Last month, many people — many people on the Internet, anyway — were upset about a New York Times opinion piece titled “Should Classic Rock Songs Be Toppled Like Confederate Statues?” Well of course they shouldn’t! Who dares even ask such an absurd question? But despite the clickbait headline, the piece itself asks questions that conservative music fans have probably been asking themselves for years.
In the piece, Jennifer Finney Boylan considers the legacy of singer-songwriter Don McLean. For decades, his song “American Pie” has given Boomers the delight of explaining obscure cultural references to children and grandchildren (the more precocious of whom ask, “But Daddy, why does he say ‘the good ol’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye’ — isn’t rye a type of whiskey? Shouldn’t he say bourbon and rye?”). But McLean’s ex-wife has accused him of psychological and physical abuse, which has ruined the song for Boylan.
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