1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Hi, I'm recording this video so that you can see an example of what a lyrics analysis presentation

2
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:13,560
can look like, and also the question paper that you need to write and give out to your

3
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:20,560
classmates.

4
00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,040
So first up is the question paper.

5
00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:27,120
This is about the song that I'm going to analyze in this video.

6
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,540
You can see that I came up with 12 different questions.

7
00:00:30,540 --> 00:00:36,040
Some of them are multiple choice, some of them are a fill-in-the-gap, and some of them

8
00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:37,040
are short answer.

9
00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:41,160
My question 2 is a short answer.

10
00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:44,720
You need to have this designed before you start the presentation.

11
00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:55,320
I suggest that you send it to my email, and I can have the copies made for your classmates.

12
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,780
And it's important for you not only to include questions about things that are written and

13
00:00:59,780 --> 00:01:04,740
that your classmates can read on the screen, but also things that you talk about but don't

14
00:01:04,740 --> 00:01:10,340
necessarily write down, because you want them to be listening to you.

15
00:01:10,340 --> 00:01:14,560
So this is the song that I'm going to analyze, American Pie, by Don McLean.

16
00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:19,000
It has nothing to do with the movies of American Pie.

17
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,200
I talked about this with Sydney, and this song could probably be an entire unit of class,

18
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,440
just trying to analyze the lyrics.

19
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,400
But in questions of time, I'm only going to talk a little bit about the singer, and only

20
00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:37,760
the first three stanzas and the chorus.

21
00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,320
So first, some information about the singer.

22
00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:44,840
His name was, well, is, because he's not dead yet, Don McLean.

23
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:51,440
He was born in 1949 in New York, and he grew up there and in California.

24
00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,340
He was very heavily inspired by the music of his generation.

25
00:01:55,340 --> 00:02:01,160
In fact, the song that I'm going to analyze is about music and how it inspired him.

26
00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:06,840
His big hit is the one I'm going to analyze, but he had another big hit called Vincent

27
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,920
that was about Vincent Van Gogh.

28
00:02:09,920 --> 00:02:15,160
And this is something I just learned recently, but the song Killing Me Softly with his song,

29
00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:20,600
which I'm sure that you've heard, whether you know it or not, was actually written about

30
00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:25,400
him, because the singer of that song saw him performing in concert, and she wrote this

31
00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:26,400
song about him.

32
00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:33,680
Then it was also done by Roberta Flack, and later in the 90s by Lauryn Hill and the Fugees.

33
00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,520
And the song in question here is American Pie.

34
00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:41,640
He wrote it in the late 60s and released it in 71.

35
00:02:41,640 --> 00:02:45,900
It went to number one almost immediately in many different countries, which is really

36
00:02:45,900 --> 00:02:51,300
surprising because it's almost nine minutes long, and it's pretty difficult for a song

37
00:02:51,300 --> 00:02:53,960
to be on the radio for nine straight minutes.

38
00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,460
It was the longest song to be number one for several decades, until a song by Taylor Swift