{"id":144,"date":"2015-10-28T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T08:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sergiomessina.com\/moss\/?p=144"},"modified":"2021-04-05T13:35:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T12:35:47","slug":"singers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sergiomessina.com\/moss\/singers\/","title":{"rendered":"Singers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don McLean<\/a>: American Pie<\/strong> (1971)<\/p>\n

\"donAmerican Pie<\/a> shouldn’t be here, as I usually try to feature songs that are not immensely famous. But this tune is so relevant to this theme, I couldn’t leave it out. Moreover, being an old one, you might be familiar with the chorus, but not with the story. McLean included it in his album American Pie<\/a>; it was one of the two singles, and it went to #1 in many countries. It’s a very long (over 8 minutes), rambling song about\u2026 Well: there’s been a long debate about the meaning of the lyrics<\/a>. McLean always refused to talk about it, saying that artists should not explain their work, especially when it comes to poetry. Very right. (My favorite Don McLean reply to that question is: “American Pie<\/em> means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”)<\/p>\n

Frankly, it seems pretty clear to me what this song is about: it voices the sense of loss that was in the air in the early 70s, with many references to earlier Pop culture (some hidden, others pretty clear). The most iconic of these is certainly in this verse, from the intro:<\/p>\n

February made me shiver with every paper I’d deliver<\/em>
\n Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn’t take one more step.<\/em><\/p>\n

I can’t remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride,<\/em>
\n Something touched me deep inside, the day the music died.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The song recalls one of the most tragic events in the history of Rock’n’roll: “On February 3, 1959, rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with the pilot, Roger Peterson. The event later became known as The day the music died<\/em>, after singer-songwriter Don McLean so referred to it in his song American Pie<\/em>.” (from Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Then, in february 2015, the original manuscript of the song was auctioned (for 1.2 millions USD), and McLean promised to reveal its meaning in the auction’s catalogue: “Basically in American Pie, things are heading in the wrong direction. It is becoming less idyllic. I don\u2019t know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense.\u201d According to McLean (as reported by the Washington Post<\/a>), “The song includes references to Karl Marx; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (or, more likely, John Lennon); the Fab Four; the Byrds; James Dean; Charles Manson; the Rolling Stones; the ‘widowed bride,’ Jackie Kennedy; and the Vietnam War.” Plus the more obvious Elvis (the king) and Bob Dylan (the jester).<\/p>\n

But the tune itself is quite simple and catchy, and in the USA everyone know its (rather cryptic) chorus, often used in advertising and film, despite ending with the line “this’ll be the day that I die”. It’s Don McLean’s only real hit, and it put him in the pantheon of 1970s american songwriters.<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/www.sergiomessina.com\/moss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ap.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

buy from amazon<\/a> \u2022 buy from itunes<\/a> \u2022 play on spotify<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Roberta Flack<\/a>: Killing Me Softly With His Song<\/strong> (1973)<\/p>\n

\"robertaHere’s another hit single with a history. We’ve all heard Killing Me Softly<\/em> before (in one of the two versions that went to #1, 23 years apart), but not many people know that the killer in the song is actually Don McLean: “According to Lori Lieberman, the artist who performed the original recording<\/a> in 1972, the song was born of a poem she wrote after experiencing a strong reaction to the song Empty Chairs<\/a>, written, composed, and recorded by Don McLean.” (From the song’s very informative Wikipedia page<\/a>) The lyrics<\/a> are very intense, and revolve around two key concepts in Pop music. The first is the “meaningful sadness” a song can plunge us into: I often say that some tunes (like Still A Fool<\/a>\u260a by Muddy Waters) kill me every time. Sometimes, this feeling comes from another very special experience we can have with songs (or poetry): the impression that the singer is actually talking about us:<\/p>\n

He sang as if he knew me, and all my dark despair, and then he looked right through me as if I wasn’t there. And he just kept on singing, singing clear and strong: strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words, killing me softly with his song\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I said, the original was recorded by Lori Lieberman<\/a> in 1972, credited to Charles Fox (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics). Later, Lieberman claimed to have written the lyrics, or at least to have inspired the key concepts. However, the song remained relatively unknown until it was picked up by Roberta Flack (who heard it on an airplane’s music selection). In ’73, Flack made it her own. Killing Me Softly<\/em> stayed at #1 for five weeks, and earned Flack a Grammy for Best Pop vocal performance<\/em> in 1973. Fox and Gimbel also got one, for Song of the year<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 1996, when the then very hot Hip hop band Fugees<\/a> covered Killing Me Softly With His Song<\/em> on their multi-platinum album The Score<\/a> (it was the second single, going #1 in a number of countries). Their barebones version (basically voices, drums and bass – sampled from the 1990 tune Bonita Applebum<\/a>\u260a by A Tribe Called Quest) also won them a Grammy for best performance.<\/p>\n