the song through again

"i was a lonely teenaged bronk and buck
with a pink carnation and a pick up truck"

becuase of my at times cripplying insercurities. and also becuase the song picks up real tempo then, everyone is jumping and screaming and enjoying it, as one does in youth, completely unaware of the awaiting anit-climax, aka growing up.

anywya dee's going away was a brillaint if a bit emotional, and i think i hit someone with my shoe. (apologies if i did)

emm there were a couple of brillaint ones at the ends of discos aswell, i cant pick out one in particular right now.

oh yeah. anyone from government and society (govsoc) 02, remember peters attempts for us to introduce a 'new' american pie, to start our own cult our own tradition. i only rmembered it after reading this thread. he must have wnated to start another revolution along the lines of the now infamous world geo politics one.

Oisín Collins

Awayindahils wrote:

oh yeah. anyone from government and society (govsoc) 02, remember peters attempts for us to introduce a 'new' american pie, to start our own cult our own tradition. i only rmembered it after reading this thread. he must have wnated to start another revolution along the lines of the now infamous world geo politics one.

Are you serious? I was in the course and I have NO recollection of that at all! What song was it?

Good thing it didnt catch on. Letting that man choose the CTYI song would be criminal. *mutters*

snuffles

"And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died."

I love those lines, they just remind of the way CTYI is such a musically driven place, and no matter where you go during those three weeks there will inevitably someone with a guitar. And how we all used to just sprawl on any available surface and sing for hours. And I always see us all in the quad on the last night when I hear it.

"We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!"

Those lines mean a lot to me as well, because I was a late comer to CTYI, this was my first and last year. So those three weeks seemed so incredibly short to me. I remember singing those lines on the last night and then realising 'crap, this is it, this is the end, we're never going to be all together like this again'. So it just sums up what an incredibly frenzy of wonderfulness it was, and how it ended way too soon.

But yeah. That whole song is just like one big long brilliant line. I loved it before CTYI and now.....well, I have to be careful when I listen to it because if I'm already depressed I inevitably end up crying.

It wasn't me!

Do I take it you're not a Peter Lydon fan then Oisin? He is a bit... teachery for my liking.

Plunky

It wasn't me! wrote:

Do I take it you're not a Peter Lydon fan then Oisin? He is a bit... teachery for my liking.

That might be cuz he's a teacher!

It wasn't me!

Yeah but CTYI teachers aren't meant to be like that. He's the only one so far who hasn't let me sleep in class. He acts like a real teacher when he really shouldn't.

jono087

LiamD wrote:

The lines that I like are
'There we all were in one place, a generation lost in space
With no time left to..................

......................Thats my two cents anyways.

I concur

Oisín Collins

It wasn't me! wrote:

Yeah but CTYI teachers aren't meant to be like that. He's the only one so far who hasn't let me sleep in class. He acts like a real teacher when he really shouldn't.

FINALLY!! Agreement!!

The man is about as uptight and anally retentive as CTYI instructors (!!) come.

Part of the point is that they're NOT teachers...but who are we to question the wisdom of a man who turned up on the first day and was given a job *cough*simpsons

Plunky

Teachers are such that they can't change their style tho