Vincent - Don McLean

'Vincent' was written and recorded by Don McLean as a tribute to the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The song includes references to his landscape works, in lines such as 'sketch the trees and the daffodils' and 'morning fields of amber grain' - which describe the amber wheat that features in several paintings. Several lines may allude to Van Gogh's self-portraits: perhaps in 'weathered faces lined in pain / are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand', McLean is suggesting that van Gogh may have found some sort of consolation in creating portraits of himself. There is, too, a single line describing van Gogh's most famous set of works, Sunflowers. 'Flaming flowers that brightly blaze' not only draws on the luminous orange and yellow colours of the painting, but also creates powerful images of the sun itself, flaming and blazing, being contained within the flowers and the painting.

McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971 after reading a book about the life of the artist. The following year, the song became the number one hit in the U.K. and No. 12 in the U.S.

My collection: 7"single no. 4926
Found: Kringloop, Den Haag, October 6, 2010
Cost: 0,1 euro
Tracks: 'Vincent' / 'Castles in the air'