Singer Don McLean considers himself lucky that he still actually enjoys the song that made him famous.
That would be “American Pie,” the nearly nine-minute anthem that sits in the top 5 in the “Songs of the Century” list by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment of the Arts.
McLean cited crooner Frank Sinatra, who reportedly despised “Strangers in the Night,” despite it being one of his biggest hits.
”We all grow tired of things over a period of many, many years, and you have to find new ways of appreciating how fortunate you are, rather than being selfish and thinking, ‘Eh, I don’t want to do this tonight.’ Well, the audience wants you to do it, and they paid to see you,” McLean said in a call Tuesday from Palm Desert, Calif. “And they’re not rolling in money. They could have used that money that they paid for parking and dinner and your ticket, maybe several hundred dollars, and they could have done something else with it, that they would have really enjoyed. So you owe the audience to always be trying to do the best you can for them.”
McLean will be playing “American Pie,” as well as his other hits like “Vincent,” “And I Love You So” and “Castles in the Air,” in a show Friday night at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall.
The 78-year-old jokingly credited “brains and personality” as the reason for the lasting influence of “American Pie.” The mythology and lyrics behind the song became the focus of a documentary, “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie,” which premiered last year on Paramount Plus.
“I write songs that are very different from other songwriters, and I just got very lucky and had one of those become No. 1 that actually contained a lot of information that people seemed to like a lot, and of course, that they like to sing,” he said. “So I’m not a hitmaker, because people that make hits do one song that’s the same, one after another, or a similar vein, you know? Everything I do is different.”
“American Pie” — the song and the album of the same name — was released in 1971, with memories of the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr. still fresh and the Vietnam War underway. But the turmoil of that era doesn’t feel the same as today’s political environment to McLean.
“No, I don’t see any corollaries today, because people are afraid to speak their minds. We live in cancel culture in America,” he said. “Nobody at work, nobody on the stage is brave enough to say what they think. And you won’t find many singer-songwriters or comedians on college campuses because those places are no longer places of intellectual experiment. You don’t get contrary points of views where you have to defend your position in college.
“All the positions are locked in stone. Everything is ‘This is it.’ You don’t argue about this. Well, that’s stupid. And that shows how stupid college has gotten. And it shows how stupid people have gotten.”
With that in mind, McLean said he felt like people are too sensitive nowadays.
“People should take their being offended and shove it, OK? Everybody’s offended. I’m offended by the fact that people are offended and get away with stopping anybody from saying what they think. That’s offensive,” he said. “I’m offended with tearing down statues. I’m offended with writing editorials about who’s good enough to write a song or be an actor or whatever. I’m offended by people being destroyed by accusations. That’s offensive.”
McLean didn’t think a song like “American Pie,” or many other songs from the 1960s and ’70s, could be created in today’s music industry.
“It’s not going to happen because nobody has respect for the English language or even knows how to use it. The illiteracy is, people are functionally illiterate, even though they can read and write today,” he said. “They just don’t know how to use language. They don’t know what words mean. They don’t understand the value of language and the meaning of words. It’s all like shorthand bull(crap).”
For the 50th anniversary of the song in 2021, he did his first-ever collaboration, working with vocal country group Home Free for a new track. He also thinks there’s potential in another genre.
“Well, I think ‘American Pie’ would make a great rap song,” he said. “I mean, if some great rapper took those lyrics and just kind of did his own thing with them, but kept to the idea and then there was a musical moment where they sang that chorus and then they went back to rapping again, I think they’d have the biggest rap song that ever was.”
Related
• Rapper Frzy to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
• Spiritualized's Jason Pierce on touring, 'Amazing Grace' rerelease and modern music
• John Mellencamp rolls through his hits in Pittsburgh performance
McLean is still creating new music, with an album called “American Boys” slated for release in February. One of the new songs is called “The Ballad of George Floyd,” written in the aftermath of the death of the Minneapolis man by a police officer.
“I am into whatever it is I’m doing, and I don’t think about the consequences. … And it has to be written, and that’s the kind of thing I do,” he said. “When you have something to say, that’s when you should write a song. Not because you think, ‘I’ve got to wake up today and write a song, because I am a songwriter.’ You know, that’s ridiculous.”
At 78, McLean said he doesn’t need to keep touring, but it’s his way of life. And retirement doesn’t sound appealing unless he’s physically incapable of performing. And if he hadn’t been able to make a living as a musician?
“I’d be dead. I’d be dead. I’d be dead of boredom. I’d be dead from probably doing some things I shouldn’t have done,” he said. “I’d be dead from, I wouldn’t be able to hold a job because I’m not employable. There’s no safety net for what I did. I started out and I never looked back. And I could just as easily if I had survived this long be homeless right now. Instead of very, very wealthy, which I am.”
Mike Palm is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Mike at 412-380-5674 or mpalm@triblive.com.
"lasting" - Google News
November 09, 2023 at 12:15AM
https://ift.tt/Kmk0gub
Singer Don McLean on the lasting legacy of 'American Pie,' new music and cancel culture - TribLIVE
"lasting" - Google News
https://ift.tt/TjU6vBt
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Singer Don McLean on the lasting legacy of 'American Pie,' new music and cancel culture - TribLIVE"
Post a Comment