“American Pie” is perhaps one of the best known songs where a Chevy plays a key role. It’s unknown how many Chevys were sold because of this song, but one could guess that it helped make the consumer’s decision easier for thousands.

Singer-songwriter Don McLean’s chorus “I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry,” is part of the haunting and mysterious nature of the song. Could it be that levee was simply a rhyme for Chevy and there is no further meaning, or did McLean have a hidden meaning for the use of the phrase?

McLean has been evasive on the meaning of his lyrics and avoided making statements about the prose. There are obvious meanings that anyone can gather, like references to the Byrds’ song “Eight Miles High,” and the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” but many of the lyrics continue to be debated.

We are often left wondering why he drove his Chevy to the levee? Why was the levee dry? Is there a reason the good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye?

When we hear these lyrics, we envision a 1955 Chevy Task Force truck driving to the levee with the good old boys.

1955 Chevrolet Task Force truck. Photo from www.wikipedia.org

One student of the lyrics explained that Don McLean had grown up in a period when Dinah Shore sang her famous Chevy song on her weekly show. In that song was a passage that stated; “America’s the greatest land of all, On a highway or a road along a levee, performance is sweeter, nothing can beat ‘er. Life is completer in a Chevy.”

Perhaps McLean drove to the levee and found America to be less sweeter in a Chevy?

We will all have the answers soon enough.In February 2015, McLean stated publicly that he would reveal the meaning of the lyrics to the song when the original manuscript goes for auction in New York City in April 2015.