Don McLean Quotations

I think longevity is more important than trying to make people realize you're around every second.

In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms.

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.

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

I'm glad that my music has helped other people as it's helped me. It makes me glad that I did what I did with my life.

I developed this fantasy world. I found that that was much more fun and more interesting and exciting than real life was to me. Then, once I got the guitar going when I was a teenager, I set sail for the direction I've been in my whole life.

I don't relate to what's left of the music business. There doesn't seem to be any point to it anymore. The business that I grew up in and loved, we made records a different way - there were record companies, there were stores where you could buy albums.

I had asthma when I was a kid, asthma so bad that it would turn into pneumonia and I almost died several times. Nobody knew why back then, but now it's obvious.

People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.

I was always just into my music and maybe into trying to save the world a little bit. I never really thought I'd have a hit record or anything like that. I was prepared to travel around all over the country, kind of like a Johnny Appleseed, and sing.

I mean, I've been given a terrific life by the audiences who stuck with me all over the world.

If something comes up I might write about it, but without an outlet the whole thing winds down.

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

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.

The kids today all seem to think they should be stars, but I wasn't brought up that way.

I am what I do, and that's partly why I don't want to give up singing. But when I can't sing well, I will.

Over the years I've had more and more of an association with Nashville.

I got my first guitar when I was 16. I'd play for my family and friends, but taking that guitar out there into the wide, wide world wasn't something I ever thought about.

When I go on the road now, which is less than before, but still more than I'd like to, I think of myself primarily as a singer. Not a songwriter, not a celebrity, just a man who likes to sing.

The process got abused, ... So what do you do about it? Do you become cynical and turn your back on it, or do you do something about it?

My face on every coin engraved, the anarchists are all enslaved. My flag is forever waved, by the grateful people I have saved.

As you sell your soul and sow your seeds, and you wound yourself and your loved ones bleed. And your habits grow and your conscience feeds, on all that you thought you should be.

They don't keep their promises in the promised land, its getting mighty hard to find an honest man.

There we were all in one place, a generation lost in space.

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.

As I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage. No angel born in hell, could break that Satan's spell.

Devoid of all romance, the music plays and everyone must dance. I'm bowing out.

The Byrds flew off the fallout shelter, eight miles high and falling fast.

Starry, starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze, swirling clouds in violet haze reflect Vincent's eyes of china blue.

Not a word was spoken. The church bells all were broken.

We all got up to dance. Oh, but we never got the chance!

And when no hope was left inside on that starry, starry night, you took your life as lovers often do. But I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

I saw satan laughing with delight The day the music died.

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.

In the streets the children screamed. The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed

Bad news on the doorstep;I couldn’t take one more step

...And as the players tried to take the field, the Marching Band refused to yield...

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.

Something touched me deep inside The day the music died.

You're going to be buying your ticket with your heartache, you're gonna be payin' the man with your dues. You're gonna be living alone when you hear that whistle moan, you're gonna be learnin' to live with the blues.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack sat on a candle stick, cause fire is the devil's only friend.

Each thread of life that you leave, will spin around your deeds and dictate your needs.

Faces come and faces go in circular rotation.But something yearns within to grow beyond infatuation.

I feel like a spinning top or a DreidelThe spinning don't stop when you leave the cradleYou just slow downRound and around this world you goSpinning through the lives of the people you knowWe all slow down.

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. ... 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.

Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died?

Bye, Bye Miss American Pie, drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry. Good old boys drinking whiskey and rye, singing, this'll be the day that I die.

Work my hands in the soil, what's the pay for all the toil? Dust for blood, dust for blood, dust for blood.

Some believe in Jesus, they don't act like they do. Some believe in Mohammed, I don't believe that's true. Cause they do believe in money, and gold is what it's for, all the gold can't buy no peace of mind in a world that don't believe in nothing anymore.

Every pulse of your heartbeat is one liquid moment that flows through the veins of your being. Like a river of life flowing on since creation, approaching the sea with each new generation.

Every thread of creation is held in position by still other strands of things living. In an earthly tapestry hung from the skyline of smoldering cities so gray and so vulgar, as not to be satisfied with their own negativity, but needing to touch all the living as well.

Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky, a dream come true, I'll live there til I die.

This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

Jerusalem is old, Jerusalem is new, Jerusalem can hold Moslem, Christian, Jew.

Drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry.

A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music use to make me smile.

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

How did the land of Jefferson, how did the land of King, become the land of hamburgers and raisins that can sing? Roosevelt was cripple, Lincoln was a geek, they'd never get elected, their clothes were never chic.

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.

Do you believe in rock 'n roll? Can music save your mortal soul?

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.

So 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.

American Pie' was part of my process of self-awakening; a mystical trip into my past.

I still absolutely love it. I'm still having a ball. I still have the same feeling I had the first week.

I met a girl who sang the blues, And I asked her for some happy news; But she just smiled and turned away