Evie Clair - Starry, Starry Night (Don McLean)

Evie Clair - Videos & Lyrics

Evie Clair

Evie Clair's acoustic piano/vocal arrangement of Starry, Starry Night from Don McLean's American Pie Album.

Lyrics with Analysis

Below are the lyrics to Don McLean's hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) and a comparison to Van Gogh's Actual Life.

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
(This is giving Van Gogh's vantage point looking out from the asylum at Saint-Remy. When he first entered the asylum, he painted mainly from his room or the courtyard garden.)
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
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,
(Referring to two paintings - Flaming Flowers - The Sunflower Series, Swirling Clouds - Starry Night)
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
(Referring to his painting - Wheat Field with Crows)
Weathered faces lined in pain,
(Referring to his painting - The Potato Eaters)
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

For they could not love you,
(Even though he loved painting, his paintings could never love him back.)
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.
(Van Gogh attempted shooting himself in the chest, leading to his death two days later.)
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 head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
(Van Gogh's artistic legacy is contained within his paintings, drawings and writings. They are everlasting and will never "forget" the style that created them. They are Van Gogh's eyes that watch the world.)
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the 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...
(Finally we come to the conclusion of realizing Van Gogh's eternal struggle.)

I hope each of you reading this know you are truly and deeply loved. An artists' mind can be a difficult place to reside and I feel for Vincent as I work through my own struggles. My dad was a psychologist and he helped me so much before he passed away. He taught me that we have much to do here in this life and never to give up hope or feel purposeless. He said, when things are difficult to ease someone else's burden. It has always helped me more the person I was helping. Be well. Love you all.

#StarryStarryNight #Vincent #Vangoh

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