non-Worldcon: "American Pie" followup

[kate_nepveu]

Clearly I should have had this as a question, I don't know what I was thinking:

[Poll #1435602]

(If the answer is "no," you want the prior post.)

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, it came out when I was twenty, and you could NOT get away from that godawful song with its four hundred thousand nasal, whiny verses. God I was so glad when it finally went off the charts. I put strong energy into totally avoiding the movie.

[doire]

I spent 4 days in America in 1972, still just a teenager and weirded out by being unable to drink legally, and have never learnt the lyrics.

If I had I might not have concluded that a levvy was a dry stream bed and a shevvy some sort of boat. I would probably have still thought rye was a mixer to put in the whisky.

Enough of cultural misunderstandings. This was the apposite post on my FL between your two.

[kate_nepveu]

That is very cool.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but my teenage years were long gone when it came out. :-}

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

I learned it only when Weird Al released "The Saga Begins" and a couple of friends kept getting the lyrics confused between the two.

[dlganger.livejournal.com]

I am proud to report I *only* know Al's version. Even then, I avoid it, because I find the whole thing so insipid and distasteful that not even Weird Al using it in a mutual mock session with George Lucas is enough to redeem it.

[ceara.livejournal.com]

I absorbed a significant subset of the lyrics just by hearing the song, but I've never sat down and learned them all on purpose, and am pretty sure I've never known the entire thing all at the same time, though have probably known every bit at one time or another.

I'm actually not sure what that counts as.

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Born 1972. I can do the start and the end, through osmosis, but not all of it.

On the other hand, I learned all the lyrics to Eleanor Rigsby and Bad Bad Leroy Brown in MUSIC CLASS in seventh grade.

[kate_nepveu]

"Eleanor Rigby" was in my senior-year anthology as a modern-day ballad!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I was, however, not a teenager when it came out--I was 24 (old enough to remember the plane crash that killed Valens, Holly, and the Big Bopper). I certainly was aware of it, and listened to it many times, but I never memorized the lyrics..

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

That's one of those songs where I never remember the lyrics unless it's playing beside me, and then suddenly I can sing all of them.

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" is another.