"Vincent" by Don McLean (cover)

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Rogerblair

Glenn, that was superb. Your phrasing is so right on this difficult song. Not an easy feat to allow the vocals to lead the guitar, rather than the other way around. Your guitar work supports the story perfectly.

As a professional artist, I'm interested in your wife's medium of choice (and that of her parents). I paint in egg tempera.

Thanks for sharing your considerable talents once Adrain.

RB
Www.rogerblairart.com

Hi Roger,

Thank you so much for your insightful comments!

First, I don't know why I have missed this before, but I didn't know you were an artist. I visited your website with my wife, and we were both mesmerized by your wonderful and detailed paintings! My wife's comment rather quickly on as we viewed your paintings is that you do water beautifully! You also do people very well!

Thank you so much for introducing us to your artwork! You have a beautiful website!

My wife has done most of her work in pen and ink combined with water colors, though sometimes she uses pastels. Her parents tended to use the same media. They met in art school in Cleveland, OH. My wife and I both grew up in Cleveland, and we are both reasonably familiar with SE Michigan. I spent a week around Christmas in the late 1980s in Grayling resolving some industrial equipment issues at a Weyerhaueser mill there.

Regarding your comments to "Vincent," you have pointed out something that I didn't even realize, that I was leading the song with my voice and following with the guitar, like a good accompanist would do. But now that you bring this up, I see that you are right. This is probably the result of working on this song so intently during this last week. Just one person and one guitar takes some pretty in depth preparation to make it sound decent, so I have to work at this.

Thanks again for your generous and insightful comments and for introducing us to your work!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Nailpicker

As always, very nicely done Glenn. I agree with Roger's above comment.

Maaaan, you are prolific with your recordings. However do you find the time? I have ALWAYS loved this song. A while back, I worked up an instrumental version of it, as you know I don't sing. As an artist my wife likes it and its sentiment too, but I've always linked it, its sentiment, with any art form, whether art, music, writing, etal. Anyone who truly loves their art can find a degree of suffering, never reaching perfection, never getting it (to sound, to look, or to be) just exactly how we wanted it to be. A never ending quest that can sometimes drive one a little mad

Hi Nailpicker,

Thank you for reinforcing Roger's generous comments! I appreciate your vote of confidence on this song.

Regarding being prolific in terms of these recordings, I have been trying to get something down about once per week. I am lucky to be retired now from full time work, though I do work remotely part time, 2-3 hours per day, almost every week day for my old company. But I get up at normal work time and am at my desk by 7:30, sometimes earlier, so I can get 2-3 hours of interesting work in and then have the rest of the day to play hooky.

I do 2 or 3 hours of physical work around our property most every day, except today, when it was raining horribly all day long. In fact, I had to abort quite a few takes on my recordings of "Vincent" today because at times the rain was coming down so hard that it was creating too much noise for recording.

But 2-3 hours of computer work and 2-3 hours of physical work still leaves a fair amount of time for music every day, and I am really enjoying that.

Also, I'm feeling like I want to get as much recorded as possible because I'm getting older (69). Between arthritis and hoping my voice holds out, I figure I had better get these things recorded while I still can.

It's very gratifying that the folks at the AGF have been offering their support for my recordings. I thank you for that, too, Nailpicker!

- Glenn

[Brucebubs]

Another brilliant performance and one of my favorite songs Glenn.
Do you take requests?
I think I'd like to hear your version of 'Ain't No Sunshine' by Bill Withers.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

Another brilliant performance and one of my favorite songs Glenn.
Do you take requests?
I think I'd like to hear your version of 'Ain't No Sunshine' by Bill Withers.

Thank you for listening and commenting Bruce! I'm very glad that you liked this rendition of this great song!

Yes, I have taken a few requests and made videos from them. Let me put Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" on my list. One never knows how a particular song fits a particular player or singer, but I am willing to give it a try. I have always liked that song!

Thanks Bruce!

- Glenn

[Toby Walker]

One of my favorite McClean songs and by gosh, you sure did it justice Glenn!!

Wonderful Glenn. Very moving.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

One of my favorite McClean songs and by gosh, you sure did it justice Glenn!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment, Toby! I am really honored that you feel that I did okay with this song!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Wonderful Glenn. Very moving.

Thank you so much, Doug! Much appreciated!

I'm glad you feel that this song is moving... I do, too.

- Glenn

[raggedymike]

Thank you for that video. I haven't listened to that song in many years. You did it justice.

[M19]

That was "Very, Very Nice!"

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by raggedymike

Thank you for that video. I haven't listened to that song in many years. You did it justice.

Hi Mike,

Thank you very much for listening and for your comments, Mike! I'm glad I could bring back a great song for you! And you're certainly welcome! I very much appreciate your commenting here!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by M19

That was "Very, Very Nice!"

Hi Marty!

It's great to "hear" from you! Thank you for taking the time to listen and comment in this thread! It's very much appreciated!

- Glenn

[TBman]

Really good Glenn!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by TBman

Really good Glenn!

Thank you for listening and commenting, Barry! Much appreciated!

- Glenn

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

This is my cover of Don McLean's well known song, "Vincent." Many people know the song as "Starry, Starry Night."
...It's probably a stretch for Don McLean to suggest that Van Gogh suffered from his sanity, since records show Van Gogh suffered from schizophrenia. But it was his mental illness and poverty that allowed him to so closely identify with the poor and the struggling. I am guessing that Don McLean used the twisting of reality with Van Gogh's mental illness as a device to show the plight of the poor and Van Gogh's identification with them.

Really nice. I always enjoy your covers and I like this song, too. I'm not sure I understand your comment here. The phrase "suffer for your sanity" generally means that one suffered a great deal in trying to hold on to sanity but most likely found it too difficult. That seems consistent with reality to me. But, either way, very nice version. Thank you for sharing.