McLean's grandfather and father, both also named Donald McLean, had roots originating in Scotland. The Buccis, the family of McLean's mother, Elizabeth, came from Abruzzo in central Italy. They left Italy and settled in Port Chester, New York at the end of the 19th century. He has other extended family in Los Angeles and Boston. Though some of his early musical influences included Frank Sinatra and Buddy Holly, as a teenager, McLean became interested in folk music, particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording At Carnegie Hall. He often missed long periods of school because of childhood asthma, particularly music lessons, and although McLean slipped back in his studies, his love of music was allowed to flourish. By age 16, he had bought his first guitar and began making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with the folk singers Erik Darling and Fred Hellerman of the Weavers.
McLean recorded Tapestry in 1969 in Berkeley, California during the student riots. After being rejected 72 times by labels, the album was released by Mediarts, a label that had not existed when he first started to look for a label. He worked on the album for a couple of years before putting it out. It attracted good reviews but little notice outside the folk community, though on the Easy Listening chart "Castles in the Air" was a success, and in 1973 "And I Love You So" became a number 1 Adult Contemporary hit for Perry Como.
McLean's major break came when Mediarts was taken over by United Artists Records, thus securing the promotion of a major label for his second album, American Pie. The album launched two number one hits in the title song and "Vincent". American Pie's success made McLean an international star and piqued interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In January 2018, BMI certified that "American Pie" and "Vincent" had reached five million and three million airplays respectively.
His composition "And I Love You So" has been sung by Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Helen Reddy, Glen Campbell, and others, and in 2000, Madonna had a hit with a rendition of "American Pie". His other hit singles include "Vincent" (US #12, UK #1 in 1972), "Dreidel" (US #21 in 1972), a rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" (US #5, UK #1 in 1980), a rendition of the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You" (US #23 in 1980), and "Wonderful Baby" (US AC #1 in 1975).
Dreidel
Don McLean Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
You just slow down
Round and around this world you go
Spinning through lives of the people you know
We all slow down
How you gonna keep on turning from day to day
No days you can borrow
No time you can buy
No trust in tomorrow
It's a lie
Oh I feel like a spinning top for a dreidel
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
You just slow down
Round and around this world you go
Spinning through lives of the people you know
We all slow down
How you gonna keep on turning from day to day
How you gonna keep from turning your life away
And I feel like I'm a-dipping and a-diving
My sky shoes are spiked with lead heels
I'm lost in this star car I'm a-driving
But my air sole keeps pushing big wheels
My world is a constant confusion
My mind is prepared to attack
My past a persuasive illusion
I'm watching the future its black
What do you know
You know just what you perceive
What can you show
Nothing of what you believe
And as you grow
Each thread of life that you lead
Will spin around your deeds
And dictate your needs
As you sell your soul
And you sow your seeds
And you wound yourself
And your loved one bleeds
And your habits grow
And your conscious feeds
On all that you thought you should be
I never thought this could happen to me-e-e-e-e
I feel like a spinning top for a dreidel
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
You just slow down
Round and around this world you go
Spinning through lives of the people you know
We all slow down
How you gonna keep on turning from day to day
How you gonna keep from turning your life away
I feel like a spinning top for a dreidel
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
You just slow down
You just slow down
You just slow down
The song Dreidel by Don McLean is reflecting on the idea of life being like a spinning top that continues to spin even after we leave the cradle, but eventually slows down. He uses the metaphor of a dreidel, a four-sided spinning top used in a traditional Jewish game, to convey his message. He questions how one can keep on turning from day to day and how we can prevent ourselves from turning our lives away. McLean emphasizes that there are no days we can borrow or time we can buy, and that we should not put trust in tomorrow because it is a lie.
The second half of the song shifts to McLean's personal experiences and his state of mind. He feels as if he is dipping and diving, lost in his life, and his mind is prepared to attack. He believes that our past is only an illusion, and we should watch for our future as it may seem dark. He emphasizes the idea that everything that we do will eventually come back around us and dictate our needs. In the end, he feels like he never thought this could happen to him.
Line by Line Meaning
I feel like a spinning top for a dreidel
Life feels like being a spinning top, used to spin a Jewish toy called a dreidel.
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
Life feels like this constant spinning, but even when you grow up and leave your cradle, it doesn't stop.
You just slow down
You keep spinning, but the pace slows down and you may feel like you're not going as fast as before.
Round and around this world you go
Life is like spinning around the world, with all of its ups and downs.
Spinning through lives of the people you know
As we go through life, we encounter the people we know and their lives, like we're spinning around them.
We all slow down
Eventually, our spinning slows down, and we start to feel the weight of the world more intensely.
How you gonna keep on turning from day to day
How do you keep going through life, day by day, when it feels like you're spinning?
How you gonna keep from turning your life away
How do you keep from getting lost in the spinning and losing track of your life?
No days you can borrow
You can't borrow days from the future or the past to make up for lost time.
No time you can buy
You can't buy more time, no matter how rich you are.
No trust in tomorrow
You never know what tomorrow will bring, so you can't always trust in it to make things better.
It's a lie
The idea that tomorrow will always be better is a lie, and we can't rely on it to fix our problems.
And I feel like I'm a-dipping and a-diving
The singer feels like they're going up and down, never on a straight path.
My sky shoes are spiked with lead heels
The singer feels weighed down by their problems, like they're wearing shoes with heavy heels.
I'm lost in this star car I'm a-driving
The singer feels adrift in the universe, driving a car through the stars with no sense of direction.
But my air sole keeps pushing big wheels
Despite feeling lost and weighed down, the artist keeps going, propelled forward by their determination.
My world is a constant confusion
The artist's world is constantly confusing and complicated, with many different things happening at once.
My mind is prepared to attack
The singer is always ready to fight, whether it's against their own thoughts or external forces.
My past a persuasive illusion
The singer's past can be deceiving, and they may not remember it accurately.
I'm watching the future its black
The artist doesn't know what the future will hold and is afraid of it.
What do you know
The artist is questioning what they actually know about life.
You know just what you perceive
You only know what you've experienced and seen, not the bigger picture.
What can you show
You can only show what you've experienced and seen, not the bigger picture.
Nothing of what you believe
What you believe may not be true, so it can't be shown to others as proof.
And as you grow
As you get older and gain more experience,
Each thread of life that you lead
Each action you take in life,
Will spin around your deeds
Will have an effect on your life and the lives of those around you.
And dictate your needs
Your actions will determine what you need and what you focus on in life.
As you sell your soul
As you make compromises and do things that go against your core beliefs,
And you sow your seeds
As you plant the seeds for your future actions and decisions,
And you wound yourself
As you hurt yourself through your actions and decisions,
And your loved one bleeds
As you hurt the people you love and care about,
And your habits grow
As your patterns of behavior become more ingrained,
And your conscious feeds
Your conscience tells you what's right and wrong, but you may not always listen to it.
On all that you thought you should be
You may have a certain idea of who you are and what you should strive for, but life doesn't always work out that way.
I never thought this could happen to me-e-e-e-e
The artist is surprised by the way their life has turned out, and it's not what they expected or wanted.
You just slow down
Even though life can feel like a constant spin, eventually you slow down and start to see things differently.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON MCLEAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
The Goddess
on The More You Pay
No. As The Auctioneer explains "what we don't sell we shoot or give away - cuz the more you pay, the more it's worth" so the horse is given to the persona/narrator rather than shooting it to death. The Gallery goes wild in celebration that the horse will go to someone instead of being killed.
Joe Boxer
on Vincent
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dcWFYtG8RFM