This is a series of posts about the music I play while writing. This time I’m up to Don McLean and his song, Vincent. Released in 1971 on McLean’s album AmericanPie and as a single in 1972 it quickly went to number 2 on the Easy Listening chart and rank number 94 for 1972.
Anyone who was a teen in the 70’s has heard and likely loves McLean’s songs like Vincent, and American Pie. I had a number of friends who had memorized American Pie and would endlessly discuss the meanings in the song. I liked it, but not as much as my friends.
Vincent is one of those songs that I didn’t really appreciate as a teenager. I knew it was a great song, but it didn’t really speak to me that much. It wasn’t until I was much older that I began to understand that McLean was describing a real person with real struggles. It wasn’t until after I’d seen a video of Leonard Nimoy’s one play play Vincent I did really begin to appreciate who Vincent van Gogh was and is to the world of art.
Van Gogh was a troubled mind but a great artist. The more you learn about him, the sadder the story becomes.
The brilliance of McLean’s song is to put into words just exactly the struggles van Gogh had. McLean doesn’t dance around the subject with this line in the chorus, “And how you suffered for your sanity.” It doesn’t get plainer than that. McLean also pulls in the details of van Gogh’s paintings with lines like, “Paint your palette blue and grey” and “Flaming flowers that brightly blaze.” I suggest listening to this song while viewing van Gogh’s art. It will make more sense then.
In fact, McLean states that he wrote this song after reading a book about van Gogh and while looking at the painting, Starry Night.
My wife and I once bought a jigsaw puzzle version of Starry Night. I think it was around 2,000 pieces and it took us four or five months to put it together. It was the most difficult puzzle we’ve ever done. Which is a metaphor for van Gogh’s life – complicated and difficult.
In the fall of 2023 Heather and I took a cruise in the Mediterranean and had the opportunity to visit the village of Saint-Remy where the Saint-Paul Asylum is. That is where van Gogh spent a year as a patient. This is where he painted Starry Night and other works. The old monastery with the asylum is now a museum and a draw for tourists and artist alike. Walk from the bus stop by the building, you’ll encounter many painters working while looking at the places van Gogh painted more than a century before.
This song ends up on my playlist because it is a story about a struggling artist and because of the evocative way McLean manages to tell the story. It’s a well told story and the kind of writing I’d like to imitate.
Andrew's View of the Week 
One of my very favorite albums. I still have it stacked away on some shelf. Couldn’t stand to throw away my old LP’s and Caassettes even though I have nothing to play them on. Have you seen the interactive Van Gogh exhibition? It is amazing. You actually walk through the paintings. I saw it in Guadalajara.
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I do like his music.
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I don’t remember hearing this one before – what a beautifully evocative song. Thanks for sharing it! 🙂
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I only heard it a few times in the 70’s and got reacquainted with it after it popped up as a suggestions on my Spotify account.
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Thank you . We grew up with Hindi and Kannada songs. My knowledge of the English ones is limited. Now I listen to them when you or other bloggers write about them.
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There’s a lot of great ones out there. I’ll be doing more.
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A lot of brilliant people pay the price for that. Good post, Andrew.
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Sad but true.
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As Sheila says, the song is haunting and beautiful. I listened to it (again) before I read your post and it commanded my attention from start to finish. McLean puts subtle emphasis on certain words (ex “portraits”), which lends even more character to the singing. But as you say, the real power of the song is in its subject matter and McLean’s direct interpretation. It’s like you suddenly know Van Gogh without ever having read a thing about him.
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If you listen close to the song, you learn a lot about van Gogh.
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I also grew up in that era and I still love both songs. Like you, I felt that the song was pleasant to listen to at the time, but never fully understood the meaning until much later in my life. The more I learned about Van Gogh’s story, the more I understood the song. It is a telling, somewhat haunting story. Thank you for sharing. Good to see you posting again. 🙂
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It’s a song that makes more sense the more you know about van Gogh.
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I was intrigued to learn that those wave-shaped clouds in “Starry Night” actually exist. They’re called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds. They sometimes occur here in Colorado and once I even saw the beginnings of some. Exciting!
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I’ve heard of that, but I’ve never seen one. I’d like to.
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Yes!
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