Zitat des Tages von Don McLean:
I was around in 1970, and now I am around in 2015 ... there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of 'American Pie.'
American Pie speaks to the loss that we feel. That's why that song has found the niche that it has.
Being on United Artists was almost as bad as not being on any label at all. They were the crappiest in the business. All they did was movie soundtracks. Now, they were making an effort to become much hipper - signing people like Bobby Womack and what have you.
People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.
Before the Beatles, America was musically a very conservative country. You can see film footage of people at a baseball game, they all had hats and ties on, and the women were dressed up like they were going to church. That was the America that I started getting interested in musically.
Basically, in 'American Pie,' things are heading in the wrong direction. It is becoming less ideal, less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song in a sense.
In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms.
The kids today all seem to think they should be stars, but I wasn't brought up that way.
My expectations for myself were never high. I had a very unusual way of writing songs and of thinking about music. I wasn't at all like Bob Dylan or Simon and Garfunkel. I was completely different - I didn't have a David Geffen at my side.
In a sense, 'American Pie' was a very despairing song but it can also be seen as very hopeful.
I just started playing guitar and started singing and started working on this act that I would call 'Don McLean' when I was probably in high school.
Herman Melville was supposed to be an accountant. Van Gogh was meant to be an art dealer. I was meant to take the train into New York and work for a bank. To be an artist, you have to say goodbye to your family.
I'm glad that my music has helped other people as it's helped me. It makes me glad that I did what I did with my life.
I mean, I've been given a terrific life by the audiences who stuck with me all over the world.
If something comes up I might write about it, but without an outlet the whole thing winds down.
