Starry, Starry Night

Listening Pleasure / Reverie

"Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, 
they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will."




"Vincent" is a song written by singer-songwriter Don McLean as a tribute to famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. It is also known by its opening line, "Starry Starry Night", a reference to the Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh's 1889 painting The Starry Night, an oil on canvas. 

Keeping with his reputation as a crazy artist, Van Gogh was committed to a mental health asylum in Arles after the ear incident with Gauguin. History has it that Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in the mental hospital, and that the landscape in the painting depicts a dreamy interpretation of the view Van Gogh had from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an ideal village.  

In Starry Night painting, contoured forms are a means of expression and they are used to convey emotion. Many feel that van Gogh´s turbulent quest to overcome his illness is reflected in the dimness of the night sky. The village is painted with dark colors but the brightly lit windows create a sense of comfort.


Don McLean wrote the lyrics of this famous song in 1971 after reading a book about the life of van Gogh. It's poignantly beautiful.

Starry, Starry Night 

Artist: Don McLean, Singer-Songwriter

American Pie Released: 1971

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in the ragged clothes
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will.

Songwriters: Don McLean

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Video Credit: 

Don McLean - Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) with Lyrics. Uploaded by wysty67. Accessed June 10, 2019.

Resource:

Vincent (Song). en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed June 10, 2019. 



(c) 2018. Updated June 10, 2019. Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.