1. American Pie (8:34) - The first and last verses and the first and last occurrences of the chorus are sung at a very slow tempo with no drums. The rest of the song is moderately fast with drums and a tambourine. In the first verse the narrator looks back on the day in February 1959 when Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens died in the crash of their plane. CTPB, the plane was not named American Pie; instead, Don apparently just personified the plane as "Miss American Pie." Anyway, that day is known as "the day the music died." The "widowed bride" was Maria Elena Holly. In the third verse Bob Dylan is portrayed as a jester who stole the crown from Elvis' head, while John Lennon is said to have "read a book of Marx" hours before the Beatles' final concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. In the next-to-last verse, the "Satan" was Mick Jagger. By the time this song was released in 1971, songs of this length had become acceptable, including the Beatles' "Hey Jude." This song is Don's all-time biggest hit; I hear it on the radio more often than any of his other songs.
2. Vincent (3:59) - The main instrument in this slow song is a guitar. Other instruments include a string quartet, but no drums. This song is a eulogy to the 19th-century artist Vincent Van Gogh, who had committed suicide. The narrator describes a few of the scenes that Van Gogh had painted; he understands the message that Van Gogh had tried to convey through his paintings, the message that other people had failed to understand.
3. And I Love You So (4:16) - This song features the same instruments and tempo as its predecessor. When people ask the narrator how he managed to live to see the moment he met his girlfriend, he tells them he doesn't know. Until he met her, shadows followed him everywhere he went.
4. Crying (3:41) - Don's cover of a Roy Orbison hit is slow. At first this song, like the two songs before it, features a guitar and classical string instruments but lacks drums. But at 1:46, drums do enter and the song crescendoes up to the end.
5. Castles In The Air (3:41) - This song is moderately slow and features a guitar, drums, string instruments, a tambourine, and a flute. I can relate well to the narrator of this song, who was born in the city but would be happier living in the country.
6. Dreidel (3:45) - Most of the time the tempo is moderately fast. At one point, though, it is moderately slow and then accelerates to its original speed. Also, at the end, the tempo decelerates. Besides instruments mentioned in previous songs, this one features horns. Over the first 13 seconds the song fades in. "Dreidel" is apparently the German word for "top"; the narrator compares his life to the spinning of a top.
7. Winterwood (3:09) - This song is slightly slower than the previous one. The instruments here are a guitar, drums, and an electric piano. The narrator values the time he spends with his girlfriend. With her he has seen things about nature that he had never seen without her. The singing of the birds in Winterwood provides a balance to the gray skies and leafless, snow-covered trees.
8. Everyday (2:24) - This moderately slow cover of a Buddy Holly song features a guitar, a piano, and drums. A piano roll follows the final beat of the other instruments.
9. Mountains O'Mourne (4:27) - This song has a moderately slow, 3/4 tempo. At first the only instrument is a guitar, but as the second verse starts a piano enters. This song lacks drums, though. The narrator is commenting on city life in London; considering what such life is like, he would rather return home to the Mourne mountain range of Northern Ireland, which "sweeps down to the sea"--the Irish Sea. I see a common attitude here between the narrator in this song and the one in "Castles."
10. Prime Time (4:59) - The tempo is moderately fast and lively. This time drums do accompany the guitar and piano. In the verses the narrator describes various scenes found on TV during the evening hours. In the chorus, TV-watching is described as "living the American way."