Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)

The words and imagery of this song represent the life, work, and death of Vincent Van Gogh. The opening line, "Starry, starry night," refers to A Starry Night, one of the Dutch impressionist's most famous paintings. The lyrics, "Paint your palette blue and gray" reflect the prominent colors of the painting, and are probably a reference to Vincent's habit of sucking on or biting his paintbrushes while he worked. The "ragged men in ragged clothes" and "how you tried to set them free" refer to Van Gogh's humanitarian activities and love of the socially outcast as also reflected in his paintings and drawings. "They would not listen, they did not know how" refers to Van Gogh's family and some associates who were critical of his kindness to "the wretched." "How you suffered for your sanity" refers to the schizophrenic disorder from which Van Gogh suffered.

Don McLean told The Daily Telegraph February 24, 2010 the story of this song: "In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' - because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."

McLean was going through a dark period when he wrote this song. He explained to The Daily Telegraph: "I was in a bad marriage that was torturing me. I was tortured. I wasn't as badly off as Vincent was, but I wasn't thrilled, let's put it that way."