Take This Tune #4 - Vincent

I can still remember the very first time I heard this song. The very first words "Starry, starry night" grabbed me and I thought, "that is the name of Van Gogh's painting" only to realize that the song actually was about Vincent Van Gogh. My favorite painting has always been the last one at the bottom, "Cornfield with Crows" completed on the same day he committed suicide. There is a disorder and panic while still seeming to try for control that fascinates me. It is not a comfortable painting but one that cries and howls.

There have been so many stories and the question still hangs in the air as to how he went from the early, structured and realistic image of the early works such as the fields at the top to the depression and madness of the fields at the bottom. Much of what we know of his thinking is in the letters he wrote to his beloved brother contained in "Dear Theo".

So your mission today: Vincent Van Gogh, the life of the artist, the line between creativity and madness, the unquestioning devotion of a beloved family member, your own taste in art. Whatever you choose: Take This Tune for August 24 - Vincent

Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean

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,
How you suffered for your sanity,
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 field 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,
How you suffered for your sanity,
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 head 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 of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

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