Tip & aanrader: 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean, een nummer over de Nederlandse schilder Vincent van Gogh

Eén van onze tips en aanraders van muziek met een historisch kantje.

 

Toelichting bij 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean:

Don McLean is een Amerikaanse singer-songwriter geboren in 1945. Don McLean brak op 26-jarige leeftijd wereldwijd door met het nummer ‘American Pie’. In 1972 bracht Don McLean de single ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night)’ uit, een eerbetoon aan de Nederlandse post-impressionistische schilder Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890). Ook het nummer ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night)’ werd een internantionaal succes voor Don McLean.

 

Interessante weetjes over Don McLean en ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night)’:

• Don McLean schreef het nummer ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night)’ nadat hij in de herfst van 1970 een biografie over Vincent van Gogh had gelezen.
• De tekst ‘Starry Starry Night’ in de titel en de tekst van ‘Vincent (Starry Starry Night)’ verwijst naar het schilderij ‘The Starry Night’ van Vincent van Gogh.

 

Videoclips van 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean:

YouTube clip van 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean

Live versie van 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean

 

De tekst van 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' van Don McLean:

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
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
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

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
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

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

 

 

 

        

 

 

---

 

Ga terug naar het overzicht van tips & aanraders