Don McLean

Don McLean's folk ballad American Pie seemingly leapt out of nowhere and captured the national imagination in the early 1970s. Within a period of two weeks, the song shot straight to the top of the Billboard charts; everybody – it seemed – was excited about McLean's lyrical revelations. Even more surprisingly, it united listeners of many disparate musical genres – from longhaired Black Sabbath rockers to the socially aware listeners of Phil Ochs in an unbridled enthusiasm for both its message and its simple musical qualities. None of which is surprising once you've heard McLean’s song; a brilliant metaphor striking the death knell for the Boomer's American Dream, a nightmarish instant where we broke ourselves on the rock of our own generational hubris. It was a moment as confusing and complex as it was widely and profoundly felt.