Don McLean - by Thomas MacFarlane (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This book explores the legacy of singer-songwriter Don McLean and his enduring work.

Don McLean: A Musical Tapestry recounts the artist's early development, including the influence of Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, his engagement with social, political, and cultural phenomena through music, and the incorporation of visual elements into his songs. Working chronologically, from Tapestry (1970) to American Pie (1971) all the way through to American Boys (2024), the book explores the reception of McLean's work in the wake of the success of American Pie, concluding with a consideration of how the artist ultimately came to terms with the cultural impact of his most famous song, "American Pie."

The discussions featured in this volume employ songscape, an approach involving musical explorations from the perspective of a composer, descriptions of recording process, and interpretations of the spatial imagery evident on the finished track. It allows for the consideration of entire albums as galleries of recorded sound. In the process, it explores how artistic gestures can effectively unfold across various art forms. This approach generates new insights into a complex and compelling creative process and one artist's work over five decades.

Review Quotes

"As a full-throated veritable inventor of meta-rock-music, Don McLean certainly warrants a biography by the best in the writing-about-music business. Thom MacFarlane's books on The Beatles, his musicianship, and golden ear for words and music make him just such an author, and he really rings the bell in this unique book." --Paul Levinson, author of It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles

"In MacFarlane's masterful biography, we see not only the less-known personal side to this complex yet poignantly joyful artist - we get a dive into the universal connections (musical and visual) between Art and Truth that have been the hallmark of McLean's work since his first big success, American Pie.

'Songscape, ' MacFarlane's uniquely panoramic approach to popular song, illuminates for us, song by song, McLean's many possible influences (e.g. paintings, films, books, dreams, hopes, memories) as they evolve, through musical transformations, into artful links between songwriter and listener.

The author quotes McLean: 'I see songwriting as a mystical process which involves tuning something in on my psychic radio - I can't tell you how I write songs, or why I write them.' MacFarlane's 'Songscape' may be the answer." --Sonny Kompanek, film score orchestrator and author of From Score to Screen

"For years we have become accustomed to an academic approach to Jazz but it is only in the last couple of decades that it seems popular music in the rock genre has been granted similar credence. What is refreshing about MacFarlane's writing is that he integrates personal experience / revelation with a more thorough excavation of the musicology underlying McLean's work. An artist in the singer / songwriter mold, a deep dive into McLean's work is long overdue. MacFarlane's balanced approach should satisfy this overlooked need in a fulsome way." --Michael McLuhan, photographer, musician, and recording artist, Ontario, Canada

About the Author

Thom MacFarlane is an author and composer. His research has focused on the relationship between music, sound recording, and human culture. He is the author of several books: The Beatles' Abbey Road Medley: Extended Forms in Popular Music (2007), The Beatles and McLuhan: Understanding the Electric Age (2012), Experiencing Billy Joel:
A Listener's Companion (2016), The Music of George Harrison (2019), and Lennon and McCartney: Painting with Sound (2023).