Don McLean Songs - Vincent Lyrics

Don McLean - Vincent

Don McLean - Vincent Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: American Pie
Released: 1972

Vincent Lyrics

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
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
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 inside
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 ragged clothes
A 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

Writer/s: MCLEAN, DON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Vincent Song Chart

The words and imagery of this song represent the life, work, and death of Vincent Van Gogh. A Starry Night is one of the Dutch impressionist's most famous paintings.

The lyrics, "Paint your palette blue and gray" reflect the prominent colors of the painting, and are probably a reference to Vincent's habit of sucking on or biting his paintbrushes while he worked. The "ragged men in ragged clothes" and "how you tried to set them free" refer to Van Gogh's humanitarian activities and love of the socially outcast as also reflected in his paintings and drawings. "They would not listen/They did not know how" refers to Van Gogh's family and some associates who were critical of his kindness to "the wretched."

"How you suffered for your sanity" refers to the schizophrenic disorder from which Van Gogh suffered. (thanks, Bruce - West Columbia, SC)

McLean told The Daily Telegraph February 24, 2010 the story of this song: "In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."

McLean was going through a dark period when he wrote this song. He explained to The Daily Telegraph: "I was in a bad marriage that was torturing me. I was tortured. I wasn't as badly off as Vincent was, but I wasn't thrilled, let's put it that way."

This song, and Van Gogh's painting, reflect what it's like to be misunderstood. Van Gogh painted "Starry Night" after committing himself to an asylum in 1889. He wrote that night was "more richly colored than the day," but he couldn't go outside to see the stars when he was committed, so he painted the night sky from memory.

Talking about the song on the UK show Songbook, McLean said: "It was inspired by a book. And it said that it was written by Vincent's brother, Theo. And Theo also had this illness, the same one Van Gogh had. So what caused the idea to percolate in my head was, first of all, what a beautiful idea for a piece of music. Secondly, I could set the record straight, basically, he wasn't crazy. But then I thought, well, how do you do this? Again, I wanted to have each thing be different.

I'm looking through the book and fiddling around and I saw the painting. I said, Wow, just tell the story using the color, the imagery, the movement, everything that's in the painting. Because that's him more than he is him.

One thing I want to say is that music is like poetry in so many ways. You have wit and drama and humor and pathos and anger and all of these things create the subtle tools that an artist, a stage artist, a good one, uses. Sadly, this has really gone out of music completely. So it makes someone like me a relic, because I am doing things and people like me are doing things that utilize all the classic means of emotional expression."

There could be some religious meaning in this song. McLean is a practicing Catholic, and has written songs like "Jerusalem" and "Sister Fatima" that deal with his faith. The "Starry Night" could mean creation, with many of the other lyrics referring to Jesus. McLean has said that several of the songs on the American Pie album have a religious aspect to them, notably the closing track "Babylon."

Josh Groban recorded the song for his self-titled debut album, which was released in 2001 when he was just 20 years old.

The British electronic artist Vincent Frank aka Frankmusik (check out "Better Off as Two") was named after this song.

Irish singer Brian Kennedy sang this song at footballer George Best's funeral.

According to the movie Tupac, the Resurrection, Gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur was influenced by Don McLean, and this was his favorite song. When he was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting in 1996, his girlfriend put this tune into a player next to his hospital bed to ensure it was the last thing he heard.

Underneath the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, there is a time capsule that contains the sheet music to this song along with some of the artist's brushes. This song is often played at the museum.

This soundtracked the moment on the "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" episode of The Simpsons when Lisa becomes interested in astronomy.