Don McLean was born on October 2nd, 1945 in Rochester New York. As a young boy, McLean gained a love for all types of music and would spend long hours listening to his father’s radio. Having asthma as a child, McLean missed a lot of school but his love for music did not diminish. As a teenager his sister paid for opera lessons for him and along with spending a lot of time in a swimming pool his asthma improved. Around the same time, McLean bought his first guitar. By 1961, McLean’s focus was on folk music thanks in large part to The Weavers’ 1955 album Live at Carnegie Hall. When McLean was only 16 he managed to get the number of, then guitarist/banjo player of The Weavers, Erik Darling and a friendship quickly developed.
McLean used his friendship with Darling to help record his first album Tapestry, in 1970 and paid for the whole album himself. The album’s first single “Castles in the Air” was a top 40 hit on the easy listening billboard charts. The next …show more content…
Folk-rock keeps up this trend, and there is no better example than “American Pie”. In the song references several events that helped change the world, in his eyes, in a negative way. In just his first verse he references the major change in music in the late 50’s when a plane crash killed several major musicians (including Buddy Holly who was one of McLean’s idols as a child), Elvis Presley being drafted, Little Richard switching genres to gospel, and Chuck Berry being arrested. He goes on to reference several other artists and events through the song, including the Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and the Kennedy assassinations. “American Pie” covered a whole decade of change, struggle, and division in a song, that ended up becoming one of the most popular songs in history (being named number five on the 365 best songs of the century ), and bringing the nation closer together with a number one hit
McLean used his friendship with Darling to help record his first album Tapestry, in 1970 and paid for the whole album himself. The album’s first single “Castles in the Air” was a top 40 hit on the easy listening billboard charts. The next …show more content…
Folk-rock keeps up this trend, and there is no better example than “American Pie”. In the song references several events that helped change the world, in his eyes, in a negative way. In just his first verse he references the major change in music in the late 50’s when a plane crash killed several major musicians (including Buddy Holly who was one of McLean’s idols as a child), Elvis Presley being drafted, Little Richard switching genres to gospel, and Chuck Berry being arrested. He goes on to reference several other artists and events through the song, including the Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and the Kennedy assassinations. “American Pie” covered a whole decade of change, struggle, and division in a song, that ended up becoming one of the most popular songs in history (being named number five on the 365 best songs of the century ), and bringing the nation closer together with a number one hit