Don McLean says “woke” young people “don’t know why they’re angry”, and he predicted it in ‘American Pie’

Don McLean has looked back at his hit song ‘American Pie’, and explained how he thinks it predicted “woke” culture.

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Released back in 1971, the track remains the American songwriter’s biggest hit to date and is considered one of the most influential and successful songs of the 20th century. Now, in a new interview, the singer-songwriter has recalled how there is huge debate around the meaning behind the song, and added that he sees it as predicting a generation of “woke” people.

“The song really does open up a whole historical question about what happened in the ‘60s and assassinations and the history that forms the backbone of the song as it moves forward,” he told Metro.

“This song talks about the fact that things are going somewhat in the wrong direction, and I think that they’re still going in the wrong direction. I think most people looking at America now kind of think that too.

‘I mean, we certainly have a wonderful country, and we do wonderful things, but we also are in the middle of all this woke bullshit, you know? And all this other stuff that there is absolutely no point to, as far as I can see, other than to undermine people’s beliefs in the country. That’s very bad.”

He continued, explaining how he feels that people today “don’t want to feel too much” and would rather “anaesthetize themselves against any emotion” rather than “get a handle on what really matters in life anymore”.

‘They’re so addicted to their telephones and their iPads – and I am too. There’s a constant flow of information and suddenly nothing makes much sense. You have to concentrate in order to write songs like I did, or like other songwriters did in the past, or screenplays or novels or poetry.

“We have the opportunity to make a change and make a difference in people’s lives simply because we’re alive and you can do a good thing for somebody, you can forgive someone, you can help someone, you can love someone, rather than be angry all the time.”

He continued: “There’s so much anger out there. So many of these college students have been given everything, and they’re just angry. They don’t know why they’re angry. They don’t even know what to be angry about. It’s really a symptom of the fact that they’re frustrated. They don’t have a path that they can tread in life that leads to a better life.”

The interview took place ahead of McLeans’ only UK performance of 2024 on Saturday (August 24) as part of the Long Road Festival in Leicestershire. Visit here for remaining tickets.

It also arrives after the songwriter made headlines for his thoughts on Taylor Swift’s huge success, in which he said that he hopes that the pop star can “stay happy” above all else.

“She’s working all of the time and she does everything that she does better than everybody else, whether it’s a video or a performance or songwriting or records or whatever… The only thing is that she stays happy,” he said.

“I’m very fortunate that I’ve had that. I know how to do that. I have a lot of interests and they sustain me. I don’t go around thinking ‘Man, why don’t I have this?’ or ‘Why don’t I have that?’ – that is the quickest way to be unhappy I can think of.”

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