Well, the swinger’s party I was sure I was attending yesterday turned out to be nothing more than a birthday party. With kids! What happened to adults only on the invite? Regardless, I had another opportunity last night for some other adults only fun. I was headed to a concert last night as part of a reciprocal concert attendance agreement that a friend and I hammered out with the help of our attorneys and a board of arbiters.
The way it works is that my friend treats me to a concert that his wife does not want to attend, and then I will treat him to a concert that my wife will not attend. Both our wives are younger than us, so their musical tastes skew more recent.
That may just sound like going to a concert with a friend, but there is a subtle and important difference. The concert chooser pays for both tickets. That way, the concert guest can’t bitch about the price of the ticket to a concert that may not have been their first choice. It’s a good system.
Anyway, this concert promised an adults only time.
That’s right, Don McLean, the American Pie guy, was scheduled to give an adults only show. What did that mean? Lots of profanity? Gratuitous nudity? I saw an elderly Fee Waybill of The Tubes with his shirt off and pants down when they came to town at the end of 2023, and I didn’t want to see a similar show. Instead, we got Don McLean looking like the ghost of Roy Orbison who had eaten a few too many American pies.
The Orbison comparisons stopped there. McLean sang Orbison’s “Crying,” but just could not hit the high notes. Few can, so I won’t blame McLean for trying “Crying.” But doesn’t he have enough of his own music to perform? He told us he has released about 50 albums. Sing your own damn songs.
I remember McLean for two beautiful songs – “Vincent” and “Castles in the Air,” along with one novelty song that became a cultural phenomenon – “American Pie.” There were concertgoers yelling for “American Pie” from the start of the show. I can make a case for playing that song first. McLean gets that out of the way first, and then he can focus on the rest of the catalog of HIS songs, not covers to pander to the general population. Sure, he’ll lose some folks, but the true McLeaniac fans will remain for the whole show.
For older musical artists, I don’t expect them to sound the same as they did in their youth. Part of the allure of their concerts are the stories they can tell between songs. Burton Cummings of the Guess Who and Graham Nash of CS&N told great stories. It was a bonus that they also sounded in good voice. Don McLean talked-sang some lyrics, perhaps because of diminished vocals or maybe just a different artistic interpretation of the song. I suspect the former. As for stories, McLean put together some rambling sentences that seemed to go nowhere. Maybe my friend and I misheard, but I swear McLean mentioned Elvis perishing in the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and others, but not Elvis. And he seemed to have all sorts of trouble tuning his D string. I hope we don’t have another Dementia Don here with McLean. I don’t wish that on anyone. He did mention he is not a right winger or left winger, which usually means he’s right wing. I was positive of his right leanings when he told the crowd that he referred to the COVID pandemic as damn panic.
All in all, his show was entertaining, and he ended with a rousing sing-along to “American Pie” … all 6 verses.
As if that wasn’t enough, he then replayed some verses. It gave me time to wonder how the song would sound if he had a Ford rather than the Chevy he drove to the levee. Hmm, drove my Ford to the fjord, but the fjord was dry. It just doesn’t have the cachet. Or perhaps, drove my Lincoln to go drinkin’, but the county was dry. Thankfully, Subaru wasn’t popular back then.
My turn to choose a show. I’m giving strong consideration to Guster or Jeff Lynne’s ELO. I just know I can’t choose Wilco. My friend has a problem with Jeff Tweedy.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 