Is Don McLean Revealing the Meaning Behind ‘American Pie’? [Video]

When the song "American Pie" soared up the pop charts in 1972, it became an instant classic, known for it's easy to sing lyrics about all things American teens could relate to, namely cars, girls and booze.

Clearly "the day the music died" referenced the late '50s plane crash that killed Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, but what about the rest of the song? What did it all mean? We may soon find out.

In April, a 16-page manuscript belonging to McLean, which includes drafts of the song, is going up for auction, and it may give fans a clue as to what it’s really about. Of course that answer won’t come cheap, since the document is expected to sell for at least $1.5 million.

"I think they'll know what was going on in my mind. That's about all I can say," McLean told Huffington Post Live. "I'm not cagey about it. It's not a parlor game, so I just never got into that. People seem to need to do that." Another reason he won’t spill the beans? Seems McLean doesn’t want to spoil it for people who have already come to their own conclusions. "I've been told that if I were to say that, people would say, 'Well, no, you're wrong,’” he said. “They'd say, 'You're not writing about that, I know what it means.' So I don't even get into it.”

In 1971 many radio stations nationwide were so besieged with questions about the song's references, they would print pamphlets with their explanation of the lyrics, to be handed out at record stores. The best known, and most widely copied of these was disc jockey Bob Dearborn's explanation from WCFL in Chicago. 

Currently, several web sites are devoted to the supposed meanings of the song's veiled references to pop music icons. Most of these come to the conclusion that from the moment that Holly, the Bopper and Valens died, rock and roll music took a serious turn for the worst, beginning with Bob Dylan in the early '60s and continuing through the Beatles, effectively killing it.

For all the songs alleged contrivances, it stills remains a sing along classic for many, and of course, to Grand Rapids residents it remains the moment they told the world they were still alive with this famous 2011 lip dub in response to to a Newsweek article that stated the city was "dying". The video was hailed by many as a fantastic performance including Roger Ebert, who said it was "the greatest music video ever made."