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Rating: The strange case of Don McLean: evaluating his career as a whole from 1972 onwards, one could easily consider him a good craftsman of song, a good author and excellent performer with a beautiful voice; labeling him as a one-hit wonder would still be a far too harsh judgment, but based on what was shown on his first two albums, this New York songwriter of distant Italian origins, raised on bread and Buddy Holly, seemed to promise an artistic path of a completely different level. Even before definitively establishing himself with "American Pie", McLean could already boast an extremely high-level debut, overall perhaps even superior to his more acclaimed successor.
A perfect manifesto of North American folk of those years, "Tapestry" is an album that looks to Bob Dylan as one of the most obvious and recognizable reference models but with much more humanity, much more humility, and a personal, sober, and acoustic approach, purely folk with an innate inclination for ballads, which would become his trademark and later also his limitation. This record is absolutely perfect, teetering between bitterness and subtle irony, marked by extremely high-level songwriting strongly centered on themes of social denunciation, which may even seem obvious during the years of Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and Henry Kissinger, but also of a more intimate nature, and further ennobling the final result is McLean's light, at times dreamlike and almost childlike voice, a wonderfully empathetic and moving voice. Songs like "Castles In The Air" and "Magdalene Lane" demonstrate exquisite class and an immediate and spontaneous style, strengthened by an intrinsic lightness and a visionary touch that colors these pure and elementary melodies, while "General Store" and especially "Three Flights Up" in terms of pessimism and severity would not be out of place on a contemporary Leonard Cohen record. Important and committed themes also characterize poignant ballads like "Tapestry" and "Orphans Of Wealth", love has very little space, confined to a wonderful heart-wrenching serenade like "And I Love You So", for the rest, there is room for the bitter irony of "Respectable", the bipolar alienation of "Bad Girl", the dreamy and blurred atmospheres of "Circus Song", and finally a small but beautiful ray of sunshine, "No Reasons For Your Dreams".
"Tapestry" is a sad album, blue just like its cover but light, which conveys feelings of sweetness, grace, fragility, poetry; many contemporary artists and songwriters, indie, alternative and committed, would give everything they have to be able to write songs even half as beautiful as those on this album, without unnecessary embellishments, with this emotional intensity, this sincerity that only an artist who is not concerned about appearing on glossy magazine covers and building a certain type of image can have, this gentle and velvety touch, this voice that speaks to the heart; it's truly a shame that this artist's magic was exhausted in just two albums, but in this brief period Don McLean touched heights that many celebrated stars have never reached nor ever will be able to reach.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Castles in the Air (02:55)
And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you
That I'm tired of Castles in the Air
I've got a dream I want the world to share an' castle walls
Just leave me to despair
Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky
A dream come true, I'll live there 'til I die
I'm asking you, to say my last goodbye
The love we knew, ain't worth another try
Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I'm weak but I can't face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can't remain
Perhaps she'll understand if you tell it to her plain
Oh, but how can words express the feel of sunlight
In the morning in the hills away from city strife
I need a country woman for my wife
I'm city born but I love the country life
For I will not be part of her Cocktail-Generation Partner's Waltz,
Devoid of all romance
The music plays and everyone must dance
I'm bowing out, I need a second chance
Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I'm weak but I can't face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can't remain
Perhaps she'll understand if you tell it to her plain
And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you
That I'm tired of Castles in the Air
I've got a dream I want the world to share an' castle walls
Just lead me to despair
05 Respectable (02:29)
Ah, it ain't so easy is it? You almost lost your place.
And perhaps you're wondering how you're going to cope with your disgrace.
Well your wealth is well established and your friends were never few,
And all the things they told you of you're finding to be true.
Well if truth can free the guilty while the innocent must die,
Then I respect, respect, respect the coldest lie.
And you talk of human justice while you drive on fancy wheels.
And you push them to their limit just to see how nice it feels.
Well it doesn't really matter if she's living or she's dead,
You just drive away forgetting that your bumper's dipped in red.
Well if that's the kind of justice that our hall of justice claims,
Then I respect, respect, respect old Jesse James.
And most cordially they caught you and they asked you to obey.
And they threw you into prison, just in case you could not pay.
Well King Arthur jousted Lancelot, who stole away his wife;
And your lawyers jousted with the court to save your precious life.
Well if living is what matters though you lie with every breath,
Then I respect, respect, the ones we put to death.
And you won your case most easily and soon you will be free.
But there will be a million more who lose their liberty.
Not because of what they did, but what they did not do:
They did not pay a lawyer or a judge to see them through.
Why, they had no friends to call on and they could not raise their bail.
Well if winning is what matters, I respect the ones who fail
08 And I Love You So (04:16)
And I love you so,
The people ask me how,
How I've lived till now
I tell them "I don't know"
I guess they understand
How lonely life has been
But life began again
The day you took my hand
And yes I know how lonely life can be
The shadows follow me
And the night won't set me free
But I don't let the evening bring me down
Now that you're around me
And you love me too
Your thoughts are just for me
You set my spirit free
I'm happy that you do
The book of life is brief
And once a page is read
All but love is dead
This is my belief
And yes I know how loveless life can be
The shadows follow me
And the night won't set me free
But I don't let the evening get me down
Now that you're around me
And I love you so
The people ask me how,
How I've lived till now
I tell them "I don't know"
10 Circus Song (04:50)
Cotton candy, two for a quarter
See if the fat man can guess your weight
A big stuffed tiger is what I bought her
And I'm going home 'cause it's late
Roller coasters make me dizzy
And cotton candy makes me sick
I wish I had some Bromo fizzy
Now that would do the trick
Everyone knows that the clowns aren't happy
And everyone knows that the people don't care
I wish I could laugh at the way that they're acting
But I'm so sick, I just don't dare to
High wire dancers kick and balance
White silk horses step in time
The tattooed man displays his talents
I'm not the talented kind
I always go to the circus on Sunday
And there I can laugh at the people I see
But when I leave home in the morning on Monday
Everybody laughs at me
I make other people nervous
I guess that's why they laugh at me
But to me my life is a three-ring circus
And I can see it for free
Have you seen my wife Elvira?
She can tame a lion, you know
Well, I once had a bushy mane
But that was so damn long ago
Tight-collared clowns in plastic buildings
Have happy families as their fate
Happy jobs and happy clubs
And happy people they hate
Everyone's juggling and everyone's acting
With smiles of grease paint three feet wide
Everyone's caught on a carousel pony
And one time around is a lifetime ride
12 If We Try (03:34)
When I see you on the street, I lose my concentration. Just the thought that we
might meet creates anticipation.
Won't you look my way once before you go and my eyes will say what you ought to
know. Well I've been thinkin' about you day and night...and I don't know if
it'll work out right...but somehow I think that it just might...if we try.
Faces come and faces go in circular rotation. But something yearns within to
grow beyond infatuation.
Won't you look my way once before you go and my eyes will say what you ought to
know. Well you've got me standin' deaf and blind...cause I see love as just a
state of mind...and who knows what it is that we might find...if we try.
(Bridge)
You're walking a different direction from most people I've met. You're givin'
me signs of affection I don't usually get. I don't want you to pledge your
future the future's not yours to give. Just stand there a little longer and let
me watch while you live.
'Cause when I see you on the street, I lose my concentration. And just the
thought that we might meet creates anticipation.
Won't you look my way once before you go and my eyes will say what you ought to
know. Well I've been thinking about you day and night...and I don't know if it
will work out right...but somehow I think that it just might...if we try.
Somehow I think that it just might if we try. Yes somehow I think that it just
might if we try.
Note - Don would often change the last chorus when he performed the song live.
The words were something like "Won't you look my way once before you go and my
eyes will say what you ought to know. It'd be so nice to see it all work
out...cause that's what fantasies are all about..."
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