Don McLean Quotes About Songs

Quotes about: Songs

• When people ask me what 'American Pie' means, I tell them it means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to.

  Don McLean

  Funny, Music, Song

• I met a girl who sang the blues
  and I asked her for some happy news,
  but she just smiled and turned away.
  And the three men I admire most,
  The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost,
  They caught the last train to the coast
  The day the music died.

  Don McLean

  Girl, Song, Father

  "American Pie". Song by Don McLean, 1971.

• Starry Starry night
  Paint your palette blue and gray
  Look out on a summer's day
  With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
  Shadows on the hills
  Sketch the trees and the daffodils
  Catch the breeze and the winter chills
  In colors on the snowy linen land.

  Don McLean

  Summer, Song, Eye

  Song: Vincent

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

  Don McLean

  Song, Loss, Pie

  "Going for a song: American Pie manuscript to be auctioned" by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, www.theguardian.com. February 13, 2015.

• And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you
  That I'm tired of Castles in the Air
  I've got a dream I want the world to share in castle walls
  Just leave me to despair
  Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky
  A dream come true, I'll live there 'til I die
  I'm asking you, to say my last good-bye
  The love we knew, ain't worth another try

  Don McLean

  Dream, Song, Wall

  Song: Castles in The Air

• When writing I just go with the song. I go with the song and try to tell the story. So the story may be "Wonderful Baby", which is a little song. Or it might be a gentle song, "Empty Chairs". Or it might be a rock and roll song like "Prime Time" or "Run, Diana, Run", or "American Pie". I don't know where it's gonna go. I don't have any idea what I'm doing. I just do it. I just keep doing it. I keep taking adva

  Don McLean

  Running, Song, Baby

• All you gotta do is think of the song in your head. And it doesn't matter whether you can play it or not, you can get somebody to play it. With songs I've written, there's a song called "The Statue", which I can't play. There are songs that I've written that I've actually just hummed on - there's a song on one of the albums they have there on the Internet called "My Love Was True" and it's almost operatic. I can't play it. But I can sing it.

  Don McLean

  Song, Thinking, Internet

• We live in a world of empty spectacle, the world of spectacle rock, songs you can't remember, it's all about the expression of money, power and kind of empty and fascistic. Where technology has changed society, where people are not using their brains as much, not seeing the bigger picture but constantly looking down at the cellphone and not seeing the bigger picture. Today's songwriter need to be on outside, find their own trip if you will and find a way to connect from a place that no one has heard before. It might be taken as weird but that is what makes it unique.

  Don McLean

  Song, Taken, Unique

  Interview with Keith Chagall, centurycity.news.

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

  Don McLean

  Song, Pie, Hopeful

• I like to bring my audience on a journey during my 90 minute concert. I will tell stories every few songs about the creation of a tune etc. and it gives the listener a glimpse inside my songs and then as you get to the last half hour you pick up the pace and work harder and get more into the show. It's all about stagecraft.

  Don McLean

  Song, Hard Work, Journey

  Source: centurycityview.org

• But I knew - in the old days, if a song was a good song, I don't care if it was 'Yellow Submarine' or, you know, or 'The Times They Are a-Changin' or 'Don't Be Cruel', you knew it, you know? You heard that song, and you were talking about it, and you knew it.

  Don McLean

  Song, Talking, Yellow

  "'American Pie' Doesn't Belong To Saratoga Springs". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. December 1, 2011.

• 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.

  Don McLean

  Song, Thinking, Hands

• 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.

  Don McLean

  Song, Stuff, Fantasy

• 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.

  Don McLean

  Song, Sorry, Moving

  "What Is Don McLean’s Song 'American Pie' All About?". www.straightdope.com. May 15, 1993.

• I have no idea how I do anything. I never have. You know I just started playing guitar and started singing and started working on this act that I would call "Don McLean" when I was probably in high school. And I have been doing this for 40 years, adding songs and writing things, cobbling together albums, doing live things, you know, albums and tours. And then I have records on the charts. I have no idea how this happened.

  Don McLean

  Song, Writing, School

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