Don Mclean

Don McLean’s final album for United Artists was a musical tour de force, and the best self-contained account of the full breadth of McLean’s talent.

Don McLean - Prime Time
FLAC | Artwork | 24Bit 96kHz: 775 MB | 16Bit 44.1kHz: 244 MB
Cat#: EMI International INS 3011 | Country/Year: UK 1977
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Pop Rock | Hoster: Filesonic/Uploaded

McLean went in a dozen directions on this 1977 release. There are wild tunes like "Jump" (with great piano playing by Howie Wyeth), solemn ones like "The Statue," which is a solo vocal and string quartet (15 years before Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters), and back-to-the-roots banjo playing on "Redwing." McLean has always believed in the power of melody and worked against the stereotype he was saddled with because of "American Pie."…

The two-year interval covered in this volume of Time-Life Music's Singers & Songwriters series was one of consolidation for the many singer/songwriters who had emerged in the early '70s. Carole King followed up Tapestry, the album that established her as a performer after years as a songwriter, with Music, which spawned the hit "Sweet Seasons." James Taylor was on his second follow-up to his commercial breakthrough Sweet Baby James with One Man Dog, which produced "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight." His new wife Carly Simon released her third album, No Secrets, which gave Simon her biggest hit yet with "You're So Vain." John Denver, too, hit new sales peaks with Rocky Mountain High and its title single. And Cat Stevens had followed the success of Tea for the Tillerman with Teaser and the Firecat and its second single "Morning Has Broken." Meanwhile, several new singer/songwriters were crowding the field, among them Don McLean with the epic allegory "American Pie," America with its Neil Young sound-alike "A Horse With No Name," and Seals & Crofts with the lilting "Summer Breeze".