Posted on 03/26/2019 8:26:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
McLean talks with MarketWatch about the only two stocks he owns, the meaning of ‘American Pie,’ and why he’s never had an assistant.
In 1971, Don McLean released the album “American Pie,” and the title song became one of the most famous — and successful — ever made. It came out at a time of major political and social upheaval in America, and captured a feeling of loss. The song runs for over eight minutes, and is No. 5 on the list of best songs of the 20th century. Now 73, McLean talked with MarketWatch about his most famous song, and a wide range of other topics, including money, stardom, and the music business today.
McLean says he’s made $150 million in his career, and that his degree in finance (from Iona College in 1968) and his smart business manager helped him make the money last — and grow. He looks to make 6% a year on his money, so he owns a lot of bonds, and only two stocks. McLean, who has been married twice and has two children, hates the idea of being in debt, and buys everything with cash — including the four homes he’s owned.
He’s curious about the markets and at one point in the interview said, “I want to ask you something. In a relatively short time, the stock market has gone from like 18000 to 25000. Don’t people think that’s a little strange? It’s shocking.” He then said: “When I grew up, gold was $35 an ounce and pegged to the dollar. Everything was slow and steady. Government bonds under President Carter, if you went out 30 years you could get like 20%! Do you remember that? Imagine getting 20%, locking that in for 30 years? I’d do that in a minute.”
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
You have to sing for the down and out. You have to know what butters your bread.
"Drove my Chevy to the levee" alludes to a popular 1950s Chevrolet television commercial sung by Dinah Shore:
"Drive your Chevrolet through the USA, America's the greatest land of all, on a highway or a road along a levee..."
Like most of the song, he's referring back to the idyllic America he remembers before the upheaval of the sixties left the levee dry.
Interesting. My neighbor in FL who grew up dirt poor and became super, uber wealthy always paid cash for everything, his house, two vacation homes, three Mercedes in the driveway, etc.
However, he most assuredly would not have driven a Chevie to the levee...
Never heard of ‘em. Don McLean was a one hit wonder to most people.
Iron Mountain pays 7%...I believe.
Shapiro is basically a snob
20% Bonds is strange and shocking, not the market going up. McLean would have made much much more if he invested in stocks over the past 45 years.
McLean had 3 songs hit the Top Ten, plus another half dozen reach lesser chart heights. Your ignorance of those songs doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. He cannot be considered a 1-hit wonder, by any definition of the term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk
>He lives locally and is a real a$$hole, beats his wife.
Bingo. Something people either ignore or are not aware of, I think there’s a restraining order in place too?
I was selling tax leveraged leases,in the late 70s, early 80s and the interest rates were any where from 15-25% APR and I had to get money on one deal from the Banc of Caracas, {we had to check it for white powder:).
I remember in 1971 when Nixon first allowed gold to float it was at $114-$118 an ounce.
The funny thing about the sing-a-long thing is, and I suppose I can tell you this, Pete Seeger was a communist and he was really a communist. He wasn't just a had been one or whatever; he was all his life. And communism and fascism are pretty closely aligned in some ways and one of the things they want to do is get hold of your mind and get you to thinking like they do. Hitler had these youth camps and what they would do is they would SING ALONG! They’d all sing along and pretty soon they were all one, you know. So the whole left-wing sing-a-long thing was the left side of that whole thing, getting people to sing along. If you sing along maybe you’ll start to believe it.OK, let's get into they psychology with Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Leftism Revisited:
Identity and Diversity . . . The conformist herd instinct was, for example, the driving motor behind the nationalistic gymnastic organizations of the Germans and the Slaves, so potent in the first half of this century. Watching five or ten thousand identically dressed men or women carrying out identical movements, one gets an overpowering impression of homogeneity, synchronization, symmetry, uniformity.Oh, love, love, that analysis. Which is to say, I don't believe for a minute that the song was wishing for an 1950s American Pie. Oh, the irony: folk music wanted so much freedom that when it came to politics, their utopist vision easily became a tool of the left--at least in the USA. Think about it.The demand for equality and identity arises precisely in order to avoid that fear, that feeling of inferiority. Nobody is better, nobody is superior, nobody feels challenged, everybody is "safe" Furthermore, if identity, if sameness has been achieved, then the other person's actions and reactions can be forecast. With no (disagreeable) surprises, a warm herd feeling of brotherhood emerges. These sentiments--this rejection of quality (which ineluctably differs from person to person) explains much concerning the spirit of the mass movement of the last two hundred years. Simone Weil has told us that the "I" comes from the flesh, but the "we" comes from the Devil.
Identity's other factor is envy. Envy has several complex psychological roots. There is, first of all, the curious feeling that whatever one person possesses has in some way been taken away from another: "I am poor because he is rich." This inner, often unspoken sentiment rests on the assumption that all good things in this world are finite. In the case of money, or even more so of landed property, this might have some substance. (Hence the enormous envy of peasants for one another's real estate.) This contention, however, is often unconsciously extended to values that are not finite. Isabel is beautiful; Eloise is ugly. Yet Isabel's beauty is not the result of Eloise's plainness, nor Bob's brightness of Tim's stupidity. Envy sometimes subconsciously uses a statistical argument: "Not all of us sisters can be pretty, nor all of us brothers bright. Fate has discriminated against me!"
The second aspect of envy lies in the superiority of another person in a different respect. A burning envy can be created by the mere suspicion that the other person feels superior on account of looks, brains, brawn, money, or whatever. The only way to compensate is to find inferior qualities in the object of envy: "He is rich, but he is evil," "He is successful, but his family life is miserable." The envied person's shortcomings serve as a consolation: sometimes they serve as an excuse for attack, especially if the shortcomings are moral.
In the last two hundred years the exploitation of envy--its mobilization among the masses--coupled with the denigration of individuals, but more frequently of classes, races, nations, or religious communities, has been the key to political success.
“Some of my money is still in corporates and some is now in preferred stocks and so I get a little protection against the market and also benefits from the market. And that’s worked nicely. I try to get, like, a 6% return if I can — 5 or 6%. That’s enough for me. “
Smart guy.
I'm unclear about the $150 million.
Does he have $150 million in assets right *now*, or has he made $150 million over his career? (40- 50 years)
Either figure is impressive.
The American pie song was an embarrassingly stupid song. I’ve never heard the song played anywhere over the last 40 years. Cover bands won’t touch it.
Nevertheless he invested his money wisely and I salute him.
The day the music died was when Buddy Holly died, in 1959.
It was definitely and sad day.
Age of Aquarius didn’t come out until ten years later.
No need to conflate the time periods. Holly, sad. Hair, jubilation.
from a live perfomance on the BBC Network ‘Sounds For Saturday’ in 1972:
https://bit.ly/1q7S3KX
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