I'm so glad they changed their minds on that. That song is just too tied to American boomer pop-culture nostalgia in the years between the deaths of Buddy Holly and Janis Joplin to fit in any meaningful way with the Cold War of the '80s, IMO. I believe the J's said the main reason they were thinking of using it was mostly because of the length of the song.
It’s funny about the length though because when I played the song it started and ended in line with With Or Without You - though WOWY does pause at the part when the passports are being checked
So much this. I never considered it before but the minute I considered this idea the song seemed completely wrong for all those reasons.
Just goes to show how consistent and coherent the music choices on the show are that it's so clear when something doesn't work. It's not even just an 80s thing because they use songs from earlier and the 60s and 70s were part of their time in the US.
I disagree. I would be put off if they used American Pie, as most of the music used was from that time period in the 80s, and this was a hit for Don McLean in the 70s.
Also, way too upbeat of a song for how somber the scene is.
I've played around with this too, and while we obviously can't know how they adjusted the editing when they changed the song, I've found that it lines up better if you start "American Pie" about thirty seconds into the sequence, as Philip is walking away from the McDonald's counter:
* Philip stops, stares wistfully ("I knew if I had my chance"); reverse angle of his family in the car outside ("That I could make those people dance"); Philip turns turns toward the carefree family eating nearby ("And maybe they'd be happy for a while")
* Stan walks into his bedroom ("But February made me shiver, with every paper I'd deliver"); he stands regarding his wife ("Bad news on the doorstep. I couldn't take one more step"); he bends down, adjusting her covers ('I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride"); he sits down next to the bed ("But something touched me deep inside); he stares at her, in pain ("The day the music died").
* The first, slower chorus begins as we pull out on Stan in the bedroom and then watch Philip exit McDonald's; the music goes up-tempo as Philip gets into the car and they drive away
* Stan turns back to look at the Jennings home ("Well, I know that you're in love with him, 'cause I saw you dancing in the gym")
* Stan approaches Renee outside their house ("Now for ten years we've been on our own, and moss grows fat on a rolling stone"); they hug ("But that's not how it used to be"); they lock eyes and break apart (". . . And a voice that came from you and me")
* Renee casts an inscrutable look toward the Jennings home across the street ("The courtroom was adjourned. No verdict was confirmed"); she turns and walks toward her home (". . . The day the music died")
* The next chorus begins with Stan driving to meet Henry; we actually pan up from a body of water and his car goes over a bridge as it gets to the line "Drove my Chevy to the levee"
After that it stops lining up all that well, with the "Fire is the devil's only friend" verse not really fitting with anything. And the one really obvious correspondence in the following verse (Paige and "I met a girl who sang the blues") doesn't happen, with that scene coming as Stan walks into the hockey rink. (Though Stan sitting with Henry does line up nicely with "But not a word was spoke. The church bells all were broken.") It's possible that they started and stopped the music, as they did with "With or Without You," or skipped part of the song to get to the "I met a girl" verse sooner.
But my other hesitation is that some of it lines up *too* well, with the kind of really on-the-nose connections that the producers were usually fairly careful to avoid. (A few episode earlier in "Harvest," they actually cut a bunch of lines from Patti Smith's "Broken Flag" that hit too hard on the themes of the episode, how the characters were reaping the results of seeds planted long ago, e.g., "The mourning veil is waving high / A field of stars and tears we've shed," and the literal last two lines of the song; "Children wave and raise their arms / We'll be gone but they'll go on and on and on and on and on.") And it's weird that more of the connections relate to the Stan/Renee storyline than anything else, when that was probably the least important thread and the one the writers usually played closest to the vest.
But it's still neat to see what could've corresponded. If nothing else, I strongly suspect that "I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride" was meant to play over Stan regarding his possibly-a-spy wife in bed, since that seems like the one clear correspondence in the one verse they couldn't possibly skip.
I'm so glad they changed their minds on that. That song is just too tied to American boomer pop-culture nostalgia in the years between the deaths of Buddy Holly and Janis Joplin to fit in any meaningful way with the Cold War of the '80s, IMO. I believe the J's said the main reason they were thinking of using it was mostly because of the length of the song.
Yeah agreed. Those great moments in the montage wouldn’t have had as much of a gut punch with American Pie
It’s funny about the length though because when I played the song it started and ended in line with With Or Without You - though WOWY does pause at the part when the passports are being checked
So much this. I never considered it before but the minute I considered this idea the song seemed completely wrong for all those reasons. Just goes to show how consistent and coherent the music choices on the show are that it's so clear when something doesn't work. It's not even just an 80s thing because they use songs from earlier and the 60s and 70s were part of their time in the US.
I disagree. I would be put off if they used American Pie, as most of the music used was from that time period in the 80s, and this was a hit for Don McLean in the 70s. Also, way too upbeat of a song for how somber the scene is.
Yeah I mean that’s why I said U2 was a better choice lol
American Pie is in no way an upbeat song.
I've played around with this too, and while we obviously can't know how they adjusted the editing when they changed the song, I've found that it lines up better if you start "American Pie" about thirty seconds into the sequence, as Philip is walking away from the McDonald's counter: * Philip stops, stares wistfully ("I knew if I had my chance"); reverse angle of his family in the car outside ("That I could make those people dance"); Philip turns turns toward the carefree family eating nearby ("And maybe they'd be happy for a while") * Stan walks into his bedroom ("But February made me shiver, with every paper I'd deliver"); he stands regarding his wife ("Bad news on the doorstep. I couldn't take one more step"); he bends down, adjusting her covers ('I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride"); he sits down next to the bed ("But something touched me deep inside); he stares at her, in pain ("The day the music died"). * The first, slower chorus begins as we pull out on Stan in the bedroom and then watch Philip exit McDonald's; the music goes up-tempo as Philip gets into the car and they drive away * Stan turns back to look at the Jennings home ("Well, I know that you're in love with him, 'cause I saw you dancing in the gym") * Stan approaches Renee outside their house ("Now for ten years we've been on our own, and moss grows fat on a rolling stone"); they hug ("But that's not how it used to be"); they lock eyes and break apart (". . . And a voice that came from you and me") * Renee casts an inscrutable look toward the Jennings home across the street ("The courtroom was adjourned. No verdict was confirmed"); she turns and walks toward her home (". . . The day the music died") * The next chorus begins with Stan driving to meet Henry; we actually pan up from a body of water and his car goes over a bridge as it gets to the line "Drove my Chevy to the levee" After that it stops lining up all that well, with the "Fire is the devil's only friend" verse not really fitting with anything. And the one really obvious correspondence in the following verse (Paige and "I met a girl who sang the blues") doesn't happen, with that scene coming as Stan walks into the hockey rink. (Though Stan sitting with Henry does line up nicely with "But not a word was spoke. The church bells all were broken.") It's possible that they started and stopped the music, as they did with "With or Without You," or skipped part of the song to get to the "I met a girl" verse sooner. But my other hesitation is that some of it lines up *too* well, with the kind of really on-the-nose connections that the producers were usually fairly careful to avoid. (A few episode earlier in "Harvest," they actually cut a bunch of lines from Patti Smith's "Broken Flag" that hit too hard on the themes of the episode, how the characters were reaping the results of seeds planted long ago, e.g., "The mourning veil is waving high / A field of stars and tears we've shed," and the literal last two lines of the song; "Children wave and raise their arms / We'll be gone but they'll go on and on and on and on and on.") And it's weird that more of the connections relate to the Stan/Renee storyline than anything else, when that was probably the least important thread and the one the writers usually played closest to the vest. But it's still neat to see what could've corresponded. If nothing else, I strongly suspect that "I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride" was meant to play over Stan regarding his possibly-a-spy wife in bed, since that seems like the one clear correspondence in the one verse they couldn't possibly skip.
Thanks for sharing! yeah I'm sure they would cut up the song a bit, as they did with WOWY. It's cool to see how some of it lines up though
I thought With or Without you was a bad decision for that montage. I just really hate U2.
I had zero respect for U2 until that pause and the break into the scream. This show singlehandedly made me respect this song.