I even did it on my last album, 'Botanical Gardens.' I’ll start to sing into the recorder. I don’t write the lyrics down. I don’t write the melody down. I can’t read music. I was in my little room where I used to write songs. What I do is I put a tape recorder on. I had no idea it would take root and I’d have to talk about it all these years. But I am happy to talk about it, because it leads me into a discussion of the country which I am very interested in and love. And the music represents that. And this was the theory of 'American Pie.' And it was just one of my ideas. Part of what 'American Pie' is, is a spiritual song, about the spirit of the country and what was happening to it. I still maintain that even though my politics have changed a lot since 1970, I’m still against all this, anything spiritually bad for the nation. The Vietnam War was breathing down everybody’s back.īH: It was the first time we were seeing body bags on the evening news!ĭM: We should see them again, because maybe we wouldn’t have these wars that are invisible, because this is not good. This was the kind of volatile world we were in then. We didn’t have a pandemic, but cities were burning. So that’s what it’s about to me.ĭM: First of all, America was much more volatile than it is at the moment. But Don, you put these moments in the song that stand alone, yet in aggregate, they paint a picture of those times and I don’t think any song has ever done it more brilliantly than that one. It’s about the culture, how important music was, socio-historically to our culture and you weave it brilliantly.Įveryone wants to know about 'The Joker' or 'Jack Flash' but I think we can all understand who they are and who we want them to be. Everyone says, “What’s it about?” I know what it’s about - absolutely, definitively know what it’s aboutĭon McLean: That’s good. In honor of the song's 50th anniversary, McLean talked about its mysterious inspiration and legacy with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.īart Herbison: 'American Pie.' I could argue that it’s the greatest song ever written, and I would love to have that argument.

It's now been 50 years since 'American Pie' - all eight and a half cryptic minutes of it- took hold of the airwaves in 1971, and it's safe to say there's never been another song like it. 'A long, long time ago,' Don McLean began writing a rock epic with those words. Watch Video: Story Behind the Song: 'American Pie'

American pie song meaning