So Christie’s expects the manuscript of Don McLean’s song American Pie to sell for $1.5m because it will finally “shed some light on its meaning” (Report, 14 February). Let me issue a word of caution to anyone thinking of spending such a huge amount to secure such “meaning”. In 1977 I heard Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles being interviewed about the lyrics of their song Hotel California: “So I called up the Captain, / Please bring me my wine. / He said ‘We haven’t had that spirit here / since nineteen sixty-nine’.” An earnest young music reporter asked them if this referred to the defeat of the US in Vietnam and the end of the American Dream. After a glance at each other they replied: “No, it just bloody rhymes.”
Bob Wood
Manchester
