Don McLean: Vincent Meaning

Song Released: 1972

Vincent Lyrics

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...

1. joan

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   May 4th 2009 !⃝

   The song by do mclean was an exquisite representation of vincents life...every word described the every bit of Vincent's struggles in life....Vincent's attempt of oppening to the world his whole heart to show his desires as seen in the scenes presented behind his paintings...it was very obvious in the song the disillusionment after his failure in letting the whole humanity recognizes the presence he signified...."how you suffered for your sanity""they would not listen...perhaps they never will"....Vincent hunger for love and recognition...."for they could not love you, but then your love was true"...The song showed also the irony of trying to show hor you cared for others...of trying to let the horizons meet to let others know the realm of youself...the melancholic end was vincent taking his life away.....
2. anonymous

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   Oct 19th 2008 !⃝

   "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 stranger that you've met, the ragged man in ragged clothes
   The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow "
   
   
   The many interpretations of this song on this and other forums are truely intellectually stimulating and I do agree with many of interpretations and I must say that people have come to understand the song almost fully.The only part that I struggle with is the stanza quoted above.
   
   "...portraits hung in empty halls
   Frameless heads on nameless walls..." This phrase I don't understand at all, but I have thought about "The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow " and "silver thorn" sounds like a silver sharp object,like the knife, which he used to cut off his ear,and the "bloody rose" refers to the blood from his ear. The petals of a rose resembbles the folds of the human ear.
   And all this(everything in the stanza) lies on "virgin snow",meaning unknown territory,which can also mean a blank white canvass.
3. anonymous

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   Feb 25th 2007 !⃝

   The song "Vincent" is a tribute of Don Mclean to the world's most prolific painter, Vincent van Gogh. Most of the lyrics are actually titles (e.g. "the starry night") or description of Vincent's paintings.
   
   Don Mclean is emphatic of Vincent's fate, like the rest of other artists (and even poets). During their time, their pieces of work were not being appreciated and sometimes regarded as worthless. Nonetheless, their hardwork's value or importance is only realized when they're long gone. Of Vincent's more or less a thousand works of art, he only sold one of his paintings.
   
   Employing an "impressionist" style, Vincent paints everything the human eye can see, including still objects. Impressionism gives life and meaning to a subject by stressing a tone and mood different from that of the subject (as in the song's lyrics... "colors changing hue"). During his time, impressionism is not acclaimed as that of the pure or classical style of painting (the likes of raphael & michaelangelo). Most people regarded Vincent's work as junk and Vincent himself as lunatic.
   
   Vincent lived his life as a painter in seclusion, although he has his landlord's family to live with. Perhaps with his exhausting job (finishes at an average of more than one painting a day) and the treatment that he got from the people around him, Vincent suffered from mental disorder. He cut-off one of his earlobe and have a portrait painted. After an altercation and parted with Gaugin (considered as Vincent's best friend), he suffered further depression and took his life with a handgun. He did not died instantly (he even had his last portrait painted).
   
   People during Vincent's time misunderstood him and didn't listen to what he is trying to tell them. Although he has long been gone, the voices from within his works of art are resonating through all generation that succeeded him. And perhaps... people will now listen.
4. krispys777

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   Apr 11th 2006 !⃝

   This song is written about Vincent van Gogh. His life, his soul, everything was expressed through his art. Many artists choose to do what they do to express things when words cannot suffice. Van Gogh did not know how do express everything to other people in words, so he used his paints.
   
   Vincent was a very unique person--not many of his "nature" are found throughout history; the spirit that he possessed was one that was extremely beautiful. Not many people could see this; he could, and he knew that he was different.
   The other interpretation of this song posted is okay, but I feel like the author misses the point of what Mclean was saying, and who van Gogh was, for that matter. "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" speaks of Vincent's reaching out to the world, and how he was misunderstood by his generation and by the people still today. He could see things with amazing clarity, but people today still don't understand. The world his blind--van Gogh knew it, and now Mclean is acknowledging that he, too, can see it. Notice, he even follows this with "perhaps they'll listen now" (though later he comes to the realization that society will never get it, when he ends the song with "perhaps they never will").
   As for the phrases concerning love, compassion and emptiness, these are all about his persona.
   
   I have not the time to elaborate more fully. To discuss this further you can email me at krispys777@yahoo.com if you so wish.
5. mattyboy

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   Nov 26th 2005 !⃝

   McLean wrote this song for Vincent Van Gogh, I think Starry Starry Night might be the title of one of the landscapes done by Van Gogh, not sure on that one. McLean manages to write the lyrics resonating Van Gogh's painting (impressionist) “paint your palette blue and grey.”, “Flaming flowers that brightly blaze Swirling clouds in violet haze”.
   
   McLean recognizes his humanitarian efforts "Like the strangers that you've met. The ragged men in ragged clothes." McLean empathises with him and the struggle that he had with his family, they rejected how he liked to help the poor "They would not listen They did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now." (They were a wealthy family.)
   
   Van Gogh actually had a mental disease, he actually cut off his ear before he died (suicide) "And how you suffered for your sanity", "you took your life as lovers often do." I think McLean also links Van Gogh's family's values to the values of today's world. Throughout the song at the end of the refrain there is the line "They would not listen
   
   They did not know how perhaps they'll listen now." until the last refrain when he sings "They would not listen. They're not listening still perhaps they never will." I think he looks at the state of the world regarding hunger and poverty in dismay. A most beautiful song, apparently one of Tupac Shakur's favourite songs.

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