A Classic Winner
A Classic Winner
Don McLean, the singer songwriter of ‘American Pie’ fame, lives in Maine, with his wife Patrisha and their two children. They live in a 15,000 square foot Gilded Aged Victorian Estate. The property, named Lakeview, sits on 175 acres in the Camden Hills just outside of Camden, Maine, USA. The house was built in 1907 and has spectacular views of Mt Battie and Lake Megunticook. “Apart from my music, there are many other interests I have and decorating this house is one of them,” recounts Don.
Don Mclean was born on 2nd October 1945 in a small house in New Rochelle, NY. Don, now 60, had developed an interest in all forms of music by the age of five. He has been writing and performing for more than 35 years. “I’ve got to the point now where I’m very thankful that there is a continuing interest in me for whatever reason. I’ve had a very successful career around the world, I’ve played the game my way and I’ve ended up owning all my songs and recordings. I’ve come out a winner.”
Generally regarded as his masterpiece, “American Pie” was released in 1971 and charted within a month, “It is probably the best song I ever wrote. It creates an indefinable environment and story that really is the story of America and American music, which is what I tried to do without being pedantic and didactic.”
Time and time again every line of the song has been analysed to find interpretations. The great ‘American Pie Debate’ continues today. When people ask Don what “American Pie” means, he tells them, “it means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”
Don Mclean approaches interior design and decoration with the same passion and intuition he displays in his music. Don, self-professed American Troubadour, loves a story. His lyrics tell a story as does his home. His decorative choices reflect his love for the narrative.
Don has indulged his interest in interior design and the decorative arts for the past 30 years. He has previously had homes in Garrison NY and in Castine Maine (that he still owns). Both these homes were tastefully decorated with elegant antiques and carefully chosen artefacts.
Don Mclean describes Lakeview, which he bought in 1990 as a “grand mansion of a place, it’s got about 15 rooms. There is also a coach house with three bedrooms, caretaker’s house with two bedrooms and a farmhouse with about 11 rooms. The barn with about eight stalls in it house his 4 horses. There are 40 acres of blueberry fields, 60 or 70 acres of hard timber, regular fields for horses, regular scrub woods, rivers, streams, fish ponds and a massive man made pool which I designed and had put in, on top of a mountain, about three years ago”.
Of his current home, Don says, “I decorated the entire house my wife had nothing to do with it. I am nuts about antiques and architecture and I do everything, all the painting and the colours. I have been doing it (this house) for over 15 years, it is endless…”
The living room is decorated with simple classic antiques “I like elegant antiques,” and the ability to differentiate, Don claims, “comes with training your eye. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on these things”.
There are two important antiques in the living room; the Chippendale Highboy and the Governor Winthrop Desk. Of the highboy, Don says, “I had to have one, the large dimensions of the room, 20 foot by 40 foot required that sort of large impressive piece.”
Don discovered both these pieces while visiting a local family run store in Brewer Maine. He says he was strangely drawn to the store that day. “I had a premonition. I just lucked out that day. I bought both of those.”
Don admires President Lincoln and behind the desk there is a “Life Mask” of the President. “It was actually taken from his face” Don proclaimed. In the corner of this room there is another image of the dead president. On a table sits a bust of President Lincoln made by the artist Zenos Frudakis, a friend of the McLean’s. Don’s interest in Lincoln stems from a facination and admiration of that time in American history, the Lyceum Period. “Lincoln gave his famous Gettysberg Address at the opening of the Gettysberg Cemetary. The cemetery was designed in the Greek tradition, as a place to contemplate the meaning of life among the dead. I love the period. I like the way America was. It is only an image now, it doesn’t really exist any more but, if you live here you can feel like you were there.”
Don’s respect for the Native American heritage of the region is evident in some of his decorative choices. Don felt the masculine feel of the den would be a perfect background for some of the Native American artefacts he has collected. In the den, there is an Indian Arrow and Quiver Outfit that Don bought in Rapid City North Dakota when he played at the Cheyenne Frontier Day a few years ago. “I am really fascinated with Indian things and with Indian culture. Most of the places I’ve lived were actually, at one point, Indian burial grounds or Indian spiritual areas of some sort. The Indian wars were a travesty; we should be ashamed of what we did.”
More evidence of this fascination is on the grounds, “The Penobscot Indian Totem Pole is another thing I felt I needed here. This tribe is native to Maine and again I had a premonition. I had to go to this guy that I know, I had been looking for a totem pole forever and he had just got this one. I thought it would look great just as you were coming up the driveway.”
Don has taken his inspiration from all over the world. On a trip to France with his wife, Don visited Napoleon’s apartments in the Louver in Paris. “You go in and it’s unbelievable, there are these massive chandeliers. There are four rooms in a row and so you see these four massive chandeliers and you know, I said to myself, you can’t have enough chandeliers. So I went back home and decided that the dining room was going to have a massive chandelier, no point pussy footing around. I had a lot of fun checking them out. You can get crystal but you can also get cut glass, which is a lot cheaper and looks just the same. I think it looks great.”
Don keeps most of the evidence of his long and successful career in his office.
The walls in Don’s office are decorated with some of his 4O or more gold and platinum records. “I gave a lot of them away, I gave them to girlfriends, and actually I used to give a lot of stuff away to people. I still have this impulse to be generous from time to time.”
There are also a lot of pictures on the walls, “there are these pictures of me with a lot of people, and a nice picture of Madonna from American Pie sheet music which I framed. She’s very Madonna-ish in that picture.”
Six years ago, Don took part in the Millenium Celebration in Washington. “I guess the powers that be consider me to be an important influence of the 20th century. It was probably the biggest Gala in Washington ever. I sang “American Pie” looking at the Washington Monument with 600 000 people on all sides of the wading pool there, with all the dignitaries and government in front of me, and SWAT team under the stage in case of terrorists. The moment I sang, the monument lit up and the number 2000 was emblazoned on the tip.”
The coach house and the grounds of the estate are Patrisha’s domain. Don describes his wife, as a wonderful photographer and something of a rose expert. “Landscaping is where Patrisha’s influence comes into play. She designed the massive gardens that are all around the property”.
In the past 15 years Don has restored the house, which was destined to be torn down at one point, to its former glory. “I’ve brought it back to what it was in its heyday.”
For Don Mclean this house is it, “this is the end of the trail for me, no more painting no more nothing. I have satisfied these urges fully. If I ever do have another house it will have to require zero upkeep, but I did love the experience. I have really loved doing it. I’ve never regretted a penny I’ve spent on this place. Isn’t that a nice feeling, you know, it is better than money.”
Don McLean continues on his journey to live with integrity and truth. ‘I am an artist. I’ve tried to become a better person throughout my life. You’re either going in the right direction or the wrong direction. I tell my kids, perfection is a direction.”
Don McLean is about to release a new album entitled “Addicted to Black.”
His biography, “Killing Me Softly With His Song, The Don McLean Story” is also about to be released.
Find out more at www.don-mclean.com or www.americanpie.com
For information about Patrisha McLean’s photography; www.patrishamclean.com
