Don gets generous slice of Pie

Music with Eddie Rowley

AMERICAN singer and songwriter Don McLean has gone through life being asked to explain the lyrics of his iconc song ‘American Pie’.

After years trying to avoid going into detail about the hit song’s inspiration and story, McLean finally found the answer.

“It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to,” Don often responds today.

What is known is that the starting point of the song was his reaction to hearing in 1959 that Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper on “the day the music died”.

McLean, who will play a string of shows at Dublin’s Vicar Street next May, sold the handwritten manuscript of ‘ American Pie’ in an auction at Christie’s for over €1m two years ago. The American Pie album also featured his classic, ‘Vincent’ (Starry Starry Night), which made a huge impact on fans.

‘Vincent’ topped the charts in 1972 and has influenced a varied range of musicians and personalities. Brian Kennedy sang it at George Best’s funeral.

It was also a favourite song of gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur. He loved it so much that after he was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting in 1996, his girlfriend slipped it into the tape deck beside his hospital bed to ensure it was the last thing he heard.

“In the autumn of 1970, I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms,” Don revealed, explaining its inspiration.

“I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn’t crazy.

“So I sat down with a print of Starry Night (a Gogh painting) and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag.”