2. V I N C E N T VANGOGH

3. V I N C E N T VANGOGH The song you will listen to is called VINCENT, and the singer and composer is Don McLean. This American singer was very popular between adolescents in the 70s.

4. V I N C E N T VANGOGH The song refers to one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, THE STARRY NIGHT. and it is included on McLean’s CD American Pie.

5. V I N C E N T VANGOGH People say that when Van Gogh painted The Starry Night, he was mentally ill and so he was hallucinating.

6. Starry, starry night... Paint your palette blue and grey,

7. Look out on a summer's day,

8. With eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hills,

9. Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chills,

10. In colors on the snowy linen land.

11. Now I understand what you tried to say to me, How you suffered for your sanity,

12. They would not listen, they did not know how. How you tried to set them free.

13. Perhaps they'll listen now.

14. Starry, starry night. Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,

15. Swirling clouds in violet haze, Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.

16. Colors changing hue,

17. morning fields of amber grain,

18. Weathered faces lined in pain Weathered faces lined in pain, Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

19. Now I understand what you tried to say to me, And how you suffered for your sanity,

20. They would not listen, they did not know how. How you tried to set them free. Perhaps they'll listen now Perhaps they'll listen now.

21. For they could not love you,

22. But still your love was true.

23. And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night, You took your life, as lovers often do.

24. But I could have told you, Vincent But I could have told you, Vincent, This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you beautiful as you.ê.

25. Starry, starry nights

26. Portraits hung in empty halls,

27. Frameless heads on nameless walls,

28. With eyes that watch the world and can't forget. Like the strangers that you've met,

29. The ragged men in ragged clothes,

30. The silver thorn of bloody rose, Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

31. Now I think I know what you tried to say to me, And how you suffered for your sanity,

32. They would not listen, they're not listening still. How you tried to set them free.

33. Perhaps they never will...

34. Vincent Van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853. His first paintings were dark and reflected his deep interest in painting the misery of other human beings. In 1886, Van Gogh went to Paris to live with his brother. V I N C E N T VANGOGH (1853-1890)

35. There he was greatly influenced by the work of other artists, and he adopted brilliant colours for his paintings. In 1888, he moved to Arles in Southern France. During this period, he began to use intense greens, blues and yellows.

36. The painter Paul Gauguin also moved to Van Gogh’s village. One day they had a violent quarrel and Vincent cut off part of his ear in deep remorse. After this episode he suffered from periodic spells of depression and spent several months in a mental home. He shot himself and died in July 1890.