The original manuscript featuring deleted lyrics and notes for Don Mclean's iconic song 'American Pie' is expected to fetch up to 1.5 million dollars at auction in on 7 April.
The 69-year-old songwriter said that he decided to sell the 16-page document and has admitted the beginning of the more than eight-minute song is about the death of singer Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash with Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson in 1959, Stuff.co.nz reported.
McLean noted that he wanted to capture, probably before it was ever formulated, a rock-and-roll American dream, adding that the writing and the lyrics will divulge everything there is to divulge.
Francis Wahlgren, the international director of printed books and manuscripts at Christie's, said the fact that the drafts, the working process of 'American Pie,' are all being offered as this lot makes it a remarkable insight into the mind of Don McLean and into this incredible song that has touched so many people.
There is something about this six-versed song, which was written in Cold Spring, New York, and in Philadelphia, reflects the social upheavals of the 1960s and early '70s and there is a kind of innocence to it, a loss of innocence in America, said Wahlgren.
Wahlgren added that they've seen records double or triple for manuscripts in a matter of years because there has been a heightened interest in those very rare and truly significant manuscripts that come on the market.