How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 09:26 AM

Going by that link andrew e posted the guitar didn't seem particularly out of tune to me, not compared with the voice. Not one of his better songs, and not a good one to pick for the occasion. If he'd really been on song, and the guitar perfectly in tune it still wouldn't have worked too well.

Still, American Pie was enough to make always be grateful to the man.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 10:09 AM

Nevertheless, Don Mclean had an exceptionally fine voice in his heyday - tracks such as Crying - and did some fine instrumental work on guitar and banjo. his recording of Vincent is in a time capsule under the van gogh museum in amsterdam. Whatever format, i hope they have the technology to play it when they dig it up in a millennium or two.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: mayomick
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 10:30 AM

I often think that Don McClean sings slightly off key , as do many performers Frank Sinatra , Neil Young come to mind -the pop singer Sade was accused of the crime recently .Perhaps he likes to have his guitar slightly out of tune ,or have it tuned to whatever way he had it when he was last playing it -some musicians are actually superstitious in that regard . Whatever happened to "close enough for jazz"?

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 01:30 PM

Don McClean is a great songwriter. His song was musically lovely. I don't care about his slipped E string. His accompaniment was excellent. He seemed tired but delivered his
song with passion and conviction. I love that song. Most traditional folk performers are often out of tune but who cares? Answer: only pickiest pseudo-folkies.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 02:46 PM

Seems he favors a shaggy-haired George W. Bush.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 03:07 PM

DM is a great songwriter and performer but I'll bet he wishes he had that one back. I had to click it off after about 30 seconds.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 04:00 PM

I can't remember what song it was (it wasn't American Pie) but some weeks ago, Don McLean appeared on TV (it may have been "The One Show" which is on BBC1 in early evening, or else Breakfast Television) and was having trouble hitting the high notes. I didn't know whether it was his voice which had gone with age (a la Pete Seeger) or whether he had just chosen the wrong key to sing in alongside the guitar (he didn't tune the guitar as it must have already been tuned). However he sounded OK on the second song. I often wonder how good many folk and other singers are - as a very amateur performer I generally need to make sure the song is in a particular key (though if the vocal range is not too large, I may be able to sing it in 1 or 2 other keys which are only a key note or two different, e.g. C and D or G and A, etc). Of course if you are lucky to be like Mariah Carey who I understand has a vocal range of 5 octaves (mine is probably an octave and a half, or two at best) then singing in any of the 12 keys would be no problem. I would be interested to know if any other performers on Mudcat find they need to stick to a limited range of keys. I presume if you have a large vocal range but also play the guitar or other stringed instruments, you can get off with having to learn fewer chords.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 05:22 PM

I saw that dodgy performance as well and thought that perhaps like most people his voice had dropped with time. The presenters asked, or expected, him to sing some of American Pie, and he attempted it in the key he recorded it in about 48 years ago, rather than dropping it by a tone or so. Since it was in G major, I suppose it would have been difficult to play in F and retain the same open guitar sound (eg. B flat, F, C etc). It was also the Breakfast Show, and who can sing well that early in the day? Your own vocal range sounds about the same as most of us, ie less than two octaves and being able to render songs about a tone higher and lower than your ideal key.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 03:57 AM

I meant your ideal key for that particular song, because the melody can often be at the top or lower end of the chosen key. One might be comfortable with keys close to say C, but could still handle songs in G if the melody was at the high end, or even the low end but you pitched it an octave higher.
Although I know some do, you can’t really get away with learning fewer chords if you always sing in the same key, because there are various ways of playing in that key, even without the use of a capo, secondly you need to be more versatile if accompanying others, and thirdly you would missing out on a vast range of other sounds and possibilities.

Subject: RE: How out of tune was Don McLean's guitar?
From: Hamish
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 04:03 AM

His guitar was out of tune on The Breakfast Show around that date too. I'd use the phrase "embarrassingly out of tune" to describe it.