The song Parquet Courts’ Sean Yeaton hates passionately
In the early 1970s, Don McLean released an eight-and-a-half minute-long track that waved goodbye to Miss American Pie and commemorated the day of the death of music. Following its release, ‘American Pie’ would go on to earn mammoth success in charts across the world. Somehow, the success has proven to be even lengthier than its runtime. Until just a few years ago, it was the lengthiest song to take the number one spot on the Billboard chart.
Still, not everyone is a fan of McLean’s self-indulgent tale of the death of rock and roll. In fact, Parquet Courts guitarist Sean Yeaton shared his passionate dislike for the track during a conversation with AV Club. Picking out ‘American Pie’ as the song he hates most in the world, Yeaton declared his disbelief at the music industry’s general admiration for the track.
“It stood out to me as a song that I’ve rarely heard criticism of from musicians or even music critics,” he stated, “At best, I read things that skirt around it. It’s the longest No. 1 Billboard-topping song of all time, and it’s so crappy.”
It’s no surprise that Yeaton isn’t a fan of McLean. Leading the modern post-punk revival with New Yorkers Parquet Courts, his own music is a far cry from the folk-rock output of the so-called American troubadour. McLean’s soft stylings are no match for the playful urgency of Parquet Courts, marked by angularity and lyrical anxiety. Still, Yeaton’s opinions on the track seem to go slightly beyond casual distaste for an opposing genre.
“I hate to talk shit about another musician,” he maintains, “Not that Don McLean gives a shit about me. He’s chilling in a pink stretch limo right now, literally, eating pie, probably. But as a musician, you don’t want to bash somebody else. I guess that’s why it’s better to pick a song that’s so ubiquitous and crazy. It doesn’t really matter to him.”
Yeaton went on to declare it “arrogant” to write a piece about the end of an era, particularly because McLean was writing long after the era had ended. “It wasn’t even the same era,” he complained, “It was like 20 years before that song came out.” Yeaton deemed the track “the sonic equivalent of an old man waving his fist at a young person.”
The meaning behind the song isn’t the only reason Yeaton dislikes ‘American Pie’. The Parquet Courts bassist declared it “fucking insane” that the track was played live for the first time on Pi day, an ode to its name. He also expressed contempt for the audiences who didn’t understand the meaning of ‘American Pie’ and even suggested that it “sort of knocked American rock ‘n’ roll back a while. It screwed us over in a weird way.”
Between the track’s lengthy and self-indulgent pessimism and the continued, arguably undeserved, acclaim surrounding it, it’s understandable that Yeaton declared it his most hated. But if you’re slightly less critical of McLean’s lengthy laments for rock and roll, revisit the song below.
