the singer-songwriter 's 16-page collection is expected to fetch up to $ 1.5 million -lrb- £ 1,006,303 -rrb- at auction today , which offers tantalising new details about the famous anthem , originally released in 1971 .
in an interview published by christie 's auction house new york , where the manuscript is up for grabs today , mclean says american pie is about ` heading in the wrong direction ' that the eight-minute-long song was released in 1971 and was a no. 1 u.s. hit for four weeks in 1972 .
mclean , 69 , writes about music being ` reborn ' .