1173 – Don McLean – Vincent (1971)

 

Escrita por Don McLean, foi lançada em 24 de outubro de 1971 no disco American Pie e depois saiu em compacto em 1972, que trazia Castles in the air como Lado B. É um tributo à Vincent Van Gogh. A frase inicial é “Starry starry night”, em homenagem ao quatro The Starry Night, de Van Gogh, de 1889.

Chegou ao número 1 no Reino Unido e numero 12 nos Estados Unidos. Tem violão, acordeon, marimba e cordas. Era a música preferida do rapper Tupac Shakur e foi tocada pra ele no hospital antes dele morrer.

Foi também número 3 na Australia, Canadá, número 1 na Irlanda e número 6 na Africa do Sul.

A letra:

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 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 in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
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 heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in the 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

A versão de Don McLean:

A versão de Jasmine Thompson e Ryan Keen:

A versao de Mike Massé: