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[无损音乐] Don McLean -《American Pie》[2003 Capitol Remastered][驴链]-->![]() Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 1-20-72 wrote:Don McLean's "American Pie" has ripped out of nowhere and taken the country by storm both in its album and truncated single versions. It took exactly two weeks to shoot to the top of the charts, everybody I know has been talking excitedly about it since first hearing, and, even more surprisingly, it has united listeners of musical persuasions as diverse as Black Sabbath and Phil Ochs in unbridled enthusiasm for both its message and its musical qualities.All of which is not so surprising once you've heard it, because it is a brilliant song, a metaphor for the death and rebirth of rock that's at once complex and immediately accessible. For the last couple of years critics and audience alike have been talking abut the Death of Rock, or at least the fragmentation of all our 1967 dreams of anthemic unity. And, inevitably, somebody has written a song about it. About Dylan, Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Stones, Byrds, Janis and others. About where we've been, the rush of exhilaration we felt at the pinnacle, and the present sense of despair. Don McLean has taken all this and set it down in language that has unmistakable impact the first time you hear it, and leaves you rubbing your chin -- "Just what did that line mean?" -- with further listenings because you know it's all about something you've felt and lived through. A very 1967ish song, in fact, in the way it makes you dig for deeper meaning, but not the least bit mawkish.It opens with a slow, mournful sequence abut reading the headlines about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper while delivering papers as a child, then into the chorus: "Bye bye, Miss American Pie/Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry/Them good ole boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye/And sayin' this'll be the day that I die." Then all at once it rears up and charges through the years in a giddy rush: "I was a lonely teenage bronckin' buck/With a pink carnation and a pickup truck," the "Book of Love," sock hops in the gym and puppy jealousy, and then into the heart of the myth, where Dylan is a Jester "in a coat he borrowed from James Dean," laughing at the king "in a voice that came from you and me."The halycon days of Sgt. Pepper are brilliantly caught: "The half-time air was sweet perfume/As Sergeants played a marching tune," but suddenly the Jester is on the sidelines in a cast, the stage is taken by Jack Flash ( "Fire is the devil's only friend" ), and Altamont, the Angels and the despairing resentment the Stones left many fans pass in a dark panorama. Finally coming down to the levee again, where the good old boys are draining the bottles and talking as if it's all over, as they did when the plane bearing "The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost" fell and as they will again and again through the years. It's just the old Calvinist sense of impending apocalypse and perdition, but they're good old boys anyway and we can't resent them because we too "believe in rock 'n' roll/And [that] music can save your mortal soul." Because they're us."American Pie" is a song of the year, and its music is just as strong as those lyrics, propelled with special resonance by the piano of Paul Griffin, who played with the Jester when his myth was at pinnacle. If you've ever cried because of a rock & roll band or album, or lain awake nights wondering or sat up talking through the dawn about Our Music and what it all means and where it's all going and why, if you've ever kicked off your shoes to dance or wished you had the chance, if you ever believed in Rock & Roll, you've got to have this album. William Ruhlman, All Music Guide wrote:Don McLean's second album, American Pie, which was his first to gain recognition after the negligible initial sales of 1970's Tapestry, is necessarily dominated by its title track, a lengthy, allegorical history of rock & roll, because it became an unlikely hit, topping the singles chart and putting the LP at number one as well. "American Pie" has remained as much a cultural touchstone as a song, sung by everyone from Garth Brooks to Madonna, its title borrowed for a pair of smutty teen comedies, while the record itself has earned a registered three-million plays on U.S. radio stations. There may not be much more to note about it, then, except perhaps that even without a crib sheet to identify who's who, the song can still be enjoyed for its engaging melody and singable chorus, which may have more to do with its success than anything else. Of course, the album also included "Vincent," McLean's paean to Van Gogh, which has been played two-million times. Nothing else on the album is as effective as the hits, but the other eight original songs range from sensitive fare like "Till Tomorrow" to the sarcastic, uptempo "Everybody Loves Me, Baby." American Pie — the album — is very much a record of its time; it is imbued with the vague depression of the early '70s that infected the population and found expression in the works of singer/songwriters. "American Pie" — the song — is really a criticism of what happened in popular music in the '60s, and "Vincent" sympathizes with Van Gogh's suicide as a sane comment on an insane world. "Crossroads" and "Empty Chairs" are personal reflections full of regret and despondency, with the love song "Winterwood" providing the only respite. In the album's second half, the songs get more portentous, tracing society's ills into war and spiritual troubles in "The Grave" and "Sister Fatima." The songs are made all the more poignant by the stately folk-pop arrangements and McLean's clear, direct tenor. It was that voice, equally effective on remakes of pop oldies, that was his salvation when he proved unable to match the songwriting standard set on Tapestry and this collection. But then, the album has an overall elegiac quality that makes it sound like a final statement. After all, if the music has died, what else is there to say? 引用 Sam Bethune, Amazon.com wrote:My brother bought this album when it was first released in 1972. After many repeated listenings over the years, it's still great. Some may say that it's "been goin' in and out of style" ala Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but the fact is that American Pie never left it's audience so much as its audience left it. The fact that only one customer reviewer rated it at less than four stars is a testament of its staying power (and I might add, that reviewer falsely asserted that the full length version of the title track did not appear on this CD, which probably accounted for the low rating).Sure "American Pie" is a rock classic and a staple of both classic rock and oldies stations everywhere, but the fact is that this album has so much more to offer. "Vincent", hardly the weak song that the Amazon.com reviewer rather stupidly portrays it to be, is a beautiful and lyrically rich tale of despair, loneliness, and disappointment. It's beautiful in it's simplicity. And many other customer reviewers have spoken eloquently about the shamefully overlooked "Sister Fatima" (which disappeared from reissues of the original vinyl LP but was restored in the CD version).The song that moves me the most is "Empty Chairs", a wistful song of lost love and loneliness that is in my opinion the beautiful and overlooked track on this CD. Listening to it brings me to the verge of tears. For those of you fortunate enough to see Don McLean's recent PBS special "Starry Starry Night", special guest Garth Brooks performed a first-rate cover of this song."American Pie" withstands the test of time as a quintessential recording in the vein of many of Bob Dylan's earlier works. It deserves a place in the collection of anyone who considers his or her self to be a rock afficianado. From what I could gather on the internet, this is supposedly the best sounding pressing of American Pie. It seems to be the consensus that MFSL fell down on the job with this CD, American Pie has the grand title of being the worst MFSL disc made, and the original vinyl sounds a bit muddy (judging from what others say, I do not own either one). It would seem that Doug Schwartz did it right with the 2003 remaster, no compression used, and not harsh, like many recent remasters can sound. Line-Up:- Don McLean / vocals, guitar, banjo- Warren Bernhardt / piano ( "Crossroads" )- Ray Colcord / electric piano- Tom Flye / drums ( "The Grave" ), engineering- Ed Freeman / string arrangements- Paul Griffin / piano ( "American Pie" )- Lee Hays / arranger- Mike Mainieri / marimba, vibraphone- Roy Markowitz / drums, percussion- Gene Orloff / concert master- Bob Rothstein / bass, vocals- David Spinozza / electric guitar ( "American Pie" )- West Forty Fourth Street Rhythm and Noise Choir / chorus ![]() 专辑曲目: 01. "American Pie" 8:3302. "Till Tomorrow" 2:1103. "Vincent" 3:5504. "Crossroads" 3:3405. "Winterwood" 3:0906. "Empty Chairs" 3:2407. "Everybody Loves Me, Baby" 3:3708. "Sister Fatima" 2:3109. "The Grave" 3:0810. "Babylon" (Trad., arr. Hays and McLean) 1:4011. "Mother Nature" 5:1112. "Aftermath" 4:03引用 ed2k://|file|Don.McLean.-.[American.Pie].专辑.(Flac).rar|267749789|30d35359c50559babeb9e7b397a35693|h=5u3p2naz5fizuvsqcfblsh4pgqtc7ruy|/
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发帖时间:2012-12-01 21:50:47 |
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