When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me

from Don McLean – American Pie Lyrics on Rap Genius

The “Jester” is Bob Dylan. Known for singing protest songs directed at the government, “The King and Queen,” Dylan was considered the mouthpiece of the ‘American man.’

Specifically, ‘the coat he borrowed from James Dean’ references the coat that Bob Dylan wears on the cover of his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released in 1963, which is eerily similar to the jacket James Dean famously wore in Rebel Without A Cause (1955).

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