transcript
- 1. Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) Composed & performed by
Don McleanRead the short stories below and then listen and watch
this incredible story, song,and artwork unfold."Vincent, a song by
Don McLean, written as a tribute to Vincent VanGogh. It is also
known by its opening line, "Starry, Starry Night," areference to
Van Goghs painting "Starry Night. The song describesdifferent
paintings by Van Gogh. Don McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971after
reading a book about the life of the artist. The following year the
songbecame the #1 hit in the U.K. and #12 in the U.S.Starry Night
was painted during the time Van Gogh was in an asylum.He sold only
one painting during his lifetime, as his genius was notrecognized.
Thats perhaps what caused him to fall into an abyss ofdepression,
which eventually led to his suicide in 1890 at the age of 37.He
said in his final note that he was shooting himself for the good
ofall. How tragic to have felt so hopeless and not understood in
spite ofbeing so gifted!
- 2. Starry, starry night,paint your palette blue and gray.
- 3. Look out on a summers day
- 4. with eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the
hills,
- 5. sketch the trees and the daffodils,catch the breeze and the
winter chills
- 6. in colors on the snowy linen land. Now I understand
- 7. what you tried to say to me,
- 8. how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them
free.
- 9. They would not listen,they did not know how.
- 10. perhaps theyll listen now.
- 11. Starry, starry night,
- 12. flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
- 13. swirling clouds in violet hazereflect in Vincents eyes of
China blue..
- 14. Colors changing hue,
- 15. morning fields of amber grain,
- 16. weathered faces lined in painare soothed beneath the
artists loving hand.
- 17. Now I understand
- 18. what you tried to say to me,how you suffered for your
sanity, how you tried to set them free.
- 19. They would not listen.They did not know how.Perhaps theyll
listen now.
- 20. For they could not love you,
- 21. but still your love was true,and when no hopewas left in
sighton that starry, starrynight,
- 22. You took your life as lovers often do;But I could have told
you, Vincent,this world was never meantfor one as beautiful as
you.
- 23. Starry, starry night,
- 24. portraits hung in empty halls,
- 25. frameless heads on nameless walls,
- 26. with eyes that watch the world and cant forget. Like the
strangers that youve met,
- 27. the ragged men in ragged clothes,
- 28. the silver thorn of bloody roselie crushed and broken on
the virgin snow.
- 29. what you tried to say to me,how you suffered for your
sanity,
- 30. how you tried to set them free. They would not listen.
Theyre not listning still.
- 31. Perhaps, they never will.
- 32. Vincent van Gogh suffering in his final months