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| Don McLean |
Last night’s Don McLean concert (27 Aug 2005) brought one of those genuine articles - a real icon of modern culture – right here to Castlebar. The icon and his band came together with a full house largely comprising greying oldies preparing to relive their youth, driving their Chevys to the levy and drinking whiskey and rye. Of course back then in the 70s we sang along but had no clue as to what a levy was whether wet or dry. And Jack Daniels was not exactly a popular drink in Ireland and none of us owned a Mini Minor never mind an imported Chevrolet. But we did know Buddy Holly’s songs like ‘Everyday’ and everyone has had a go at deciphering the cryptic lyrics of ‘American Pie’. Nowadays of course there are hundreds of websites attempting to interpret this famous song. During the concert last night he referred to it as ‘Madonna’s hit’ (she recorded it back in 2000) and said – ‘people ask me what American Pie means’. His answer – given ‘exclusively’ to the packed audience at the TF – ‘It means I don’t have to work if I don’t want to!’
I was a bit apprehensive about seeing an icon from the 70s who is now approaching 60 – the audience actually sang happy birthday to him when he admitted his 60th birthday was coming up fast (2nd October 2005). What does he look like now compared with the youngster on the cover of his early albums? The answer is that he bears an uncanny likeness to the actor who plays Larry Sanders – definitely separated at birth. I have this terrible habit of comparing musicians on stage or in orchestras with actors, politicians or just people I know from around the town. So McLean’s five piece band comprised the following famous faces: on bass was Kris Kristofferson (Ralph Childs), electric guitar and Dobro was played by Senator Paddy Burke from Castlebar (Pat Severs) and on grand piano and Kurzweil was the janitor from Scrubs (Tony Migliore) while the drums were played by a white-haired Jesus (Jerry Kroon).
After kicking off, very appropriately with couple of Buddy Holly numbers, he moved on into some of the songs he penned himself. And Oh! What nostalgia we got. I hadn’t listened to a Don McLean album in a long time and some of his real classics you now only hear occasionally for example on those classic FM weekends. But of course he played lots of them – songs like ‘And I Love You So’ were there – it has been recorded by more artists than you can shake a stick at including The King himself. ‘Castles in the Air’ in particular really got me – such a long time since I had heard it but wow what a song! Amazing that it was issued as a B side – but a B side to ‘Vincent’ – which he also sang to us. Warming up as the concert progressed he explained his philosophy of music – real tunes and real songs. He criticised the modern trend of ‘umph, umph’ music from the likes of Eminem. (Indeed Eminem may not be the worst, but mentioning Eminem was kind of ironic seeing as this 60-year old still going strong did turn up to play Ireland and Europe while M&M is tuirseach, traochta, worn to a frazzle, cancelling concerts tours.)
But back to the umph umph music - ‘it's like a musical virus,’ he says. ‘It’s social terrorism – Yeah they’re after the wrong guys,’ he quips to a delighted audience. (George Michael recorded McLean’s song ‘Grave’ as a protest song against the Iraqi war with McLean’s blessing it seems). ‘How low can we go?’ he asks – to which a member of the Castlebar audience shouts out ‘George Bush! That’s lowest you can go!’. From Eminem to GW Bush in a few seconds! Then to make the point about real music he sings a simple tuneful song beginning…. ‘Starry, starry night…..’
What does his voice sound like? Pretty good indeed – virtually identical to that captured so long ago on vinyl. And he was very complimentary about the sound quality and acoustics in the TF Royal Theatre – and to give the sound engineer his due even sitting in the front few rows we weren’t blasted out of it. With his band he played blues, western songs (an old Gene Autrey number) and good rocky numbers including some more recent songs that were new to me and I suspect all but the really hardcore fans. Did you know he has released a song about the paparazzi and Princess Diana Spencer? Run Diana Run…. They’re in your rear view mirror…’. I wonder did he know that just down the road from the TF in Castlebar where he was singing is a street called Spencer Street named for her ancestral family name? Another one ‘In a Museum’ I remember for its ironic quality and the great corny rhyme that went something like this: ‘I’m in a Museum, We all go to See um’. I wondered too whether there wasn’t a strong irony in including ‘Jerusalem’ in the set considering what’s going on in the Middle East at the moment. His last song from Woodie Guthrie he warned us had a corny rhyme too – rhyming Knowed with Road – as in ‘I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed, I've been havin' some hard travelin' way down the road’. Another strong rocky arrangement and finishing Woddie Guthries lyrics he pulled the lead from his guitar and left the stage leaving the band to finish off in style with the audience shouting for more while they rocked on without the great man himself. I particularly liked the piano and keyboard playing by Tony Migliore - he was playing a Kurzweil keyboard to produce all the string sounds and many other good synthesised vibrations - in the very weekend that another modern icon of music - Robert Moog the inventor of the first sythesizers - had his obituary in all the papers - the day the music died indeed.
The verdict was a great night's entertainment and nostalgia. If you can get tickets for the Olympia on Sunday or Monday (28/29 August) you won’t be disappointed.
Before leaving the stage McLean says he will never play in Castlebar again. It has taken him 60 years to get here once and he reckons in another 60 at 120 years old he won’t be touring!’
The TF Royal Theatre Concert Notes for Don McLean 27 August 2005
The Official Don McLean Website
