Pie In The Sky By And By

     Given how many of us Baby Boomers there are, there’s always someone whose 50th anniversary of something has come around. And there are quite a few old rockers and folkies available to reminisce about their golden years. The combination can be cloying, if not worse.

     For example, not everyone’s memory of certain musical highlights is a glowing one.

     Just now, Don McLean – hey, remember Don McLean? No? Well, I guess you had to be there. – is somewhat in the entertainment rags for – drum roll, please – claiming that his big hit “American Pie” somewhat forecast our current troubles with “woke:”

     Don McLean has no time for what he describes as “woke bullshit,” adding that it’s the kind of societal issue he conveyed in his 1971 classic “American Pie.”
     “The song really does open up a whole historical question about what happened in the ’60s and assassinations and the history that forms the backbone of the song as it moves forward,” the rocker explained during a recent interview with Metro. “This song talks about the fact that things are going somewhat in the wrong direction, and I think that they’re still going in the wrong direction. I think most people looking at America now kind of think that too.”
     The rock legend then went on to draw a line between the issues portrayed in “American Pie” and the current climate in the U.S.A.

     For me, the song is… well… conflicted. Yes, it’s literate and clever. That was one of Don McLean’s gifts; he was an exceptionally intelligent, knowledgeable, and eloquent songwriter. But like most hits of that era, it was soon everywhere. College dormitories resounded with it, and not necessarily from college kids’ stereos.

     “American Pie” quickly became the most-loved song at my dorm…and the most-hated by me. I lost count of the number of times I was coerced into playing and singing it. Dorm mates would seek me out and plead for me to join their little parties. (There was always a party going on somewhere in the dorm, and while there were plenty of decent guitarists in the building, I was the only one who could remember the whole lyric.) And then the chants would begin: “Just one more time, Fran!” It could make me wish I’d never learned to play.

     Today, oh so many years down the time stream, I… like the song – it stirs some pleasant memories of nimble fingers, a singing voice long since devolved to inarticulate growls, and rapt-eyed college girls who’d bed down with better-looking boys – but I greatly prefer other Don McLean tunes. Then again, I no longer sing and play for random gatherings of drunk and stoned college kids.

     I can’t close this piece with anything but my favorite Don McLean tune. From his Tapestry album: