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Today’s America could use less Donald Trump and more Don McLean

Aug 27, 2023

This piece was inspired after viewing the documentary The Day The Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie

Earlier this week, former president Donald Trump was indicted, fingerprinted, and booked in an American jail. Even in a surreal universe such as American politics, this was almost incomprehensible.

52 years earlier, singer/songwriter Don McLean wrote one of the greatest songs in music history, American Pie, and it might as well have been written last week.

As I sit in my converted oats factory in nowhere Ontario, a good 4 hours north of my home city of Toronto, I contemplate the same thought I have almost every day, over and over again, and it drives me insane; what could I possibly write today that will be relevant, or that will resonate with anyone in a sea of ink that never stops flowing? What hasn’t already been said about Trump a million times over? Is there anything new to say about one of the world’s worst human beings?

I still don’t have that answer, but I know McLean’s timeless song can be used as a muse in order to at least get me through the next few hundred words. At least, that’s what I am telling myself as I write this.

https://twitter.com/MusicMemories4U/status/1694457478971310243?s=20

American Pie was inspired by the tragic plane crash in 1959 that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, but as a true contemporary work of art it also encompassed a collection of real Americana, including corrupt politics, the impetuousness of being young, and the willingness to keep moving even when you don’t know what direction happens to be the right one.

I dare say, we could all spare the 8 minutes or so it takes to get through the song, and maybe find a way to allow ourselves to capture some of that nostalgia.

A long, long time ago, I can still rememberHow that music used to make me smileAnd I knew if I had my chanceThat I could make those people danceAnd maybe they’d be happy for a while

While Donald Trump tries to find yet another way to speak to a narrow swatch of angry Americans, I think the rest of the country longs for a voice that can envelop everyone, wrapping the country in each others arms, rather than the nation’s flag. People need a universal voice. They need something to sing along to, instead of someone to scream at.

Did you write the Book of Love?And do you have faith in God aboveIf the Bible tells you so?Do you believe in rock ‘n’ roll?Can music save your mortal soul?And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Through Trump, are witnessing religious beliefs of ordinary Americans being auctioned off for votes, and money. Somehow, one of the most godless leaders of the modern age has successfully seduced god-fearing folks into supporting him, something my friend Spenny likes to remind me is a deal with the wolf, a classic metaphor where believers trade authenticity and ethics for someone who will align with their world views, despite not sharing any of them.

It all seems so soulless to me.

American Pie is the opposite. McLean needed to have a soul overflowing with passion in order to write such a song, and so I would sooner worship at the alter of this musical masterpiece before entertaining the idea of even considering a belief in the omnipotent, especially after seeing the hypocrisy of those who wear their beliefs on their sleeves, or foam fingers, as it were.

Oh, and while the king was looking downThe jester stole his thorny crownThe courtroom was adjournedNo verdict was returnedAnd while Lennon read a book on MarxThe quartet practiced in the parkAnd we sang dirges in the darkThe day the music died

While many of us find ourselves becoming more directionless, Trump keeps getting more popular, and I am unsurprisingly uncertain what I would do if I was an American right now. Do they fight this charlatan, or hope the machine, the establishment, does what they normally do best and manufacture the ouster of a politician who doesn’t fit the mold? It happened to Ron Paul. It happened to Bernie Sanders. But for some reason, Donald Trump still stands.

If the media weren’t so useless, and if the military industrial complex and the intelligence services would just take a knee, would Trump win again? I think he would.

Sad.

If there were ever an argument for hearts and minds, rather than votes and popularity, now would be the time to make one. But it has to be compelling, not some run-of-the-mill jingle. It would have to inspire, rather than incite.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stageMy hands were clenched in fists of rageNo angel born in HellCould break that Satan’s spellAnd as the flames climbed high into the nightTo light the sacrificial riteI saw Satan laughing with delightThe day the music died

Donald Trump hates half of his own country. He butchers the idea of the American dream, turning it into some lucid, never-ending nightmare. And he will ride his arrest for another decade, making millions along the way, whether he wins or not.

Don McLean captured not just a piece of America through his song, he managed to create a Catcher in the Rye-level examination of his whole country, and it went from being a mirror held up to the nation, to an eventual prophecy.

And despite the fact that something so powerful can never be duplicated, our American cousins need another American Pie. Only this time, they need to say hello again, rather than a sad goodbye.

Contributing Writers

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