The American Pie Blog

Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass

Sometimes the hardest part of poetry (such as reading Shakespearean verse) is knowing where one thought ends and another begins. McLean plays on The Beatles’ title “Helter Skelter” amidst a 1966 reference to the Byrd’s song “Eight Miles High” … a song best noted for being banned because of its references to drugs (landing foul in the grass). The Beatles’ song was released in 1968 on the “White Album” and is most often used to refer to the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders by Charles Manson and his “family” … the helter skelter reference seems to break the chronology if it does symbolize the Manson murders.

Helter skelter is a term that means to rush forward carelessly or with things strewn about. “Eight Miles High” may have been released carelessly, not anticipating such a backlash, and it signaled an end to the success of The Byrds (falling fast … also a reference to coming down from a high). The song was released in April and The Byrds literally ran for cover (the fallout shelter) after the outcry about their song (this was Gene Clarke’s last song with The Byrds).

Thinking about the “summer swelter” for a long time, I FINALLY remembered that “Summer in the City” was a #1 hit for The Lovin’ Spoonful in July 1966 (some images in the song could be described as helter skelter). The roots of The Lovin’ Spoonful, which was founded in New York City, go back to the Mugwumps, a group that included Mama Cass and Denny Doherty (later of the Mamas and Papas). Chronologically, the 1966 symbolism of The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Byrds makes the most sense but the Manson symbolism may be too hard to ignore.

The players tried for a forward pass
With the Jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the Sergeants played a marching tune

We now move ahead to the Summer of Love in 1967 (the half-time air, summer as the half-way point in the year). The British Invasion has largely subsided and American music is moving beyond its infancy. Bob Dylan, who suffered a motorcycle crash in 1966, is out of the picture. The Doors and Jefferson Airplane released albums that brought back SOME dance music, Motown was on the upswing and even folk music had taken on more of a “pop rock” attitude.

The Summer of Love puts us in the middle of the hippie movement in San Francisco, where smoking weed (sweet perfume) and being a “Flower Child” were the “in” things to do. And the there were the Sergeants (The Beatles) with the new marching tune for the generation, “Sergeant Pepper.” Maybe “With A Little Help from My Friends” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is the new marching tune … I lean to “A Little Help …” and the lines: Oh, I’ll get by with a little help from my friends. Yes, I’ll get high with a little help from my friends. I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends. Indeed!

We all got up to dance
Oh but we never got the chance
‘Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died
We started singing

Refrain

The lines about getting up to dance and not having the chance have a number of possible meanings. One possible meaning is that “Sgt. Pepper” was hardly an album full of dance music. It was doubtful that anyone would dance because the lasting imagery is that hippies and their contemporaries sat around getting high or wasted while they listened to the album.

At the same time, there is a growing disenchantment with the Vietnam War and the establishment as a whole, and the “players” are moving from San Francisco to college campuses across the nation. Voices are rising in the streets from the ghettoes to the cities to the suburbs. There is a young generation that is becoming ecologically-aware and socially conscious. They disapprove of their parents’ way of life and long for communes full of peace and free love. Putting the drug culture off to the side, we’re moving into 1968 and widespread protests for civil rights, equal rights and an end to the war. It was the year when Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. But the big story that year was the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Everybody was there to protest and make a statement, especially because President Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat who never showed up in Chicago) had been the one to escalate the war in Vietnam. But the protestors never got a chance to protest because Mayor Richard Daley used the Illinois National Guard and the Chicago Police (the marching band) to keep protestors away from the convention. No permits were issued for rallies or marches, and Daley encouraged the use of whatever force was necessary to keep the peace. Although the convention started off calmly, things soon got out of control and several violent confrontations broke out, including one that spilled into the convention hall itself.

”What was revealed?” Other than the violence and hate that we showed the world, eight of the protestors went on trial for inciting riots. After a mistrial and the severing of Bobby Seale from the group, the protestors became known as the Chicago Seven. Eventually, all the defendants were acquitted or had their convictions overturned on appeal. A subsequent report (The Walker Report) blamed the violence on the Chicago Police, calling it a police riot. And, by the way, the delegates eventually nominated Hubert Humphrey (MN) and Edmund Muskie (ME), who eventually lost to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Hmmmm … could “Miss American Pie” have been the symbolic American lady, The Statue of Liberty?

Go to Verse 5

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