Like many of us, Don McLean suffered through difficult passages in his life, many of which are reflected in his music. He wrote and recorded “Empty Chairs” when his marriage was failing. Despite the subject of lost love, I feel there is incredible beauty in the lyrics and the melody, and Mclean’s unique guitar style.
Although the subject is mentioned just once in the song, McLean chose the symbol to sum up his feelings and state of mind at the time. The title is inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings of empty chairs. Mclean sympathized with Van Gogh and admired his paintings as revealed in his song “Vincent” recorded on the same album: “American Pie.”
I’ve re-recorded “Empty Chairs” with a better guitar and some improved technique. Please enjoy listening.
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The Jackson Browne song “You Love the Thunder” is about a musician and a lover who joins him on tour, a thread that underlies...
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://davidgittlin.net/2021/07/11/an-unfinished-life/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/david-gittlin/message
Here’s another song, written by Paul Kennerly and made famous by Emmylou Harris, called “Heaven Only Knows.” The song was released on Emmylou’s 1989...
