Josh Groban sings 'Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)'. This song was first on his 2001 debut Reprise album 'Josh Groban'. The song was written by Don McLean and a 1972 hit for him. The lyrics are below with comments about the song.

Note: The paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the video are good quality images on Pixabay.

[CD/21-Images]

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) (Singer: Josh Groban)

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
With colors on the snowy linen land

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
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
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

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
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

Songwriter: Don McLean
[Lyrics from LyricFind]

Wikipedia states:

"Vincent" is a song by 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 1889 painting The Starry Night. The song also describes other paintings by the artist.

McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971 after reading a book about the life of van Gogh. The following year, the song became the No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. and No. 12 in the US. In the US, "Vincent" also hit No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 94 song for 1972.

Among the artists who covered this song are Karina, Ronan Keating, Josh Groban, Martyn Joseph and Ellie Goulding.

McLean said the following about the genesis of the song:

"In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' - because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."

The Telegraph wrote "With its bittersweet palette of major and minor chords, "Vincent"'s soothing melody is one of high emotion recollected in tranquillity". AllMusic retrospectively described the song as "McLean's paean to Van Gogh ... sympathiz[ing] with Van Gogh's suicide as a sane comment on an insane world."

свернуть