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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Tuesday 19 July 2022
Don McLean looks back at his masterpiece, ‘American Pie’

By MARK KENNEDY He had bronchial asthma, song has resonated far them.” the coast,” meaning Los
AP Entertainment Writer prompting the description past America. “American Pie” is packed Angeles. “Even god has
NEW YORK (AP) — Don of him in “American Pie” as The documentary reveals with cultural references, been corrupted,” McLean
McLean has listened for “a lonely teenage broncin’ that recording the album from Chevrolet to nursey says in the film.
decades as people belted buck.” The “sacred store” was not exactly a smooth rhymes, while namecheck- “He was glad to open up
out his classic song “Ameri- he sings about was the process. Producer Ed Free- ing The Byrds, John Len- because he and his man-
can Pie” at last call or at House of Music on Main man was unimpressed with non, Charles Manson and ager thought it was the
karaoke and applauds Street, where he bought re- McLean’s clutch of songs James Dean. The lyrics time to do it and this was
you for the effort. cords and his first guitar. and didn’t think McLean dreamlike and impression- the platform to do it in,”
“I’ve heard whole bars Young McLean was a pa- was up to playing rhythm istic have been pored over says music producer and
burst into this song when perboy “every paper I’d guitar on “American Pie.” for decades, dissected for songwriter Spencer Proffer,
I’ve been across the room,” deliver” and adored Elvis, He eventually relented. meaning. CEO of media production
McLean tells The Associ- Gene Vincent, Bo Diddley McLean along with a The documentary answers company Meteor 17, which
ated Press from a tour bus but especially Holly, whose few session musicians re- some questions, but not helped make the film. “My
heading to Des Moines, death deeply affected hearsed for two weeks all. McLean reveals that hat’s off to Don for writing
Iowa. “And they’re so hap- him. “I was in absolute without nailing the song, his oblique references to something this magnificent.
py singing it that I realized, shock. I may have actually getting increasingly frus- a king and a jester have My job was to bring it to
‘You don’t really have to cried,” he says in the film. trated. The addition of pia- nothing to do with Elvis or life.”
worry about how well you “You can’t intellectualize it. nist Paul Griffin at the last Bob Dylan, but he’s open For McLean, the song is a
sing this song anymore. It hurt me.” minute was a “Hail Mary” to other interpretations. He blueprint of his mind at the
Even sung badly, people Years later, McLean would stroke of genius that made explains that the “march- time and a homage to his
are really happy with it.’” plumb that pain in “Ameri- the whole tune click. ing band” means the mili- musical influences, but also
Happy might be a bit can Pie,” baking in his own But recording the song was tary-industrial complex and a roadmap for future stu-
of an understatement. grief at his father’s passing just the beginning of trou- “sweet perfume” is tear dents of history:
“American Pie” is consid- and writing an eulogy for ble ahead. gas. “If it starts young people
ered a masterpiece, voted the American dream. He At over 8 minutes, radio The line in the chorus thinking about Buddy Holly,
among the top five Songs was creating his second stations balked at playing “This’ll be the day that I about rock ‘n’ roll and that
of the Century compiled by album in 1971 while the na- it, and McLean’s record la- die” comes from the John music, and then it teaches
the Recording Industry As- tion was racked by assas- bel, Media Arts, went bust Wayne film “The Searchers” them maybe about what
sociation of America and sinations, anti-war protests just as it was to release the and the farewell is a riff off else happened in the
the National Endowment and civil right marches. album “American Pie.” Af- “Bye Bye, My Roseanna,” a country, maybe look at a
for the Arts. He thought he “needed a ter seeing the documen- song his friend Pete Seeger little history, maybe ask why
McLean and his singular big song about America.” tary, McLean was struck sang. McLean was going to John Kennedy was shot
tune about “the day the The first verse and melody by a common strand in his use “Miss American apple and who did it, maybe ask
music died” are now the seemed to just tumble out. career: “What I noticed pie” but dropped the fruit. why all our leaders were
subject of a full-length fea- “A long, long, time ago...” was that I had to fight so The end of the song asks shot in the 1960s and who
ture documentary, “The It climaxed in the huge many battles to get this for “happy news” an echo did it, maybe start to look
Day the Music Died: The sing-along-chorus: “We thing done, to get every- of the first verse but there at war and the stupidity of
Story of Don McLean’s were singin’, ‘Bye-bye, Miss thing. I’ve been fighting ev- is none. The three men it if that can happen, then
‘American Pie,’” airing American pie’/Drove my erybody my whole life,” he McLean admires most the the song really is serving a
Tuesday on Paramount+. Chevy to the levee, but the says. “I’m not difficult. I just Father, Son and Holy Ghost wonderful purpose and a

It’s mandatory viewing for levee was dry/Them good want things the way I want “caught the last train for positive purpose.”q
McLean fans or anyone old boys were drinkin’
who has marveled at his whiskey ‘n rye/And singin’,
sonic treasure. It also repre- “This’ll be the day that I
sents an elegant film blue- die.”
print for future deep dives The 90-minute documenta-
into a song and its wider ry incorporates news foot-
cultural relevance. age of the ‘70s and uses
For those fans who have actors in recreations. Cam-
wondered about the lyr- eras capture McLean visit-
ics they are singing loudly ing the hallowed Surf Ball-
in bars and cars, McLean room in Clear Lake, the last
shares the secrets. “That place Holly and his fellow
was the fun of writing the musicians played before
song,” he tells the AP. “I their fatal flight in 1959.
was up at night, smiling and There are interviews with
thinking about what I’m musicians Garth Brooks,
going to do with this.”The “Weird Al” Yankovich and
documentary starts when a Brian Wilson, among them
single-engine plane carry- as well as Valens’ sister,
ing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Va- Connie, and actor Peter
lens and Jiles P. Richardson, Gallagher, whose char-
the “Big Bopper,” plunged acter’s death on “Zoey’s
into a cornfield north of Extraordinary Playlist” pro-
Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 3, moted an onscreen per-
1959, killing the three stars formance of “American
and their pilot. McLean Pie.” The British singer Jade
was 13, living in a subur- Bird, Cuban-born producer
ban, middle class home in Rudy Perez and Spanish-
New Rochelle, New York, language singer Jencarlos Don McLean rides a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Feb. 22, 2019.
when the crash occurred. Canela speak to how the Associated Press