Don McLean - Live In New York 1971 (2023)

When this superb concert was broadcast live by WPLJ FM during the final week of 1971, Don McLean was at the very apogee of his career. His enduring album American Pie had been released just two months earlier, in October and the title track would become a massive worldwide hit, reaching both the US and Canadian Number One spots during the first few weeks of 1972. This performance includes an epic version of the majestic and immortal American Pie, an exquisite Vincent and a sweetly perfect Castles In The Air. It could be said that had Don failed to include these songs he would have been lucky to get out alive! A native New Yorker, McLean became interested in folk music during his teens, acquired his first acoustic guitar at 16, and soon began making contacts in the music business. In particular he became friends with Lisa Kindred, who often played Greenwich Village clubs like Cafe Wha? and The Bitter End alongside Bob Dylan and other folk singers. In 1963 McLean briefly attended Villanova University, near Philadelphia, where he formed a friendship with singer/songwriter Jim Croce. Quitting Villanova after just four months, Don McLean began to perform at folk clubs across the country - from Greenwich Village to Washington DC and Los Angeles as well as the Newport Folk Festival. He continued to hone his craft onstage for a further six years, before eventually signing a recording contract in 1969 with small new record label Mediarts, home to a select band of artists including Dory Previn, Spencer Davis, Paul Anka and Gerry Rafferty. Don's first album, Tapestry, was recorded in Berkeley, California in 1970. Several of the songs had been written the previous year during a boat trip on the sloop Clearwater, with musician and activist Pete Seeger; both men were concerned about environmental pollution in the Hudson River in New York State. Don Heckman, reviewing the album in the hugely influential New York Times, said 'he is, quite simply, a contemporary troubadour, and one who, despite his relative anonymity, can produce music which is easily comparable to the best of such current heavies as James Taylor, Neil Young, and Elton John. At least four or five of the songs included - especially Castles in the Air, Magdalene Lane, Three Flights Up, Circus Song and And I Love You So - are near perfect marriages of music, lyrics, and ideas.' Tapestry was well received - but it was a different Tapestry that became the best selling album of 1971 worldwide, after fellow singer-songwriter Carole King used the same name for her solo debut, a record that eventually sold 10 times as many as McLean's first. Success however was looming and Don's sophomore album, American Pie catapulted him to overnight stardom courtesy of the breathtaking 9-minute title track that became a hit around the world. Don claims, 'It is biographical in nature and I don't think anyone has ever picked up on that. The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it's part reality and part fantasy. Regarding the lyrics, he added They're beyond analysis. They're poetry.' Vincent, McLean's heartfelt homage to the suicidal Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh is another outstanding composition. Alongside these indisputable and perennial classics, Don also performs excellent versions of Winterwood, Babylon and Crossroads. Also featured during this classic broadcast, and harking back to Don s roots, are versions of the traditional murder ballad Pretty Polly and blues singer, guitarist, songwriter and civil rights activist Josh White s Where Were You, Baby? Finally, there is the delightfully literate On The Amazon, a tune originally from the 1920 s stage comedy Mr. Cinders , and later included on Don McLean s eponymous third album released in 1972.