Like Vincent McLean & “American Pie” Led A Generation

Don McLean of ‘American Pie’ fame recently told Fox News “I did the right thing with my life,” meaning, “I was the right guy at the right time” for the cultural anthem’s writing & release. I recall like yesterday how AP mesmerized a nation of teens, encapsulated a movement …

As Fox noted, New York-born McLean turned out to be a “one-man cultural force behind” not only “American Pie,” but “Vincent” (aka “Starry, Starry Night”), “And I Love You So,” & “Castles in the Air.” Recall how AP got to be No. 1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for weeks after its release more than 50 years agon on Jan. 15, 1972. It remains a classic of American folk rock music and put McClean in the Songwriter Hall of Fame.

Think back along memory lane and the disc jockeys struggling with America’s youth trying to figure out the “hidden” meaning behind AP’s seemingly mystical verses. I still recall Chicago’s WCFL Bob Dearborn being the first to interpret the looong song (that had to be put on both sides of a 45 disc) & it’s still considered the most authoritative explanation of how the lives & deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens changed America forever. McLean himself told the NY Times his song (first performed at Temple U on March 14, 1971) represents the shifting from the innocent, if not naïve, post-WWII 1950s to the reawakening, if darker protesting 1960s & the Civil Rights Movement. McLean also says many of the words are “autobiographical” and do involve “politics,” but shouldn’t be analyzed too deeply since they are “poetry.” Well, Mr. McLean, “Now I understand, what you tried to say to me, How you suffered for your sanity, How you tried to set them free … Perhaps they’ll listen now …” In any event, a generation thanks one “as beautiful as you.”

Davd Soul