‘Pie’ or no, bar’s legend endures
Tale of writing of famous song aside, Spa City’s Tin & Lint has a lot of history
Singer Don Mclean denies it. But for those who were there that summer night in 1970, they say there is no disputing that the singer/songwriter wrote lines of his opus “American Pie” in the city ’s then hippest bar, Tin & Lint Company.
According to Jim Stanley, who was there that night and owns the taproom now, Mclean came in like he always did after performing at Caffe Lena. And after having a few drinks, he started scrawling out lyrics on bar napkins and paper.
The story goes, as noted in several accounts including on Caffe Lena’s website, that Mclean was so tipsy that he passed out. The late singer and storyteller Utah Phillips, another regular at Lena’s, took care of Mclean that night, saving some portion of the song ’s lyrics. Stanley said that other notes that mentioned “American Pie” were left at the bar.
“This looks like a song,” Stanley said recalling the night. “He came back the next day and said ‘Do you have my notes?’ He picked them up.”
When the song — one of longest in rock history at 8 minutes and 33 seconds — was released in November 1971, it became an international sensation and sat on the Billboard charts for four weeks in 1972. Stanley recognized the lyric immediately and knew it to be the same.
Today, a plaque commemorates the booth where, Stanley said, Mclean wrote the song. There customers, in what is now considered one of America’s best dive bars, rub the brass plate for good luck.
Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, little about Tin & Lint has changed. The dimly lit, below-the-sidewalk saloon at the top of Caroline Street remains a staple for those who just want to relax with a drink and absorb a bit of city history.
“If you come in here 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, it’s still the same,” the 72year-old owner said. “The characters, the ghosts, the spirits, whatever you want to call it, they are sort of here. It’s all kind of special. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.”
But despite the bar’s claim to fame,
Mclean refutes he wrote “American Pie” there, telling the New York Times and the Caffe Lena History Project that he wrote “American Pie” in Philadelphia and his home at the time in Cold Spring. On Monday, his publicist repeated the denial. Caffe Lena’s Executive Director Sarah Craig sides with Mclean, disputing the Tin & Lint version. Stanley insists he knows better.
“He started writing it here, but he didn’t finish it here because he was a little pie-eyed,” said Stanley, who bought the bar in 1990 from Tom Malone and Dale Easter after working as a bartender there, too. “He just got done doing his gig and he was relaxing and scribbling notes. When he got famous, he said he didn’t write it here because it’s bad for his image.”
But the Mclean legend is just one of the things that makes Tin & Lint special. It’s considered the oldest operating bar in the city, opening as Tin & Lint Company in 1970. And because there were essentially no other bars in the city, aside from The Turf which Stanley called “an old man bar,” Stanley said all of the music legends — Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton — among others — always hung out there after gigs.
“They all came here,” Stanley said.
Aside from the famed Mclean booth, there is much to see in the tavern. Photos and drawings of patrons past and present festoon the walls — including those of a young red-headed Stanley with his football team. Every flat surface of the benches are carved with names and professions of forever love. There is no room left on the walls to write or carve, so patrons are now starting to sign their names on the tin ceiling.
“They are part of the bar,” said the owner, who assured that the scrawled-on wood will never be covered up.
Giving a little tour of highlights, Stanley pointed out the barbershop sign, a joke from the past when everyone at the bar was a long-haired hippy. It stands among an array of college banners, beer logo lights and signs that are above and around a half keg that is affixed to the wall.
Also on display is a drawing of some of the Skidmore College women who frequented the place, back when the college was still predominantly female.
Stanley says that the Skidmore “girls” could walk from the then downtown campus and were regulars. And when asked about another Mclean fable that he tried to pick up Skidmore students, Stanley smiled and said “We all tried.”
“I ended up marrying one,” he said, mentioning his wife, Laurie. “Back then the drinking age was 18. That was good for us boys. Everything changed when it went up to 21.”
At the bar, he mostly hangs out with Scarlett now, his fawn and white boxer who follows his every move while he readies to open for the day.
“I’m here nearly every day except Thursday when I golf,” Stanley said.
The one thing a patron won’t find at Tin & Lint is a Budweiser. Years ago, the distributor tried to raise its price on the beer. Then owner Malone told the distributor he wouldn’t pay it and Malone dropped the brand. The distributor told Malone he would be out of business within a year.
He was wrong, and the bar had never operated in the red. But the coronavirus pandemic is bigger than Budweiser. It shuttered the bar from March to late June. Now reopened, Tin & Lint had to get creative to meet Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order about serving food with drink because it has no kitchen. Stanley said he buys takeout pies from Pizza 7 across the street. He serves half slices for $1 with a drink order.
The bar is also adhering to the 50 percent capacity rule, which in his place, means 30 people socially distanced. That too is hurting the business with The Tin & Lint is now only bringing in only a fraction of what it used to.
“Before this, I never had a problem,” Stanley said. “Thursday, Friday and Saturday were our best nights. Now there is no best nights.”
Asked if it can survive, Stanley shrugged and said “I don’t know.” He hopes so.
“There are other bars, but nothing like Tin & Lint,” Stanley said.