NEW ALBUM: Don McLean "botanical gardens"

[CRAZY-HORSE]

DON McLEAN  "botanical gardens"

Spotify listen:

Don's twenty-first album (and about the age of his new wife!)....
some lovely lyrics on this album, he can still paint a picture with words....
his voice is still as soft as velvet for the most part, but you can his age at times....
a fairly good album IMO, well worth a listen.....

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one of my dreams would to be able to hear a McLean/NY duet, doubt it would ever happen though...

here's the title track:

[Jerome]

I saw him live in Dublin some years back and it was a huge disappointment. Having said that, Vincent remains, for me anyway, the song all other songwriters should aspire to. That song is not simply written/composed - it's been carefully crafted. You describe a man's life by using imagery and words that relate to the paintings he has done. Masterful. A stroke of pure bloody genius.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

just as a matter of interest Jerome, have you been to the Van Gogh museum/gallery in Amsterdam?

if not I urge you to put it on your bucket list for sure !!!!

and back to your post....

yes, I have heard he is terrible in concert as I live performer...
and yes again, Vincent wasn't written, it was crafted...

so, another question, who else do you think has/had the writing skills to have been able to have written that song?,
for me it would be Mark Knopfler

[Jerome]

Yes I have - around 1999 if I remember correctly. Also the Anne Frank musuem. And saw the 'Nightwatch' as well. I would have liked to have seen something by Vermeer but have not done so to date. He is the master painter for me. I agree with the MK comparison. Another craftsman;

'Bella Donna's on the high street
Her breasts upon the offbeat'

Classic lyrics - you can just picture them......

[Ruby]

Don McClean got it absolutely spot on with “Vincent” – fantastic lyrics jotted down on a paper bag after reading a van Gogh bio and having an 'aha' moment. I wonder if it was Irving Stone’s Lust for Life? Wouldn’t be at all surprised - it’s a great read. There is nothing quite like an inspired work of art, visual or otherwise. 

With apologies for hijacking the thread - got to wondering how many popular songs had been written about visual artists and it turns out there are not a lot (focusing on the artist, that is, as opposed to incorporating a title of a painting or something like that).
 
Two that I could think of: firstly Brian and Michael’s “Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs” which is about L S Lowry. Lowry was uprooted from the leafy green suburb in which his family had lived (in England), and transplanted to an urban industrial landscape that he hated at first and then became obsessed with. He painted scenes of the city of Salford and surrounds, including the people, factories, smoke stacks, docks, etc., in what is referred to as a naïve style. In actual fact, he was a superb draftsman and purposely chose to portray his subjects as he did. He holds the record for most honours declined, having turned down a knighthood (twice), and several other titles that the ‘powers that be’ attempted to bestow upon him! He was a seemingly ordinary, rather grumpy old man who had no use for the trappings of commercial success once it finally showed up at his door. He wasn’t seeking it in any event – he just did what he did. Anyway – the song captures all of that and either Brian or Michael, I forget which, comes from Salford so the accent is right, the children’s voices singing ‘Alley Alley O’ refers to the Manchester shipping canal, and so on …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF7JWfx0rjE
 
Secondly – since I’ve been on a bit of a roll recently – there’s Dan Fogelberg’s “Bones in the Sky” – a tribute to Georgia O’Keeffe. I like this - he had a real love of the wilderness and for advocates of it, such as the environmentalist Edward Abbey, and O’Keeffe, who was just as pioneering in her own way, even earlier on than Abbey, through the medium of her art which so clearly reflects her passion - especially for New Mexico. I quote …   
 
"It's probably my favorite on the album. It's one of those songs that's very dear to me, … the grandeur of this old woman and how long her life had spanned and the commitment she had to her art and to the wild places and living her life dedicated to the spirit and to her art - in many ways that's how I relate to my own existence."

[Jerome]

Interesting read Ruby. You always come up with the goods. I would like to see Eno musically interpret Jackson Pollock's paintings. His music is perfectly suited to it. And I have read Mr Stone's book on Vincent and I agree it's a fascinating read. The part that stuck in my mind was when Vincent gave away his shoes even when he himself was as poor as a church mouse.