Why Was the “American Pie” Manuscript Sold at Auction?
The original “American Pie” lyrics headed to auction at Christie’s on April 7, 2015, where they sold for $1.2 million. The handwritten lyrics were a never-before-seen 16-page document that included 237 lines of manuscript and 26 lines of typed text. When asked why he has decided to part with the lyrics at that specific moment, McLean stated: “I’m going to be 70 this year. I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It’s time.”
American Pie” Manuscript. Source: nypost.com
He also mentioned that for years he hadn’t been sure he still had the manuscript but started to look for it in his boxes after former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres asked him about his thoughts on giving his papers to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When he found the manuscript, McLean said that it was the first time in decades that he saw it again.
The manuscript consists of multiple pages on colored paper and several pages taken out from a spiral notebook. It includes several lines that haven’t made the cut for the final version of the song, such as “And there I stood alone and afraid/I knelt to my knees and there I prayed/and I prepared to give all I had to give/If only he would make it live again.”