Day 3856 - Don McLean's "American Pie" LP - 12.10.21

Today the record for the 1001 albums list was Don McLean's "American Pie."  This is what I wrote about it.

A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile Now that is a way to open not only a song, but an album. Let's face it the track "American Pie" is such a monster of a track it does make all the other tracks pale in comparison. This song brings on all sorts of memories, the strongest being a couple dances I went to when I was twelve or thirteen. This song was played at each one of them. I remember getting up the courage to ask a girl to dance and it was to this epic song. I don't even remember who the girl was. It wasn't anyone I had a crush on or anything. It was more about just asking a girl to dance. But I don't know what I was thinking. I knew how long this song was and all the tempo changes. It seemed to go on forever and I remember that dance getting long and awkward. I also remember telling that story to my kids and warning them to stay away from this song at a dance. That said, the song is epic and awesome. I won't get into the backstory of the song. I trust either someone else will write about it here or if you don't know you will look it up. I've had this album for many years. It was part of that first round of early vinyl record shopping where I was picking up albums from the 70s where I may have none only a song or two but wanted to hear the whole album. I must confess that when I do put this album on I do tend to just put on the opening track. That isn't because the other songs are bad, it is just that they are different and when I'm in the mood for "American Pie" I'm in the mood for that epic song and that nostalgia. This challenge was a nice excuse to listen to the whole album. The songs are solid. They are gentle. They are short or should I say shorter. I'm glad I listened to it again and could appreciate Don McLean as a songwriter and not just as the guy who wrote "American Pie." To me the rest of the album is very much of that early seventies singer-songwriter vibe of James Taylor and the like. I think I liked Sweet Baby James more, but I also liked this album. With that said I think some of these lyrics are great and maybe more poetic. Or at least feel more like poems. A standout for me as an example is "Vincent" which I think does work as a nice little song, but I think it really works as a poem about Vincent Van Gogh.

This is something I saw today.