Don McLean Quotes - Page 3

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.

Not a word was spoken. The church bells all were broken.

I think longevity is more important than trying to make people realize you're around every second.

American Pie speaks to the loss that we feel. That's why that song has found the niche that it has.

We all got up to dance. Oh, but we never got the chance!

Bad news on the doorstep;I couldn’t take one more step

In the streets the children screamed. The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed

Because of an off-hand funny comment I made backstage at a concert years ago, a story circulated that the song has been a burden and even that I didn’t sing it for a while. That’s completely false. I am very proud of ‘American Pie’ and the many satellites that grow from it and revolve around it. For many years I carried my songs around and now they carry me around. I have always sung ‘American Pie’ for my audience and would never think of disappointing them since it is they who have given me a wonderful life and untold affection for almost 30 years.

In a sense, 'American Pie' was a very despairing song but it can also be seen as very hopeful.

As I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage. No angel born in hell, could break that Satan's spell.

Devoid of all romance, the music plays and everyone must dance. I'm bowing out.

In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms.

Over the years I've had more and more of an association with Nashville.

I don't relate to what's left of the music business. There doesn't seem to be any point to it anymore. The business that I grew up in and loved, we made records a different way - there were record companies, there were stores where you could buy albums.

I got my first guitar when I was 16. I'd play for my family and friends, but taking that guitar out there into the wide, wide world wasn't something I ever thought about.

I mean, I've been given a terrific life by the audiences who stuck with me all over the world.

I'd listen to all the stuff that was going on around me and drift off into my fantasies about it. My fantasies have fuelled all the songs I've ever written.

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.

This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died?

Some believe in Jesus, they don't act like they do. Some believe in Mohammed, I don't believe that's true. Cause they do believe in money, and gold is what it's for, all the gold can't buy no peace of mind in a world that don't believe in nothing anymore.

As you can imagine, over the years I have been asked many times to discuss and explain my song "American Pie." I have never discussed the lyrics, but have admitted to the Holly reference in the opening stanzas. You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me. You will find many “interpretations” of my lyrics but none of them by me. Isn’t this fun? Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence.

The Byrds flew off the fallout shelter, eight miles high and falling fast.

Faces come and faces go in circular rotation.But something yearns within to grow beyond infatuation.

I feel like a spinning top or a DreidelThe spinning don't stop when you leave the cradleYou just slow downRound and around this world you goSpinning through the lives of the people you knowWe all slow down.