The America now is not the America I started out in, and it's not the America that I was in before I started out … The America that I remember in the 1950s when I was growing up and was a young boy and teenager — that's the America I knew and the value system I knew.

Don McLean

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.

music song funny

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

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

rocks hippie believe

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

dream sky philosophy

I've always been on the outside of all that political stuff so I just sort of watch it and I'm appalled and I think people should be screaming about a lot of things right now and they're not. They're just letting everything happen. I don't know. At some point the wheels are going to come off and we're going to have a real problem. The people are going to get angry and it's going to be too late.

real people thinking

Each thread of life that you leave, will spin around your deeds a... by Don McLean

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

adages deeds needs

There's enough ugliness - you know, we got wars going on and people dying and sickness and everything. We don't need to have our art be ugly. But it is, in a lot of it. And these people justify this crap by saying, "Oh we're just representing what's out there, man". Basically, you're making it worse and number one, the artist's job is to elevate people and to lift people up and to give them a place to go, something to hold on to.

I met a girl who sang the blues by Don McLean

I met a girl who sang the blues

girl song father

A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music use to... by Don McLean

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

rock-and-roll use long

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

grateful forever people

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.

clothes land kings

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.

trying country world

The society that produced The Who, The Stones, Dylan, Paul McCartney and later on people, like myself, is over. The materialistic society that produces these kinds of bombastic performances that don't have any value or musical meaning, is very conspicuous, look at me, I'm rich, dig my brand. That's what missing, Bob Dylan made us feel worthy, I try to do the same thing. Respect for the audience with music that is meaningful and soulful. Go for what moves you and not necessarily what you think will be commercial.

meaningful moving thinking

Drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry. by Don McLean

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

american-pie chevy dry

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

running song baby

Starry Starry night by Don McLean

Starry Starry night

eye summer song

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.

gratitude glad people

I'm gonna say this and I really mean it - I'm very thankful that I'm not a huge star. I've all the stardom and celebrity that I can handle. But I also have peace and quiet. I am left alone. And I am not recognized everywhere I go and it's perfect. I can come and fill the theatres and I get on stage ... people say: "Well, oh yeah, that must be him," you know?

perfect mean people

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.

drinking bye boys

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.

sea rivers philosophy

And as the players tried to take the field, the Marching Band ref... by Don McLean

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

yield music player