The manuscript for Don McLean's American Pie, which was partially written on paper he found in a trash can, has sold for $1.2 million (€1,105786) at a New York auction. Christie's sold 16 pages of McLean's handwritten lyrics and typed drafts for his 1971 hit that had a high estimate of $1.5 million. Two people bid in the single-lot sale that lasted about one minute. The buyer, who was among a dozen people who attended the sale, asked to remain anonymous, Christie's said.

McLean (69), who did not attend the auction, said in an interview last month that “this is actually the scribble sheets for trying to figure out what I was going to say and what I was going to do” .

The symbolism of American Pie has long eluded listeners who try to decipher the complicated lyrics of the eight-minute, 36-second song that opens with "a long long time ago," and tells the story of "a generation lost in space" and "the day the music died."

McLean said he rarely comments on the song’s meaning because he wants people to interpret the lyrics themselves. He said he tried to simulate the feeling of a dream and “capture something that you cannot express.”

The singer said he sold the manuscript because “my wife and children don’t seem to have the knack for making money, and I seem to have that.”

McLean, who lives in Camden, Maine, and starts a tour of the UK, Ireland – he is playing two dates at Vicar Street on May 31st and June 1st – and the US. in May, said he “couldn’t care less” who buys the lyrics. “They’re not mine anymore,” he said.

Rock memorabilia collecting is proving popular among investors. The manuscript for Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone sold for more than $2 million in 2012, and The Beatles' A Day in the Life sold for $1.2 million in 2010. – (Bloomberg)