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-de-Provence 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“.