1 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:08,040 ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYS 2 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,520 3 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,120 4 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:37,120 5 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,080 Today is February 3rd, 6 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:43,200 the day Buddy Holly's plane crashed, and for no particular... 7 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:45,760 ..we didn't plan it this way, no particular reason, 8 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,440 we were in the studio looking at this album, 9 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,520 one, 10 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,080 which certainly has as its inspiration 11 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:57,160 the things that happened on this day to Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, 12 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,720 and Ritchie Valens. 13 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:01,880 14 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,080 It was something that mattered to me a lot, 15 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,880 and I kept it inside for years. 16 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,680 17 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:15,560 18 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:20,080 19 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:26,320 20 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,400 An album about America, 21 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,760 an album about love 22 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:40,360 and falling out of love, beautiful songwriting, 23 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,040 beautiful songs. 24 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,560 In 1971, when Don McLean came on the scene, 25 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:48,640 he spoke about things that no other singer songwriter 26 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,000 at that time was, I mean, 27 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,520 no-one else was writing about - Vincent, American Pie. 28 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,920 We all realised that this was a masterpiece. 29 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:01,160 It was a very moving thing. 30 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,040 We listened to that and we said, "Wow." 31 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,800 32 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,200 33 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,960 American Pie is classic American pop. 34 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:20,240 Buddy Holly-influenced, 35 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:24,480 but right down the middle of the heart of American pop. 36 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:28,760 And he was taking the genre to a new place. 37 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,520 38 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:35,480 39 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:39,760 It's quite a lopsided record, 40 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:45,280 because any album which contains two of the biggest, most iconic, 41 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,040 not just songs, but hit singles of all time. 42 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,480 And then a number of songs which most people, 43 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,360 you wouldn't actually know what they were. 44 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,600 But it is a masterpiece of record production. 45 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:04,840 46 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:09,560 47 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,480 48 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:18,000 49 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:19,640 A genius songwriter, 50 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:24,640 a man with an amazing voice, amazing musician and amazing songs. 51 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:28,880 52 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,480 53 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:34,200 54 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:38,040 55 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:44,120 56 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:48,840 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 57 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:53,760 Right, here's my voice, starting the song Vincent. 58 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:55,920 59 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:00,520 60 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,520 I think I must have sung this 30 or 40 times before the perfect take, 61 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,280 with my vibrato, my pitch, and everything else, 62 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,160 they didn't have the machines that would pitch your voice 63 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:14,240 and put it in tune. 64 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,080 They didn't have all this stuff that they do now 65 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:20,400 to make lousy singers sound like they can sing. 66 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,520 You know, the studio was a world of truth. 67 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,080 You either were good or you weren't. 68 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,640 It told the truth back to you. Like photography told you the truth. 69 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:32,120 Now it's Photoshop. 70 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:34,840 I'd read a number of books about Van Gogh in my life, 71 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:40,840 but this particular one made me want to write a song about him. 72 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:44,080 And then, once that occurred, 73 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:48,160 the fun part was, you know, how to do it. 74 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:50,880 You know... 75 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:53,720 76 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,240 You know, you've got to... 77 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,240 There's a thousand ways to go about this, you know. 78 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,680 And... So I looked at the Van Gogh painting, 79 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,840 Starry Night, which is his most famous painting, I guess, 80 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:13,480 and tried to get this swirling feeling going with the lyrics. 81 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:16,760 82 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:22,120 83 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,240 84 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:31,280 85 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:34,000 86 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:35,720 When I was about 12 years old, 87 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,840 I was just watching an episode of the Simpsons, 88 00:05:38,840 --> 00:05:40,600 and Vincent came on one day. 89 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:42,960 And I was just like, "Wow, what is that song?" 90 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,960 I had no interest in music before or anything like that. 91 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,680 And so I went away and found out what it was, 92 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,480 and I just couldn't stop playing it for some reason. I don't know why. 93 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,520 And I didn't even start playing guitar at that point, I think. 94 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:56,640 That kind of opened the door for me. 95 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:58,880 96 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,440 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 97 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,080 98 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,800 99 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,680 100 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,680 101 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,280 102 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,640 103 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,160 104 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:35,280 And that song is written in the form, 105 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:40,880 exactly like a popular song of the 1940s would be. 106 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:45,320 It's two verses, a bridge, and a verse, with a chorus. 107 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:51,640 When we did the album, I felt that Vincent was the diamond. 108 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:57,040 I just thought it was just so beautiful, and it is. 109 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:00,360 It is just a beautiful song. It's a beautiful poem. 110 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:06,680 I was stunned by the beauty of that song. 111 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,640 You know, by the standards of the day, it wasn't a single. 112 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:11,880 It's a masterpiece. 113 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,400 It deserves to be a hit, but it didn't sound like a hit. 114 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,840 1971 was the year of Carole King's Tapestry. 115 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,880 And Neil Young, Harvest. 116 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:23,360 We are dealing with a point in time 117 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:25,720 where the Beatles have just broken up, 118 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,320 so we are starting to deal with solo Beatles very slowly. 119 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:31,120 You had a series of deaths, 120 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:33,040 Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, 121 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,800 Jim Morrison of The Doors, Brian Jones. 122 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,760 James Taylor was very hot, you know, 123 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:41,520 and was doing some beautiful work 124 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,560 with those first two or three records that he made. 125 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,080 Elton John became a huge star that year. 126 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,080 And certainly Cat Stevens was emerging, 127 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,440 and that whole idea of the singer songwriter 128 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,280 where the performer not only performed the music, 129 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:58,760 but also wrote the song and expressed themselves. 130 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,800 Very folky kinds of music, I think. 131 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:03,840 Very acoustic kinds of music. 132 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:06,400 That is what I was drawn to, 133 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:10,840 and that's where I believe Don came out of. 134 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,440 I found an album called Bird On A Wire 135 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,920 which was a Tim Hardin record, 136 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:21,480 which was produced by a man named Ed Freeman, 137 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:24,560 so I said, "I want Ed Freeman." Because I liked that. 138 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:28,160 There was a certain elegant sound. I thought it was elegant. 139 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:34,400 Ed Freeman would put a lot of things on a recording, 140 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:37,640 and would blend some of those things very subtly. 141 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:40,400 The album that changed my life was Rubber Soul, 142 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,920 and I thought, "You know, OK, all restrictions are off. 143 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,240 "You can put any instrument on any song and you can get away with it." 144 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,440 This is what it sounded like when we recorded the whole... 145 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,600 This is everything we put in the song. 146 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:00,800 147 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:05,520 There's a harpsichord, there is a piano, there is an oboe, 148 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:11,160 four tracks of marimba, strings, there is a harp. 149 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,360 There is everything but the kitchen sink in there. 150 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:15,960 So we recorded all that, 151 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,080 and then we took it all back out. 152 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:23,480 But the thing is, that we had to record all these things 153 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:25,920 to find the few things that worked. 154 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,920 155 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:36,960 See, everything about the record is dictated by the guitar. 156 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,040 I was a guitarist. Um... 157 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:43,840 And I was a good guitarist, 158 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,480 and so I was very, very judgmental 159 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,560 about other people's guitar playing. 160 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:53,520 And I thought Don's finger picking was good. 161 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,640 But I did not like his rhythm guitar playing. 162 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,240 It was a big, major thing, you know, 163 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,880 he was very condescending about my guitar playing. 164 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:08,440 I had worked with other musicians at Columbia, and I just, you know, 165 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,960 took the instrument out of their hands physically. 166 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:13,720 Just walked into the studio 167 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,200 and took the guitar out of their hand 168 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,280 and said, "OK, you're not playing any more. 169 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:19,760 "Go away." 170 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,800 "We'll get a professional in here." I said, "You're looking at him." 171 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,640 And that started right off on the wrong foot. 172 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,600 This is where he fell down terribly as a producer. 173 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:30,440 You are there to make things good. 174 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:34,480 You know, "That was great, Don, you sang so great. Try one more time." 175 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:37,440 You know? "See if we can do this. Everything was great." 176 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,840 Rather than, "Yeah, I don't like that. That's not good." 177 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,280 That's how you kill a groove right away. 178 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:49,600 I wish I had been more supportive than I was. Um... 179 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:55,120 I wish I had known how to deal with 180 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,240 a delicate artist's ego 181 00:10:57,240 --> 00:10:59,280 a little bit better than I did. 182 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,640 I don't think I was very good at doing that. 183 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:04,080 There was a lot of artistry that went into this album, 184 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,960 and a bunch of arguing also, 185 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:08,680 but it turned out OK. 186 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:13,680 But, see, the thing sounds complete with just the voice and guitar. 187 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:17,240 And in my mind, when I hear the record, think about the record, 188 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,800 it's basically voice and guitar until the bridge, 189 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:22,760 when I hear the marimba, 190 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,520 which was a brilliant idea to have that in there. 191 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:29,200 One of the first songs that I played on was Vincent. 192 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,320 I think we experimented with me playing vibraphone first, 193 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:35,600 because I am mainly a vibraphonist. 194 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:37,600 I thought that we should try it on marimba. 195 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,080 The marimba is an ancient instrument, really. 196 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:48,360 It is an African instrument, and, you know, 197 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:50,720 it has a very, very low register. 198 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:54,560 And the bars are made out of rosewood, African rosewood. 199 00:11:54,560 --> 00:11:58,120 And so it has this, like an ancient sound to it. 200 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,240 This really beautiful sort of lush... 201 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:06,400 202 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:10,760 203 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:15,560 204 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,400 205 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:20,680 206 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:25,040 207 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:29,080 208 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:33,640 Initially, I wrote an arrangement for strings 209 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,240 that went through the entire song. 210 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,600 What I wanted to get into the Vincent song 211 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:46,880 and the record was wind, air, circling. 212 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,360 This kind of, like the air flowing through a window 213 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:53,360 when you see the curtains flutter. 214 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:57,320 In mixing, Don insisted that we leave the strings out 215 00:12:57,320 --> 00:12:58,760 until the very end. 216 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:02,400 And this was one of our... 217 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,360 ..one of our heated discussions, 218 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:09,000 and I have to admit that he was right. 219 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:10,720 He was absolutely right. 220 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,720 It works perfectly that the strings come in at the very end. 221 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:17,880 And that's what he did, with those strings at the end. 222 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:21,280 It's like the wind suddenly comes through the window. 223 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,080 You know, that's how I think about it when I hear it. 224 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:29,120 You know, I'm singing the last part and it becomes just so beautiful. 225 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:34,520 STRINGS PLAY 226 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:38,880 227 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:43,880 228 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:46,960 229 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:48,880 230 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,200 231 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:58,760 232 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,800 If you are a good songwriter, every now and then 233 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:09,560 you'll come across something that is alive. This is alive. 234 00:14:09,560 --> 00:14:12,800 For a long, long, time before my father died, 235 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:16,360 I was sick at home with asthma. 236 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:19,480 I would get this in the spring, I would get it in the fall, 237 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,760 and I would be home for a month, way behind in school. 238 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,840 Didn't have a lot of friends. 239 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,240 Couldn't get along with people. I was used to doing things my own way. 240 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:35,480 So I started to fall in love with records and music and radio. 241 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:38,840 Because I had a lot of time on my hands when you are sick, you know. 242 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,920 I think the big thing that happened was the guitar 243 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,480 and the five-string banjo later on. 244 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,360 My father basically had a heart attack right in front of me. 245 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:51,920 Late at night, like, one in the morning, 246 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:54,920 and I had to call the ambulance, 247 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:58,200 call the police, and he didn't want me to do that. 248 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,360 Basically, I took over. 249 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:04,240 And he was always a very authoritarian, Scottish, 250 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,160 you know, he ruled. 251 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:08,560 All of a sudden, he said, "Don't call the police." 252 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,840 I said, "I'm calling the police. I'm calling the ambulance right now." 253 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,960 You know, I said, "You lay down on the bed." I was in charge. 254 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:16,240 15 years old. 255 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,280 From that point on, I have been in charge. 256 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,720 And... So he... 257 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:25,480 Ha! 258 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:27,680 He had a smile. 259 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,200 He was all wrapped up... He was on his stretcher, 260 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:32,520 and they were taking him out. 261 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:34,520 He wasn't going to live but a few more hours, 262 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:36,720 but he looked up at me and he smiled. 263 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:38,080 And he said, "You are a man now." 264 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:39,920 HE LAUGHS 265 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:43,960 266 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:48,560 267 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:51,680 268 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,200 269 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,960 270 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,600 271 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,640 272 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:06,160 The Grave was a dream. 273 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,200 You know, I mean, I had the... 274 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:12,480 I, along with millions of other young men, 275 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:16,680 I had the war in Vietnam nipping at our heels all through the '60s. 276 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:23,280 By 1971, it was absolutely clear that the Vietnam War was a disaster. 277 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:25,640 And all America could do was to try 278 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,000 to get out. As their President said, "Peace with honour." 279 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,480 Which basically meant we need to extricate ourselves 280 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:33,600 without looking too bad about it. 281 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,240 I just lucked out. I was the only guy to come back on the bus 282 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,640 that day from New York. 283 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:40,280 Everybody else went in the army. 284 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:45,920 Because I had this asthma, you know, they kept me away from school 285 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,440 all those years and doctors' letters, 286 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,680 and the guy said, "You're out." 287 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,160 I said, "Huh? What? I'm out?" 288 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:57,600 He dreamt about a soldier and his experience at the front line. 289 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,240 This soldier lost his life. 290 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,280 A kid that I had gone to high school with, 291 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:07,280 a young Irish kid, nice boy, came into the bar that night, 292 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,760 and said, "Yay, boy, we are going over to Vietnam." 293 00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:11,520 And he got killed, like, right away. 294 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:15,640 295 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:19,960 296 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:23,640 297 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:24,920 298 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:32,440 299 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:35,400 300 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,240 301 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:41,960 302 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,240 303 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:46,280 Now the guitar... 304 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:50,360 ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS 305 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:55,400 You must have release, you know, 306 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,680 you have tension and release in music. 307 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,560 You also have to start quiet in order to get loud. 308 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,440 That is something I had to learn. You can't be loud all the time. 309 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,480 If you start quiet, and then you build, you have dynamics. 310 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:14,800 The Grave didn't become the anthem for the anti-Vietnam protest. 311 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:18,280 The song's time certainly came in 2003. 312 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,920 George Michael wanted to record that song as a protest 313 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,680 for the American-led invasion of Iraq. 314 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:26,600 He was the only one that did. 315 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,040 You know, nobody else did anything. 316 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:33,600 They had us so completely cowered by that Patriot Act, 317 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:39,200 and fearing that if anybody really was vocal and protested, 318 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:42,120 they could end up in some, you know, 319 00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:45,600 maximum security prison, and you would never hear from them again. 320 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:47,400 Don phoned me up and he said, 321 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,200 "Alan, you've got to watch Top Of The Pops tonight. 322 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,240 "George Michael is going to sing my song, The Grave." 323 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:59,480 324 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,960 325 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,360 326 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:11,080 327 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,600 328 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,800 329 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:19,720 330 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,880 331 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:25,360 332 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:28,240 333 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:33,160 334 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:35,520 335 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:40,600 336 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:44,760 337 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:50,400 338 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:54,360 Don's always been really impressed by George Michael. 339 00:19:54,360 --> 00:19:58,160 So The Grave, perhaps one of the smallest songs in reputation 340 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,720 to begin with on American Pie, 341 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,560 got its own life, thanks to another major music star. 342 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:11,200 When I was 14, I was in love with The Weavers. 343 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,560 The Weavers were Pete Seeger, Fred Hellerman, and Ronnie Gilbert, 344 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,160 and Lee Hays. 345 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:20,160 The sound of the four of them was just stunning. 346 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,160 I mean, it was just thrilling to hear. 347 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:28,120 One day, I must have been 14, maybe, 15, I said, 348 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:30,520 "I wonder if their names are in the phone book." 349 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:34,640 I called the operator, you know, in Manhattan Directory, and said, 350 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:37,360 "Do you have a number for Fred Hellerman in Manhattan?" 351 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:38,760 "Yes, we do." 352 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,440 And they gave me the number. I called it, you know? 353 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,280 And one by one, I guess he told The Weavers about me 354 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:48,520 and I would call them and got to know them and then 355 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:52,840 Erik Darling said, "Why don't you come to the house and we can play?" 356 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,200 Erik became an influence, helped refine Don's musical style, 357 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:02,400 the clarity of his singing and the quality of his guitar playing 358 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:06,720 and then, later, he wrote to Pete Seeger and asked him 359 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:08,880 why he believes in Communism. 360 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:12,360 This immediately grabbed Pete Seeger's attention 361 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,120 and they struck up a friendship. 362 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:19,080 He was very much..."do it yourself and learn about everything". 363 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:21,240 So that rubbed off on me, I mean, certainly, 364 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,080 and it was a tremendous experience. 365 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,240 You know, I wasn't always in agreement with him politically, 366 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:33,360 but I was in agreement with him about the value of human life and 367 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:38,960 the value of culture and the value of diversity and the value of love. 368 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:44,080 This is something that so many poor people, poor kids, black, 369 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,080 white, whatever you want to say, in this country have not had 370 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,760 this realisation that you can do anything. 371 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,840 They're taught that they're stupid, not worthy. 372 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,200 They don't realise that they can do anything. 373 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,600 The only reason I got as far as I did was 374 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,560 because I was just a powerhouse back in 1969. 375 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:10,360 I ended up being in debt for 20,000, which was a lot of money, 376 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:13,360 in order to finance the first album, Tapestry, 377 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:18,000 and had no solid indication that it was going to come out any place. 378 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:23,960 Alan Livingston was the president of the newly-formed 379 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,480 Media Arts Label. 380 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:28,920 Livingston had previously worked as chief executive 381 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:31,520 at Capitol Records and he signed Don McLean 382 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,400 and as an initial advance, 383 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,840 Don received 25,000 and financing for the production of the album, 384 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,520 which wiped out his debts and put him 385 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,000 in a much more comfortable position. 386 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,600 So I was able to give my mother money every week for three 387 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,880 years and move her back into the house that she had had to leave 388 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:53,640 seven years before. 389 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:58,680 I remember listening to his first album and thinking, erm... 390 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,920 This was quite unusual for a singer-songwriter at that time. 391 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:07,000 And I Love You So and Castles In The Air, those were terrific songs. 392 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:11,080 But I don't think in any way Don was a household name. 393 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,400 394 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:19,040 395 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,240 396 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,360 397 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:30,400 I love Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and I would try 398 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:35,080 to learn to sing some of the slow songs that Sinatra would sing. 399 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:39,000 It's not so hard to sing a fast one, you know. Just connect the dots. 400 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,880 But a slow song, we really 401 00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,640 understand... 402 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,080 ..every millisecond 403 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,240 of time 404 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,400 is important. 405 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,480 And that's a wonderful thing to work on. 406 00:23:55,480 --> 00:24:00,480 407 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:06,520 408 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:10,280 409 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,400 410 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:22,080 I was always very dark. I'm a dark... I'm a blue person. 411 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:26,680 You know, there's just kind of a blue tinge to things, you know. 412 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:31,880 And it's really kind of a pointless way to be, you know, 413 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,880 when you have so much good fortune as I've had, 414 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,640 and I'm aware of that, but I guess it's the Scottish in me 415 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,160 or something, I don't know what it is. 416 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:44,520 But it's hard to shake. 417 00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:47,760 You know, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop or looking 418 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,800 around the corner and thinking, "What's going to go wrong?" 419 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:59,840 420 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:04,400 421 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,440 422 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:14,560 423 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,760 And I Love You So went on to be a hit record 424 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:23,520 for Perry Como in 1974, and was recorded by Elvis Presley. 425 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:28,440 In fact, featured on Elvis Presley's last live album. 426 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:33,160 I also got married in 1969. 427 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,240 I was very needy. 428 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:42,440 I needed someone and I really didn't know anything about marriage, 429 00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,600 I didn't know anything about relationships, 430 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:47,920 but I was desperately lonely. 431 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,360 And I married a girl, a very smart girl, 432 00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:56,720 who was supportive of my music, 433 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,960 but it wasn't a good marriage. 434 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:05,680 435 00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,160 436 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:17,320 437 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:23,320 438 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:30,440 Empty Chairs is the song of someone leaving someone and loneliness, 439 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,400 and you can't get lonelier than, you know, 440 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:38,440 empty clothes hanging on empty chairs. 441 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:43,200 Well, Empty Chairs is a sort of distance cousin of Vincent. 442 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,760 And I never really wrote any song that was similar to another one in 443 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:51,320 my whole life, but for some reason, this song came out and it's the same 444 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:57,360 thing, two verses, a bridge, and a verse, with a sort of a chorus. 445 00:26:57,360 --> 00:26:59,040 That's the harpsichord. 446 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,600 HARPSICHORD PLAYS 447 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,720 That's neat. 448 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,120 I like that. 449 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:10,200 That's pretty. 450 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,360 How'd that get left out?! 451 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:15,640 And one thing, you know, these records were handmade. 452 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:17,040 All records were handmade. 453 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,640 That is to say a lot of times, we'd have to go and find hands, 454 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,800 you know, in the studio to pull, 455 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,600 to push parts up to certain marks that were made on tape, 456 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,480 at key moments. 457 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,440 So, all right, raise the strings now, slowly, to that, 458 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,800 and it was exciting. 459 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:38,400 It was my girlfriend who called me on the phone and said, 460 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,720 "You've got to come to the Troubadour, 461 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:45,600 "you've got to see this amazing singer that I love," she said. 462 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,160 "Named Don McLean." 463 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:52,400 And I didn't want to go, I was going through a break-up, 464 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,560 I just wanted to stay in my apartment, I was 19 years old, 465 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:01,120 and reluctantly, I went to see him. 466 00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:05,880 I had not heard of him before, and sitting in the club, 467 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:12,760 I just felt like all of a sudden, he was singing about me and my life, 468 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,800 especially when he started to sing this particular song. 469 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:20,320 The effect that I had and the song had on her caused her to 470 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,240 include me and the whole experience that she had in this poem. 471 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:27,280 What really got to me in the song was, 472 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:32,680 "And I wonder if you know that I never understood." 473 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,440 474 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,240 475 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:48,160 476 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,120 477 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,400 478 00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,480 And so when everybody filtered out of the club, 479 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,560 my girlfriend as well, I stayed there and I wrote a poem 480 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,080 on a napkin that was there, 481 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,480 and that poem became Killing Me Softly. 482 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,280 And the "him" is Don McLean. 483 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,320 484 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,840 485 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:27,640 486 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,960 487 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:38,080 488 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,520 489 00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,520 490 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,480 491 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:54,920 492 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,360 493 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,280 494 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,200 495 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,640 I remember when I first heard Roberta Flack singing it. 496 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,640 My version had started to go up the charts 497 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:21,240 and then she heard it on an airplane and she loved it, and by the time 498 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:26,840 she landed, she had contacted Quincy Jones and Joel Dorn, her producer. 499 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,000 500 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,560 501 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:37,440 502 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,080 503 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,120 504 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:49,200 505 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:54,000 You could see, mine is a very simple folk song, but hers, 506 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,160 she added these elements that I never would have imagined, 507 00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,760 and she made it something that I could never have imagined 508 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,880 the song holding. And yet it did. 509 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:08,120 And I think I was so surprised that it resonated with so many people. 510 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,400 I'm not an entertainer. 511 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,120 There are aspects of entertainment to what I do 512 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,360 and I will entertain you, in order to get your attention, 513 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,280 maybe then to do something else. 514 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:23,000 Crossroads, I think, is a masterpiece. 515 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:24,680 It's a gorgeous piece of writing. 516 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,200 Crossroads, when I was playing it, seemed to be repetitive. 517 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:31,600 I was going from the G to the E minor to the A minor. 518 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:33,120 And then Ed said, 519 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,680 "We can get this really good piano player to play it," 520 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:41,360 and so they got Warren Bernhardt, a very sensitive player, 521 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:47,000 and so Ed created with Warren this track, and then I sang to it. 522 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:48,640 Turned out very well. 523 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:54,440 When I hear the opening strings, it's still very memorable. 524 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,920 525 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,240 526 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,440 527 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,440 See how beautiful it is. 528 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,600 529 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,360 All that stuff I was talking about, dynamics. 530 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,320 Quiet. 531 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:18,360 Loud. 532 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:22,480 Very liquid. 533 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:23,800 Fluid. 534 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:28,760 The melody is just so beautiful that it resonates with me, certainly, 535 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:30,320 and I think with a lot of people. 536 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:34,160 I think, when music is written in such a beautiful way, 537 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,200 there's no escaping it, really. 538 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:40,600 539 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,360 540 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,880 A lot of Don's music is sad. 541 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:52,960 I probably pushed for something - 542 00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:58,560 do we have anything else that's a little bit more hit-like, please? 543 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:03,480 But in the end, you just have to say, well, that's what he writes. 544 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:08,160 Everybody Loves Me, Baby, which is about the egotistical, 545 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,800 rich leader, who everybody is supposed to love, 546 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,120 except this one person who thinks he's a jerk. 547 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,120 It was during the Nixonian time period. 548 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,640 He was a wonderful catalyst for creativity. 549 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:24,000 This is Everybody Loves Me, Baby. 550 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,800 It's the only other upbeat song on the album. 551 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,640 And we wanted it to sound like a party. 552 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:32,680 And so it's a sloppy mess, on purpose. 553 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:38,760 - It sounds like this. - One, two, three, four! 554 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,000 555 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,600 What's unusual about this is that we have a track of people, 556 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:54,920 I think there must have been a dozen people in the studio, 557 00:33:54,920 --> 00:34:00,640 just carrying on, having a great drunken time, banging on every 558 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,240 percussion instrument they could find and yelling and screaming. 559 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,680 And this is what that track sounds like, solo. 560 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:11,160 VARIOUS PERCUSSION 561 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,800 Everybody Loves Me, Baby, I thought could have been a lot better. 562 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,760 That was one of the things where I think we dropped the ball. 563 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,840 Lyrically, it's OK, but I don't like the melody all that much. 564 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:26,120 I could have done a better job on that. 565 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:31,080 I didn't have the ideas to help the producer, but one thing, 566 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,040 I would have put voices on the chorus. 567 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,840 I think that could have made it a very catchy chorus. 568 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:41,040 He has got a really playful, acrobatic voice when he likes, 569 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,600 full of humour and kind of vigour 570 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:46,800 and effervescence, and that is to the fore on this song. 571 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,960 572 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,240 This must have been a lot of fun to record. 573 00:34:55,240 --> 00:35:01,320 I don't remember the session, exactly, but listening to 574 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:06,720 the multitrack now, I think we must have had a really good time. 575 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,440 It comes, I think, at a great moment in the album, 576 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,680 as far as the running order is concerned, when it really needs 577 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,880 a sort of energy lift and a kind of a humour lift. 578 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,960 And I would have it as a personal highlight. 579 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:20,600 This is the song, Babylon, 580 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,640 sometimes it's called By The Waters Of Babylon. 581 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:28,000 Babylon is an arrangement of Psalm 1:37. 582 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,520 I maintained a relationship with Lee Hays, who was 583 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:37,040 a member of The Weavers and he said, "Oh, hey, sing this song with me. 584 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:38,960 "And I'll sing it for you... 585 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:42,480 586 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,680 He started to sing it. And he said, "Now..." 587 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:47,280 He sang the whole thing and said, 588 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:49,400 "See if you can remember how that goes." 589 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,040 So I remembered it, then he sang it against me. 590 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:56,680 He said, "Imagine a third part to that." So, I thought... 591 00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,120 I heard it right away and I thought, "Oh, that's perfect," you know? 592 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:04,720 "And I know what I'll do with it. I'll make up a banjo part." 593 00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:07,920 And although it's co-credited with Lee Hays, 594 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,680 in practice, Don McLean made the arrangement, 595 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:17,760 and insisted on giving 50% of the royalties from that 596 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,680 particular song to Lee Hays to thank him 597 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:26,720 for all he'd done in supporting his development in the 1960s. 598 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:30,960 599 00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:33,080 600 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,280 601 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:40,000 It was one of the few times where Don actually sang more 602 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:41,160 than one part. 603 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:45,120 Ed wanted him to enhance it, but he didn't want to have 604 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,720 professional background singers come in and sing along with him. 605 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:52,000 He just wanted to use Don's voice. 606 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,360 607 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,920 608 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,160 609 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,120 It is a beautifully sung song. 610 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:05,600 We underrate how good a singer Don McLean is. 611 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:11,600 He has a very clear, beautiful, precise voice, but not a cold voice. 612 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,480 It's a voice which is, you know, full of feeling and emotion. 613 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:18,920 But he heard it and he said, "You sang it wrong." Cos it's... 614 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:20,960 615 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,080 616 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,000 I sing... 617 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:26,480 NOTE HIGHER: 618 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,560 Just a little note change. Instead of... 619 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:31,360 It's... 620 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,960 One note difference. But it makes a big difference. 621 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,800 BANJO PLAYS This is the banjo part 622 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,160 that I came up with. 623 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:43,920 It's in a funny tuning. 624 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,240 I think it's a G minor. 625 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,800 626 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,440 627 00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,640 628 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,640 I DID sing it right. 629 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:04,160 630 00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,280 631 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:10,880 Sang it right the first time and wrong the second time. 632 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:12,960 That's funny. 633 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:19,120 634 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:24,000 So this was like a little finish to the whole album. 635 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,600 Just a period 636 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,800 put at the end of this whole experience. 637 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,920 With Babylon, you could end on a sense of mystery and beauty. 638 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:38,240 It kid of leaves it open and it gives you this kind of warm feeling. 639 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:43,240 And that's what albums at their best really did is that they take 640 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:44,920 you on a sort of an emotional 641 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,160 and intellectual journey over 40 minutes, 642 00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:51,160 where it's not just a variety of song, 643 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:56,200 but a sort of thread of feeling, which kind of changes and weaves 644 00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:59,840 around, that where you are at the end of it, 645 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:05,280 when you've finished side two of the album is different from where 646 00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,240 you were at the beginning of it, 647 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:10,600 when you first put the needle on the beginning of side one. 648 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:14,320 649 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,720 650 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:20,480 651 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:35,960 I had most of the album written without American Pie. 652 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,360 In fact, they were going to call the album Empty Chairs or 653 00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,160 something like that. 654 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,360 You know, American Pie hadn't been written. 655 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:48,280 But I wasn't happy with that. 656 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:50,840 You know, it's not right. I said, "It's not finished yet. 657 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,560 "I've got more to do. Something else I want to say." 658 00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,840 A really big song I had in me, I knew I had this. 659 00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,360 It's like a pregnancy. 660 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:01,400 And I knew it. 661 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:05,480 I was in this little gatehouse that I lived in 662 00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,120 in Cold Spring on the Hudson, 663 00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,000 and I shared that house with my first wife. 664 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,800 It was a happy life, because we had all these singers around and artists 665 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,120 and there were actors and there were poets 666 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,840 and there were biographers and there were painters. 667 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:22,920 It was a wonderful experience, very rich. 668 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:27,760 I just wanted to find this way of talking about America 669 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,720 that was big and that was dramatic, 670 00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:33,760 but dramatic in a whole new way. 671 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:38,040 What happened to me is I had this little room in this gatehouse, 672 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:40,560 and I would sit up there with my guitar 673 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,320 and I had this old carpeting on the floor. 674 00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:47,720 And I had a little bed in the corner. 675 00:40:47,720 --> 00:40:52,920 That seclusion in the gatehouse in that small, rural community 676 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:55,240 was just what he needed. 677 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,840 So I was rocking in my little chair and all of a sudden, 678 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,520 I went over to the guitar, I had a little tape recorder. 679 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,120 And I just sang, "A long, long time ago," 680 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:08,520 to this whole thing, right through "the day the music died". 681 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:14,240 ACOUSTIC: 682 00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:17,520 683 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:23,720 684 00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:27,000 685 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:31,080 686 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,120 687 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,640 688 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:39,360 689 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:45,560 690 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,440 691 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:54,520 692 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,280 I said, "Oh, wow, this is really great. 693 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,640 "I don't know what it is, but it's really neat." 694 00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:04,960 You know, and it spoke to me, like this was going someplace, 695 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,400 and I had to figure out where it was going. 696 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,680 Buddy Holly is the singer-songwriter 697 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:12,920 who remains by far the most influential on Don McLean. 698 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:17,680 For everything he did. You know, his gifts as a melodist, as a lyricist. 699 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,560 And as a sort of an outsider, 700 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,800 a rock star who didn't look like a rock star. 701 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:28,080 It was that moment of Don in his mid-20s, harking back to childhood, 702 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:30,480 to that moment of innocence, 703 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:35,640 before everything got complicated and adult and conflicted. 704 00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,960 A month or two went by, and I just had it, 705 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:40,040 and didn't know what to do with it. 706 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:44,600 And then I said, "I want it to be a fast song, a rock and roll song." 707 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:49,520 So I came up with this crazy chorus. 708 00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,160 "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee, 709 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:54,600 "but the levee was dry." 710 00:42:54,600 --> 00:43:00,640 711 00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:02,920 712 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:05,760 713 00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,480 I was in the shower a couple of months later, 714 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:10,640 and I got out of the shower all wet, 715 00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:12,520 and I grabbed paper and I started writing. 716 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,640 "Did you write the book of love..." I just... 717 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:19,120 I just had this...this thing that came to me. 718 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:20,480 And then it goes... 719 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,440 720 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,280 721 00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:33,240 722 00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,240 723 00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:41,680 724 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:47,600 725 00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:52,800 And the four middle verses would be growing dissatisfaction, 726 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:57,120 growing anger, growing public unrest, if you will. 727 00:43:57,120 --> 00:43:58,760 I don't know how to describe it. 728 00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:02,320 I'd been to the March on Washington. 729 00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,600 They tear-gassed a lot of people. 730 00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:09,360 There was all that activity all day, but then the tear-gas dispersed 731 00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:11,480 everybody and the streets were all empty. 732 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,240 And all that activity and, you know, 733 00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:18,680 political anger and everything else had been dispersed. 734 00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:22,080 I think I captured that in my head, and that was the last verse. 735 00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:25,480 "I met a girl who sang the blues, I asked her for some happy news..." 736 00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,040 She was, like, the only one left. 737 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,520 Everything else, all this other stuff that had happened 738 00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:30,720 in the four verses before, 739 00:44:30,720 --> 00:44:36,280 all this energy and activity had just dispersed, 740 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:38,320 and now it was just...the... 741 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:39,880 ..the end. 742 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,640 743 00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,280 744 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:48,600 745 00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:53,320 746 00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,720 747 00:44:56,720 --> 00:45:00,440 748 00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:03,800 749 00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:09,760 750 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:12,280 751 00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:18,040 752 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,400 It came as a major shock and a major blow 753 00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:26,560 to hear that Mediarts as a label were going out of business. 754 00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:28,680 And this immediately threw into jeopardy 755 00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:30,920 the future of the American Pie project. 756 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,440 One week, I was without a record company and the next week, 757 00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:36,200 I was on United Artists, 758 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:40,120 which was a terrible record company at the time. 759 00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:42,880 United Artists took over the business 760 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,080 and for Don McLean, took over the contract. 761 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,120 They were not a record label for a young guy like me, 762 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,520 doing what I was doing. 763 00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:54,560 But they were trying to remake themselves 764 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:56,640 into something much better, which they did. 765 00:45:56,640 --> 00:46:01,960 United Artists taking over Mediarts was perhaps a stroke of luck, 766 00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,800 but gave Don McLean further momentum 767 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:10,320 in his development as a mainstream music star. 768 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:13,760 Then there were some practice sessions, 769 00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:18,600 which I kind of liked how they felt, they felt pretty good. 770 00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,240 Don was not used to working with other musicians, 771 00:46:21,240 --> 00:46:25,720 so I put him together with a couple of players, 772 00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:28,920 bass and drums, who were very good players. 773 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:33,680 But they were also not slick studio players, 774 00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:37,560 who had done thousands of sessions. 775 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:43,080 Rehearsals consisted of Rob Stoner playing bass, 776 00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:44,800 Don on acoustic, 777 00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:49,480 and I think occasionally also Ed on acoustic. 778 00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,000 And me on drums. 779 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:58,080 So there was...there was no piano, no guitar, electric guitar. 780 00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:04,520 The sort of ingredient X which makes it such a stunning record, 781 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,760 is a piano, by a guy called Paul Griffin, 782 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:11,040 who played with Bob Dylan, Dionne Warwick. 783 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,680 When we were about to record, 784 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:18,040 Ed told us that we needn't go into the room yet, 785 00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:21,240 because he wanted to do a piece with the piano player, 786 00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:22,600 who'd just showed up. 787 00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:24,760 He came to me and said, "What am I supposed to do? 788 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,320 "I don't know how to do... I don't know how to play this." 789 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,160 I said, "Paul, don't worry about it, you'll figure it out." 790 00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:34,120 What he did was that he free-associated the, as it were, 791 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:35,840 the emotion of the song, 792 00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:40,120 but also he listened very clearly to the lyrics of the song. 793 00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:43,440 And, yeah, the song is called American Pie, 794 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:47,720 because his piano playing is full of what you might call Americana. 795 00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:49,280 When he came in and got it, 796 00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,920 he just said, "Man, that was so great." He was pounding the piano. 797 00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,640 But, you know, Ed Freeman found him, thank God. 798 00:47:56,640 --> 00:48:01,600 It's a music which reaches to the Church, to the backwoods, 799 00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:06,200 to the honky-tonks, to the Great White Way of Broadway. 800 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:07,600 It's all in there. 801 00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:11,680 When Paul Griffin played the part that he did, it was such a relief 802 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,360 to me, because finally, I was in the pocket, 803 00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:16,440 I was in the groove that I wanted. 804 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,520 I could feel this thing lift up and it was flying, 805 00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:23,240 like I had imagined it would and how I had heard it in my head. 806 00:48:23,240 --> 00:48:27,800 WITH PIANO: 807 00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,440 808 00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:35,080 PIANO AND GUITAR ONLY 809 00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:41,240 This is just acoustic guitar and Paul playing along. 810 00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:51,160 And you can hear...this is the kind of miracle that happens in sessions 811 00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:55,040 that you hope for, but doesn't always happen, obviously. 812 00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:59,440 The combination just works perfectly, 813 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:02,880 and this kind of style that he came up with, 814 00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,680 it's the perfect American Pie piano playing. 815 00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:13,600 It blew me away, because I had long been a fan of Paul Griffin, 816 00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:14,920 the pianist. 817 00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:18,000 He was a great piano player. 818 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:21,040 And he shows up and he just plays the hell out of it. 819 00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:26,360 The piano is the whole game. 820 00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:27,600 He's all over this thing. 821 00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,000 Very Ray Charles. 822 00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:34,200 823 00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:36,080 824 00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:39,320 VOCALS ONLY: 825 00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,960 In the body of the song, everybody is playing live. 826 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,480 And there are no splices. 827 00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,360 The rhythm guitar, Don's rhythm guitar, piano, bass, drums, 828 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,240 electric guitar, they're all playing live. 829 00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:56,800 There are no splices, there are no overdubs, that's the way it is. 830 00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:01,080 Now, the beginning of the song, where there's just the piano, 831 00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:03,360 I think the first verse had 12 splices. 832 00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:06,000 Don is a free-form kind of performer. 833 00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:09,720 He doesn't... You can't put a metronome to him. 834 00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:16,160 So to get the piano and Don, which are both playing in free-form, 835 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:20,720 both together perfectly, at the same time, 836 00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:25,160 we did a few takes and then cut it together 837 00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:28,720 to make it a single flow. 838 00:50:28,720 --> 00:50:32,760 Don is a wonderful singer, he was perfectly capable 839 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:37,400 of singing it perfectly all the way through the first time. 840 00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:41,680 If he had wanted to sing it that way, he could have, 841 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,840 but he didn't want to. He wanted to improvise. 842 00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:50,240 One of the things that I was doing a lot, when I made American Pie, 843 00:50:50,240 --> 00:50:55,080 was singing, sort of way out there, sometimes. 844 00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,560 And Ed didn't like that. 845 00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:01,400 And he was probably right about that. 846 00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,040 VOCAL AND ACOUSTIC GUITAR: 847 00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:05,760 848 00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:09,280 849 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:12,600 850 00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:16,920 851 00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:19,920 852 00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:22,600 So I just edited out all his improvisations...er... 853 00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:28,880 And I think eventually, we sort of arrived at some kind of an agreement 854 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:32,720 that that's the way it was going to be done, 855 00:51:32,720 --> 00:51:37,600 is that he was going to sing it any way he wanted and that was fine, 856 00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:41,880 and I was going to do anything I wanted to in editing his vocals, 857 00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:43,240 and that was fine. 858 00:51:43,240 --> 00:51:46,200 859 00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:49,600 860 00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,640 861 00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:56,720 862 00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,720 Each time you'd get to the end of "the day the music died", 863 00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:02,880 that was a different thing that happened that day, 864 00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:07,920 so that when you got to the chorus, each time, the chorus is enhanced 865 00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:12,000 by the new information that you've had, by the last verse. 866 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:15,240 867 00:52:15,240 --> 00:52:18,520 868 00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:21,480 869 00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:26,200 870 00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:30,520 And then the next verse does it again, so it builds that way. 871 00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:34,040 But the group had to play like that also. 872 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:37,200 The band had to play and build, and it had to be mixed that way, 873 00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,520 so that it would build. And then it drops down... 874 00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,080 ..you know, to this end, which is a dirge, 875 00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,920 it's like, you're standing in an empty street, or standing over, 876 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:49,880 you know, someone's gravestone or something 877 00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:52,880 in some graveyard somewhere quiet, 878 00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,680 thinking about all this stuff that happened. 879 00:52:56,680 --> 00:52:58,840 So it's a complete, you know, circle. 880 00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:03,000 When the whole album was finished, I turned to Don's manager and said, 881 00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,360 "That's all very well and good for an album, 882 00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:07,560 "but what are we going to do for a single?" 883 00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:10,360 And he said, "Oh, we're going to release American Pie." 884 00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:12,240 And I said, "You've got to be kidding!" 885 00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:15,320 There had been long singles before. 886 00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,720 Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan in 1965 887 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:21,920 was, I think, about seven minutes long. 888 00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:25,120 Hey Jude by the Beatles in 1968, much the same. 889 00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:29,440 It was 8 and a half minutes long, you just don't, not in those days. 890 00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:31,600 In those days, if you had a record 891 00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:34,640 that was three minutes and four seconds long, 892 00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:36,960 you put 2 minutes 57 on the label, 893 00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,280 so that DJs would actually play it, 894 00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:43,600 because they wouldn't play anything longer than three minutes. 895 00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:48,280 We had to break it up and put it on two sides of a 45, 896 00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:50,640 which was an awful idea. 897 00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:51,800 It was just awful. 898 00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:57,440 It sort of faded out halfway through the middle of a verse, 899 00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:02,080 and then reprised on the second side of the 45. It was terrible. 900 00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:09,080 We actually did get it all on a 45rpm record on one side. 901 00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:15,200 We did a technical thing called half-speed cutting. 902 00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:17,680 Then the record company rejected it, 903 00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:21,240 because the jukeboxes wouldn't play the whole thing - 904 00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:24,520 they were set to lift the needle out of the record 905 00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:26,360 at a certain point in time, 906 00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:32,200 so that the needle wouldn't go into the paper of the record 907 00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:34,200 and hurt the needle. 908 00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,640 And then, everybody of course went and bought the album, 909 00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:41,960 so they could hear the song without having to turn the record over. 910 00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:46,760 I was shocked when it came out and it hit number one instantly. 911 00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,040 The thing about American Pie the single, 912 00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:52,000 it wasn't just a big hit single, it was a phenomenon. 913 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,560 I remember in the fall of 1971, 914 00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:58,280 just the song literally seemed to explode. 915 00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:03,000 Give people something with tunes and imagination, 916 00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,040 and they will go for it and they will love it. 917 00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:09,520 American Pie, and American Pie the single specifically, 918 00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:13,320 propelled him to instant superstardom in 1972. 919 00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:18,560 Newspapers running stories about the song, about Don McLean. 920 00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:23,000 Investigative reporters were going out of their way 921 00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:25,960 to find stories about Don McLean. 922 00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:30,120 There's stories of them searching his trash, planting women 923 00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:35,040 in his dressing room - perhaps all the trappings of superstardom. 924 00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,400 If I were to go to a town, I was always on the news, 925 00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:39,280 I was always on the CBS Evening News. 926 00:55:39,280 --> 00:55:41,640 I was always... Anything I did was news. 927 00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:45,440 Um...which was a lot for me to handle. 928 00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:53,040 When my kids were in grade school, it was part of their English lesson. 929 00:55:53,040 --> 00:56:00,000 It was actually in the textbooks of the schools in this country. 930 00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:03,200 The lyrics are fascinating. They are fantastic. 931 00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:05,000 You know, they are full of sort of culture, 932 00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,840 but also there's a mystery involved. Everybody loves a mystery. 933 00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:12,720 Who is the jester? What does "eight miles high" mean? 934 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:15,680 That particular song was just so historic, 935 00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:16,760 and all of us, you know, 936 00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:19,360 paused and wondered what the heck he was talking about. 937 00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:21,200 We all had our own theories about it. 938 00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,840 And I love that he has never actually said what it was about. 939 00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:28,680 Don himself has said, "If I actually have to start explaining 940 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:30,720 "what a song means, line by line, 941 00:56:30,720 --> 00:56:32,880 "then it has kind of failed as a song." 942 00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:37,880 Sometimes just let the mystery resonate, you know? 943 00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:41,480 American Pie does mean a lot of different things 944 00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:43,640 to a lot of different people, 945 00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:48,160 and that's part of the genius of writing what is a hit song. 946 00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:52,400 You know, people can listen to it and they can get whatever meaning 947 00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:55,040 out of it they want, whatever suits them. 948 00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:59,680 The producer Ed Freeman thinks the song told the story 949 00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:01,800 of America in the 1960s. 950 00:57:01,800 --> 00:57:05,720 It's like a funeral oration for America 951 00:57:05,720 --> 00:57:10,520 that allowed the Americans to grieve and to move forward. 952 00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,160 After American Pie came out, 953 00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:17,440 there was an article about it in Life magazine, 954 00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:19,640 and two weeks after the article came out, 955 00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:22,320 there were some letters to the editors about it. 956 00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,960 And one of them came from a woman 957 00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:30,000 who said that her husband was missing in action in Vietnam, 958 00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:32,600 - and... - HIS VOICE BREAKS 959 00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:39,840 ..that she used to cry and feel sorry for herself a lot, 960 00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:44,800 until she heard the full version of American Pie, 961 00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:49,560 and it made her realise how much we had all lost. 962 00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:52,960 And, um... 963 00:57:52,960 --> 00:57:57,440 I think that says it about as well as I've ever heard it said. 964 00:57:57,440 --> 00:58:00,160 It's the loss of that innocence, 965 00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:05,320 and the innocence is what died in 1959, when Buddy Holly died. 966 00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:11,440 Not the music, as such, but what the music meant to him, 967 00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:17,000 as a sort of idealised innocence of happiness and joy. 968 00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:19,040 That went. 969 00:58:19,040 --> 00:58:22,840 Don wanted to do his version of Sgt Pepper, 970 00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:26,480 and it was supposed to be a concept album. 971 00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:30,480 And for the life of me, I didn't understand the concept, 972 00:58:30,480 --> 00:58:34,760 but then, eventually, I did. 973 00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:38,000 If you look at the lyrics in the songs, it's all about loss. 974 00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:43,040 It just really made me feel good, and it was just beautiful. 975 00:58:43,040 --> 00:58:44,760 It's like a symphony. 976 00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:46,920 That is where I think he's rated, 977 00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:50,960 I think he is rated along with the greatest songwriters of all time. 978 00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:54,040 My songs will be around a long, long time from now. 979 00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:56,480 Because they already have been around almost 50 years. 980 00:58:56,480 --> 00:59:01,480 And I've been alive for that, so who knows what will happen when I die? 981 00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:03,560 982 00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:08,080 AUDIENCE SINGS AND CLAPS ALONG: 983 00:59:08,080 --> 00:59:13,440 984 00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:17,160 985 00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:25,280 986 00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:28,760 RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE