Does anybody else have an origin story for the song itself, not the subject? In Saratoga Springs, NY, I was told that Don McLean had a gig at the Caffe Lena in June 1971. After the show, (Friday or Saturday night; the regular engagement there was/is a three-day weekend for "name" performers) he went to the Tin & Lint Bar, still an excellent establishment. At the time it was also in posession of one of the finest eclectic music collections, both jukebox and phonograph records, to be found. As time passed, listening to the music (and presumably having a few) he concluded They Don't Write Them Like That Anymore, and wrote American Pie. (A large quiet man nicknamed Sloth was tending bar that night. He's not the type to make up things, or exaggerate. We talked about this long ago, and I believe him.) Don was staying that weekend at the Wildflowers folk musicians' co-op. As Don was getting ready to go out the next day, one of the co-op members (nicknamed (White) Rat because fo his hair color; there's nothin else rodent-like about him) handed him the paper with the lyrics on it, saying that he (Don) had forgotten them. That night, he sang the song at the Caffe, and the cook (Max Valdez), remarked, half as a joke "In six months, that will be on the Top Forty!" That weekend, Lena booked him for his reuglar New Years Weekend gig. In six months the song was on the Top Forty, and the (tiny) place was packed over New Years. My other sources: Max and Caffe waitresses (much closer to 1971 than to today),and Andy Cohen, another member of Wildflowers (likewise, regarding the time frame).