"Vincent" by Don McLean (cover)
 

This is my cover of Don McLean's well known song, "Vincent." Many people know the song as "Starry, Starry Night."

This has been one of my favorite songs for years, since it first came out on Don McLean's "American Pie" album in 1971. I spent a week rehearsing this song so that I could actually get all the words right. :)

I am playing this song in the key of G, same key where Don McLean played it years ago. I did add a short instrumental intro based on Don McLean's arrangement.

We still have the images with us today that Don McLean put together from Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, most especially the ragged men in ragged clothes. 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.

My wife asked me to do this song. She is an artist and her parents were both artists, and so she strongly identifies with the work of so many of the great masters.

Thank you so much for watching. I hope I have done this song justice. Sometimes the emotions in the song can be overwhelming...

By the way, the guitar is a Martin model 000-28VS from 2006, perfect for this song, I think. The strings are Martin Lifespan PB, light gauge.

- Glenn

What a wonderful McLean composition "Vincent" is. I've always loved it and your rendition is simply lovely, Glenn. You absolutely did the song justice. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Thank you Tom!

Man, you are quick in listening to this song and then so generously responding! I'm very glad you liked what I did with this! Thanks so much for the kind words!:)

- Glenn

Very nicely done, Glenn. Funny how you're hitting all the songs on my 'short list', and which I've been playing lately. "Collide" (Howie Day) must be next....

Best,

Phil

Glenn, I love it. Great take on the vocals - fits your voice well. The Martin does sound perfect. Especially like your timing changes, you made this one your own (as you have with others).

Please thank your wife for all of us for making the ask! :)

Fasntastic cover Glenn
I love those changes are the 2.45 mark
Thanks for sharing

Steve

Hi Phil!

Thank you for listening and commenting! I appreciate your thoughts very much!

And how nice that I am playing songs that appeal to you. I'm going to have to look up "Collide" by Howie Day. I'm afraid I don't know that one.

Who knows? It might inspire me for another song to record. :)

- Glenn

Wow... do it justice? I'd say you absolutely nailed it! That's the prettiest arrangement of it I've ever heard. I can understand your wanting to get the lyrics right because I've always thought those were possibly the most beautiful song lyrics I've ever heard. When I think of songs as poetry put to music, this would be the tune that served as the best example.

I loved the little instrumental intro and interlude... perfect. And excellent dynamics. I'm gonna have to listen to this one another 50-eleven times... :D

Splendid!!!

Hi Steve!

Thank you so much for listening and commenting, Steve!

You know those changes at the 2:45 mark --- well, the progression goes: Am, Cm, G, F, E, E7 -- they are very dramatic and they actually do something physically and emotionally to me. I have to be careful not to let them grab hold of me or I simply cannot finish the song.

Thanks so much for your comments Steve!

- Glenn

Hi Kerbie,

Thank you so much for listening and commenting! I'm so glad you liked this!

I do very much agree with you on the poetic lyrics that Don McLean came up with. And that's exactly why I spent a lot of time working on the lyrics to get them right. Well -- I ended up singing, "...like the strangers that we've met..." (referring to ragged men in ragged clothes) instead of Don McLean's words "...like the strangers that you've met..." But, I live just outside of a small rural sea town with plenty of ragged men, and so I know that I have met them, too.

This song really is a beautiful example of music and poetry put together just right. I'm glad to see that you feel that way, too.

I'm also glad you appreciated that instrumental intro.

Thank you again for your very generous comments! :)

- Glenn

Hi Carmel Cedar,

Thank you very much for your listen and reply. :)

Regarding making this song my own, thank you! I played this song a lot over the last week. It becomes almost a meditation when you play a song over and over for maybe 3 hours at a time, and then do that again the next day and the next. And when I do that, I start to develop my own emotional feel for the song -- how to sing the phrases and put the words together and hopefully, how to make those vocal jumps that Don McLean did so easily when he was young.

I read my wife your comments and she was very pleased that you liked this song! In fact, I have read her all the comments here from this thread because this is one of her favorite songs, too. :)

- Glenn

Another wonderful song choice for you, Glenn. I can hear the emotion in your voice - thank you for sharing that with us. Count me in as another one who has always admired this song. Beautifully played and sung - wonderful!

Thank you so much for your generous comments Larry!

It's such a beautiful song, I'm so very glad that people seem to be liking my rendition. Thank you for taking the time to listen and comment. It means a great deal to read these comments!

- Glenn

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

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:)