Vincent – Don McLean
Vincent by Don McLean is a classic song of its time, still gets regular performances around folky settings and seldom leaves an audience dry eyed.
It’s a pretty easy one to play in terms of chord shapes, but there’s plenty you can do with it in terms of ‘finger picking’. It’s a good example of taking a set of simple chords and using standard embellishments to form a more interesting accompaniment.
But it’s also a weird one because Don doesn’t stick to standard numbers of bars. Very often when an audience tries to join in with the song things get very out of time. This is because instead of sticking to the standard 4 bar lumps usually used for pop music he drops bars. His focus is purely on the lyrics. But people expect music in 4 bar lumps, so when this one is played people don’t know when to come in with the next line. But hey, he wrote the song on a paper bag! He also uses a lot of rubato – stretching the beat lengths to give greater musical expression.
A good solution might be to come up with some guitar work to fill out the missing bars. Here we present the version as it occurred on the album.
Structure
Vincent is a simple structure. There’s no intro or outro. Three verses and a bridge. All you need to express the lyric with sufficient variation for interest.
Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus.
Chord Progressions
The verse really has one repeated 8 bar chord progression: G | % | Am | % | C | D7 | G | % |
The chorus has the classic G – D/F# – Em move and the brief move to the D major (dominant modulation) given by the A7, then the Beatlesy A7 – Am. Lots of good tricks.
The bridge starts with the same progression as the first line of the chorus. Line 2 has a iv (a minor IV chord) which takes us into Cm (melodic minor to my ear), then E7 (key of A) and then back to G major. This gives a great strength to the harmonic movement, ideal for a bridge section.
Strum Pattern
There are 4 beats to the bar in this one, mostly, depending on how he was performing it that day.
Of course he was fingerpicking his guitar, not strumming it. If you want to have a go at the fingerpicking version have a look here. OK, Justin’s technique and posture are all over the place, but you’ll get the idea.
We’ll upload a video of how to do the strum pattern soon, promise!
This strum pattern is in quavers and starts on beat 1. Stroke: D (U) D U (D) U D (U) Count: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Chords
Lyrics
== VERSE 1 ==
|G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
Starry, starry night Paint your palette blue and grey Look out on a
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
summers day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul Shadows on the
|G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
hills, sketch the trees and daffodils catch the breeze and the
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
winter chills in colors on the snowy linen land And now I under-
== CHORUS ==
|Am 2 3 4 |D 2 3 4 |G 2 D7/F# 4 |Em 2 3 4
stand what you tried to Say to me, how you suffered for your
|Am 2 3 4 |D 2 3 4 |Em 2 3 4
sa-nity How you tried to set them free, they would not listen, they did
|A7 2 3 4 |Am 2 D7 4 |G 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4
not know how, Perhaps they'll listen now Starry, starry
== VERSE 2 ==
G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
night, flaming flowers that Brightly blaze, swirling clouds in
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
violet haze Reflecting Vincent’s eyes of China Blue Colors changing
|G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
hue. Morning fields of amber grain Weathered faces
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
lined in pain Are soothed beneath the artists loving hand And now I under-
== CHORUS - LAST LINE THIS TIME ==
|A7 2 3 4 |Am 2 D7 4 |G 2 3 4
not know how, Perhaps they'll listen now for they could not
== BRIDGE ==
|Am 2 3 4 |D 2 3 4 |G 2 D7/F# 4 |Em 2 3 4
love you, but still your love was true And when no
|Am 2 3 4 |Cm 2 3 4 |G 2 F 4 |E7 2 3 4
hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night, you took your life as lovers sometimes do but I could have
|Am 2 3 4 |C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4
told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you. (extra bar) Starry, starry
== VERSE 3 ==
G 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
night, portraits hung in empty halls frameless heads on
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can’t for-get like the strangers that you’ve
|G 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4
met the ragged men in ra agged clothes the silver thorn or
|C 2 3 4 |D7 2 3 4 |G 2 3 4
bloody rose lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow And now I think I under-
== LAST CHORUS ==
|Am 2 3 4 |D 2 3 4 |G 2 D7/F# 4 |Em 2 3 4
stand what you tried to say to me, how you suffered for your
|Am 2 3 4 |D 2 3 4 |Em 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4
sanity How you tried to set them free, they would not listen, they’re not
|A7 2 3 4 |Am 2 D7 4 |G 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4
listening still, Perhaps they never will.