Don McLean – starry image, tormented reality

Singer Don McLean has been talking about his iconic 1971 “American Pie” mega-hit which has spawned an army of fanboy codebreakers . Who was the jester who sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean? What exactly was revealed the day the music died? The Vietnam war, social revolution, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, JFK, Mick Jagger, Martin Luther King, Charles Manson, Hells Angels, The Beatles, hallucinogenic drugs, God, the Devil.

  He made his name with a few standout hits like “Vincent” and “Wonderful Baby” and cruised along successfully for decades with an amiable image until his second wife of 30 years Patrisha McLean, reported him for domestic violence and divorced him. She has since talked about their relationship in a travelling exhibit about domestic violence called Finding Our Voices. He has issued flat denials and the subsequent court cases were kept confidential.

   But his daughter from that marriage recently published an essay in which she talked about her childhood: “My father was afraid to let us leave the house. He always told us that it was dangerous outside. Friends were not allowed to come over.” She also said her father would grow angry whenever she would show signs of growing up: “He could never forgive us for growing up. He wanted to keep us, his lost children, in a Peter Pan fantasy. Every sign of growth caused an outburst……. Every day he talked wistfully about the good times when we were immobile, mute, helpless against any influence. “I remember when you were first born,” he’d say, “you were the first thing that was ever completely mine.”

  McLean was born 2 October 1945 4.17 am New Rochelle, New York, and has a stellium of Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune in Libra in his 1^st, trine Uranus and Midheaven and sextile Pluto in Leo. An emphasised Pluto in the 11^th would make him influential out in society as well as fairly controlling in his attitudes. His Libra planets are also in a square to a volatile, over excitable Mars in Cancer in his 10^th so he would have a short fuse.  Uranus on his Midheaven would also make him inclined to walk his own road and not co-operate.

  It’s not that obviously violent a chart though he would be inclined to flare up at irritations. His midpoints including his Moon are tied into various Mars midpoints. But what is perhaps significant is an unaspected Leo Moon in his hidden 12^th. He would have a strong sense of disconnection, of never feeling at home within himself or supported by his environment. It is seen as the most psychologically traumatic of any of the planets which lack integration in the chart – leaving the individual feeling acutely vulnerable. He admits in a recent interview to never having been happy and also always needing to be in control.

  His Saturn in Cancer will be regretful about hurts of childhood and since Capricorn rules his 5^th house of children he’d over-protect his children as a way of not causing himself pain.

  Not that I’m making excuses. He was old enough to get his act together and get himself sorted – without acting out his ***t over everyone in his close environment.   Never get taken in by showbusiness smiles – the public image usually hides enough secrets to fill a psychiatric textbook.