The Starry Night – Vincent Van
Gogh
“Notte stellata” (in inglese: The Starry
Night) è un dipinto a olio su tela
(92x73 cm), realizzato nel 1889 da
Vincent van Gogh e conservato nel
Museum of Modern Art di New York.
Rappresenta un paesaggio stellato
sopra la città di Saint-Rémy-deProvence in Francia.
Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean (New
Rochelle, 2 ottobre 1945) è un
cantautore statunitense.
È l'autore della canzone “American
Pie” (1972), considerata uno dei
capolavori della musica americana.
In Italia ebbe un breve periodo di
notorietà nel 1973 con il brano
“Vincent”, ispirato alla vita e all'opera
di Vincent van Gogh, che venne
utilizzato come sigla del seguitissimo
giallo televisivo “Lungo il fiume e
sull'acqua”.
“Vincent" is a song by the American
singer-songwriter Don McLean, written
as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh. It is
also known by its opening line, "Starry
Starry Night", a reference to Van Gogh's
painting “The Starry Night”. The song
also describes different paintings done
by the artist.
McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971, after
reading a book about the life of the
artist. The following year, the song
became the number one hit in the UK
Singles Chart and No. 12 in the US.
The song makes use of the accordion,
vibraphone, strings, and guitar.
The song includes references to Van Gogh’s landscape works,
in lines such as "sketch the trees and the daffodils" and
"morning fields of amber grain" which describe the amber
wheat that features in several paintings.
There are also several lines that may allude to Van Gogh's
self-portraits: perhaps in "weathered faces lined in pain / are
soothed beneath the artist's loving hand", McLean is
suggesting that Van Gogh may have found some sort of
consolation in creating portraits of himself.
However, this line may also refer to Van Gogh's painting "The
Potato Eaters", which depicts a hard-working Dutch farming
family sitting in semi-darkness and eating their meager meal.
There is, too, a single line describing Van Gogh's most famous
set of works, Sunflowers: “Flaming flowers that brightly
blaze".
In the first two choruses, McLean pays tribute to Van Gogh
by reflecting on his lack of recognition: "They would not
listen / they did not know how / perhaps they'll listen
now."
In the final chorus, McLean says: "They would not listen /
they're not listening still / perhaps they never will." This is
the story of Van Gogh: unrecognised as an artist until after
his death. The lyrics suggest that Van Gogh was trying to
"set [people] free" with the message in his work.
There are also references to Van Gogh's sanity and his
suicide. Throughout his life, Van Gogh was plagued with
mental disorders. He "suffered for [his] sanity" and
eventually "took [his] life as lovers often do“.