https://youtu.be/oxHnRfhDmrk

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 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

— Vincent Lyrics as written by Don Mclean: It’s opening  refrain, “Starry, Starry Night”, a reference to Van Gogh’s 1889 painting The Starry Night.McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971 after reading a book about the life of Van Gogh. It was released on McLean’s 1971 American Pie album; the following year, the song topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks, and peaked at No. 12 in the United States, where it also hit No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 94 song for 1972.

The song makes use mainly of the guitar, but also includes the accordion, marimba, and strings.

In July 2020, the original handwritten lyrics went up for sale for $1.5 million. McLean said the following about the genesis of the 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.”.                                                            The Telegraph wrote: “With its bittersweet palette of major and minor chords, “Vincent”‘s soothing melody is one of high emotion recollected in tranquillity”. AllMusic retrospectively described the song as “McLean’s paean to Van Gogh … sympathiz[ing] with Van Gogh’s suicide as a sane comment on an insane world.” The site also said McLean performs “a particularly poignant rendition” of “Vincent” on the 2001 live album Starry, Starry Night.

The song was a particular favorite of the rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, and was played to him in the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, the hospital where Tupac was admitted just before he died of gunshot wounds from a drive-by shooting.

https://youtu.be/ddGcwoNHofM     CLICK HERE to view another Lyrics Video with Van Gogh ‘s Paintings in the background ::   https://youtu.be/bw8zr1n-MFo    CLICK HERE to view the Cover With Lyrics Video:: Vocals : Ellie Goulding : : For The Don Mclean’s Song : Vincent : released on Valentine’s day : 2018 : : McLean tweeted to Goulding saying “‘Vincent’ is not an easy song to sing and you sing it very beautifully.” She included her cover in her 2020 Songbook for Christmas EP. : : : : : : : : :: https://youtu.be/gaDj7sARiWU    CLICK HERE , 16 December 2018, Jasmine Thompson and Ryan Keen  duet cover performed for their YouTube Channel. : : : : અર્થ નિર્દેશ આસ્વાદ કાવ્યાર્થ વિચાર સંકલન વિ જયરાજ : : વિન્સેન્ટ વાન ગોગની ‌એક ઉચ્ચ સ્તરના ચિત્રકાર તરીકે જીવવાની ભારે મથામણ અને જિંદગીભરની જહેમત વિશ્વને તેની બાયોગ્રાફી લખી ને ઈરવિંગ સ્ટોન રજુ કરી , અને દુનિયાના કલાવિશ્વે આગળ જતાં તેનું મુલ્યાંકન પણ કર્યું , વાન ગોગ નું એક જ પેઇન્ટિંગ એના જીવનકાળ દરમિયાન ખરીદાયેલુ ; વળી એના પર સ્કિઝોફ્રેનિયાક પાગલપણું નું label તો રહ્યા જ કર્યું. Don Mclean આ ગીત દ્વારા વાન ગોગ ની મથામણ ને , આર્ટીસ્ટ તરીકેના સંઘર્ષ અને મિજાજ ને નવેસરથી એક જુદા પરિપ્રેક્ષ્યમાં મુકી આપીને સાચી કદર કરતી પિછાણ તરીકે રજુ કરી છે : : Verse 1 : : “Starry, starry night / Paint your palette blue and grey” ગીતની પ્રથમ પંક્તિ તારા જડિત રાત ને તેની પાસેની blue grey palette ભૂરી ભૂખરી નિસ્તેજ પરિપાટીમાં તૈયાર રંગોનું મિશ્રણ ઉપાડીને ઘુમરાતુ કરી ભરી આપીને એક ચિત્ર રચવા કહ્યું છે ; જેમાંની ઉલ્લાસહિનતા ધ્યાન ખેંચે છે. “Look out on a summer’s day/With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.” : બંને પંક્તિઓ ‘dark theme’ અને ‘depression’ : ઘેરી , ખિન્ન , ધૂંધળી ગમગીની અને ઉદાસીનતા જે વાન ગોગ ની લાક્ષણિકતાઓ છે તેને સૂચવે છે. તેમાંનું સંભાષણ , ચિત્રકાર નો અંદરુની અવાજ છે. Saint-Rémy હોસ્પિટલમાં સારવાર માટે રહેવાનું આવ્યું ત્યારે , વાન ગોગ ને હોસ્પિટલ ની બહાર નીકળવા ઉપર પ્રતિબંધ હતો. એટલે , એના રૂમમાં રહેતા Starry night નું રંગચિત્ર માત્ર યાદ કરીને પુરું કરેલું. “Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul Shadows on the hills” : ૩/૪/૫પંક્તિઓ માં look out થી શરૂ થતું બયાન આ સૂચવે છે. “Sketch the trees and the daffodils” ૬ ઠ્ઠી પંક્તિ વાન ગોગ ના landscape paintings ના સંદર્ભ સૂચવે છે.” Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land “૭/૮ છેલ્લી બે પંક્તિઓ “Two Peasant Women Digging In a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset” પેઇન્ટિંગ ને અનુલક્ષી ને કહી હોય શકે કારણકે ‘breeze’ અને ‘winter hills’ ના ઉલ્લેખ છે. ત્યારપછી ના પહેલા chorus માં ૬ પંક્તિઓ આવે છે: “And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free” જે “sanity” વિશે અને બીજા chorus માં “On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do”માં “suicide” વિશે ના ઉલ્લેખો મળે છે; જે schizophrenic disorder ના સંદર્ભે સમજાવ્યાં છે. However, through his art, the artist tried to enlighten others – “to set them free”. He was diagnosed as insane and incarcerated in an asylum from 1889-90. But McLean realizes Van Gogh’s suffering was only made worse by confinement., during which he produced many paintings, including “Irises” and “The Starry Night” that inspired this song. They would not listen/They did not know how” refers to Van Gogh’s family and some associates who did not recognize his greatness during his lifetime, and were critical of his kindness to the wretched.
Due to the general lack of reception by his contemporaries, towards the end of his life, he became doubtful about his art:
“It is absolutely certain that I shall never do important things”, he wrote in a letter to a Paris critic who praised his work.
When he was alive, he was able to sell only one picture (The Red Vineyard). His brother Theo, an art dealer, believed in him, supported him most of his life. : : : : : :: VERSE 2 : :

“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”

In this verse there are references to other paintings : : Vincent Van Gogh had three “Starry Night” drawings, because he also Painted “Starry Night over the Rhone” and the “Cafe Terrace at Night”, both painted in 1888 in Arles. : : : : “Flaming flowers that brightly blaze”: The Sunflower Series. In that famous set of works Van Gogh employs luminous orange and yellow colours and seems to create powerful images of the sun itself, flaming and blazing, contained in the flowers and the painting. : : : : “Swirling clouds in violet haze”: Starry Night and Wheat Field with Cypresses. : :The wind in Starry Night may be the ‘Mistral’, a seasonal wind that passes through France every year (in some cases it is supposed to drive people mad). Mistral એ દ. ફ્રાન્સ માં વહેતા ઉત્તર કે વાયવ્ય ના ખૂબજ ઠંડા પવનો છે; જે કેટલાક લોકો ને માફ્ક આવતા નથી .In the second painting, the dark green cypress tree in the corner may be an omen (ભાવિ નું અપશુકન) of death, since these trees are often placed i n cemeteries(કબ્રસ્તાન) : : : : “Vincent’s eyes of china blue” refer to his self-portraits Although his eyes were blue, he would often change their hue to reflect his own moods and emotions. : : : : ::::::: : : : : : : : : : : “Field of amber grain”: Wheat Fields with Crows. This is one of Van Gogh’s darker creations: the black crows over the glowing fields with the threatening dark night encroaching are reflections of the stormy times in his life and mind. : : : : : : :: “Weathered faces lined in pain/ are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand” These lines may allude to Van Gogh’s self-portraits, suggesting that the artist may have found some sort of consolation in creating portraits of himself or to the pain in the faces of “The Potato Eaters”, which depicts a hard-working Dutch farming family sitting in semi-darkness and eating their meager meal : : : : : ;:::: : : : BRIDGE : : : :

“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’ve told you Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you” : : : : : : :::::: : : : : : : This is Van Gogh’s tragic death. Love may refer to his compassion to the underprivileged members of his community, which is expressed in many of his pictures, or to the many romantic rejections from the women he loved, often because of his poverty, or else to the fact that he loved painting (but his paintings could never love him back). : : : : : : : : : : : : : In his last letter to his brother he wrote: “Well, my own work, I am risking my life for it, and my reason has half foundered because of it.”

Van Gogh attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest, which ultimately led to his death two days later. In describing his suicide as something “lovers … do”, McLean might be talking about the painter’s relationship with life. his passionate love for a world that simply wasn’t meant for a man like him. : : : : : : : : : VERSE 3 : : : :

“Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frame-less 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
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow. Vincent van Gogh said “Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day” and that the desire to paint the starry sky kept haunting him. He wrote to his sister in 1888, “He sees…under the great starlit vault of heaven a something which after all one can only call God – and eternity in its place above the world.” : : :::: ” The Portrait hung in empty halls” are there, but no one is noticing them and that solitude echoes the loneliness of all those self-portraits: Van Gogh was his only constant subject. Those poor canvasses without any recognition idle unframed: they will be at an exhibition only after his death.
Van Gogh’s artistic legacy is contained in his paintings, drawings and writings. They are everlasting and will never “forget” the style that created them. They are Van Gogh’s eyes watching the world. : : : : ::::: : : ” The rugged man in ragged clothes” and “how you tried to set them free” refer to his humanitarian activities and love of the socially outcast as also reflected in his work.

The “ eyes that watch the world and can’t forget” also refer to his unique way of watching the sky. : : : : : : : : :::::::: : : : : : : : : : : The two last lines recall a short story by Oscar Wilde (his contemporary): “The Nightingale and the Rose” which talks about a lover’s unappreciated token. The nightingale sacrifices its life when a thorn pierces its heart so that the barren rose tree can produce one red rose.
This may be an allusion to van Gogh’s famous act of sacrificing his ear for unreturned love and then presenting it to a prostitute. It may also mean that his artistic works were his unappreciated gift to the world. He also sacrificed his life after having tried to show and teach others, who “would not listen” to him.

So, this is the story of Van Gogh’ eternal struggle: unrecognized as an artist until after his death. : : : : : : : : :::::::: : : : : : : : : : :::: OUTRO : : : :

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

The lyrics suggest that Van Gogh was trying to “set [people] free” with the message in his work, a message that is now clear to McLean: “And now I understand what you tried to say to me.” : : : : : : : : :::::::: : : : : : : : : Vincent : : The Starry Starry night 🌃 : : : : Don Mclean : : : : Song information Appreciation and poem Analysis : : V Jayaraj Pune India : : May 19 , 2022 : : : : : : : :