Zhou Shen, who has sung a song in a cover, is actually not so much a song as a timeless and somber poem, without too many words piled up, but deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and Zhou Shen has interpreted the sadness of prose poetry.
In 1889, Van Gogh created an oil painting "The Starry Night" in a mental hospital, when Van Gogh was crazy, restless, lonely and painful, and in 1971, the famous folk singer Don Mclean composed the lyrics for "Starry Moon Night" and sang "Vincent" in tribute to "Crazy" Van Gogh. The author seems to want to travel through time through this song to touch Van Gogh's soul, to interpret and perceive the loneliness and ecstasy, joy and pain of creation.
Zhou Shen's "Vincent" sung on happy night in 2021 may really understand them. Through the slight adjustment of some notes, the fluidity of the phrases was enhanced, the clean guitar, the sporadic keyboard, the natural and unpretentious singing, the incomparably mesmerizing pronunciation, carrying the audience to see the picture of the stars and the extinction, paying tribute to the great creator (Van Gogh), once again listening to this work that has been sung for half a century.
The prelude, the clean acoustic guitar, was like on the outskirts of a summer night, and a breeze blew across his face, looking up at the stars, waiting for a quiet boy to start singing the song. Then Zhou Shen opened his mouth, and the extremely beautiful breath sound wrapped in a soft voice heart, as if looking down could see the small flowers swaying in the light wind on the summer night, and looking up could see the dim stars in the night sky. The simple four sentences (the first main song) bring the listener to Van Gogh and watch him sketch distorted lines and colors that the world cannot comprehend.
The next chorus, Zhou Shen's clean voice, sang about Van Gogh's situation and helplessness, and even sang about the sympathy and choice of Van Gogh's suffering. The phrase "Perhaps they'll listen now" is full of disdain for some people. Next, Zhou Shen made a little change, making a strong push in the place of adaptation, helping the emotional explosion, highlighting the regret and helplessness of "not being able to become friends with Vincent".
The last sentence, "They would not listen they're not listening still, Perhaps they never will", is so helpless and heartbroken that his paintings are now worth a lot, but how many are really understood? The transliteration of "will" is a sigh and a relief, his paintings can finally be sold for money, but is he really happy? No one knows and no one can answer, maybe only the stars of the summer night can know one or two, let all this be hidden in this quiet acoustic guitar.
Zhou Shen's singing is really suitable for quiet listening, a clean and pure musical work, it takes the audience and Don Mclean, Van Gogh a soul collision in different time and space, dazzling and clear, here you can understand what is the real "singing". But why is there a faint sadness that pervades it?
(Skewered with this song is "No Fear in My Heart", which has been written in a separate article)