Every musician has to make a start somewhere before they release
\ntheir masterpiece. It’s rare when an artist hits the bullseye on
\ntheir first try – and when they do, they face the inenviable task
\nof always trying to top their first effort.<\/p>\n
Don McLean didn’t hit the bullseye on his first effort,
\nTapestry<\/i>. However, he did create an album that, more often
\nthan not, was entertaining. (He would hit paydirt one album later
\nwith
\nAmerican Pie<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
McLean quickly proves on the eleven songs contained herein that
\nhe is both a guitarist and a voice that was to be reckoned with.
\nWhile I wasn’t particularly fond of the rock bent to the first song
\n“Castles In The Air,” it does help to establish McLean as a
\npowerful songwriter and one of the strongest voices in the folk
\nmovement of that time, right up there with John Denver and Jim
\nCroce.<\/p>\n
McLean’s talents come forth stronger on songs like “And I Love
\nYou So,” “Bad Girl,” “Magdalene Lane” and “General Store”. The
\ngentle intertwining of his vocals with the hum of acoustic guitar
\nwould be the signature of his music for his whole career – and
\nfrankly, it’s not a bad way to be remembered. Songs like “Bad Girl”
\nare surprisingly moving for such a young artist; don’t be surprised
\nif you find yourself close to tears on this one.<\/p>\n
However, not everything on
\nTapestry<\/i> is a work of art. “Orphans Of Wealth” is a very
\npreachy song that tends to grate on one’s nerves quickly. One other
\nnumber, “Circus Song,” features far too many style changes. This
\none could have been an effective number, only McLean made it far
\ntoo complicated than it should have been. (I’m not against songs
\nthat challenge the listener, but if you write a song whose goal is
\nto be complicated in structure, you usually only succeed in being
\nconfusing.)<\/p>\n
While a lot of the music on
\nTapestry<\/i> is fairly enjoyable, it is not the masterpiece one
\nmight have expected, especially if you’ve grown up (like I have) on<\/p>\n
American Pie<\/i>. But to ignore this album is also not a good
\nidea. It does present the seeds of McLean’s greatness, in both his
\nmusical ability and his ability to tell a story through a song
\n(“General Store”). It is traits like these that made ’70s folk-pop
\nsome of the best music I have ever had the grace of experiencing,
\neven if I’m experiencing some of it much later in my life. (Gimme a
\nbreak; I think I was all of one year old when this one came
\nout.)<\/p>\n
\nTapestry<\/i> is still a pleasurable album to listen to, even
\nwith its flaws, and it does show that McLean was just getting
\nwarmed up for what would be the album that he will always be
\nremembered for. Unfortunately, in the shuffle of time, albums like
\nthis one have been forgotten – pity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5712],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39270","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-don-mclean","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39270"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}