Almanac Music: ‘If I Was A Sculptor’ – Songs Connected to Painting and/or Sculpture
The Temptation of St Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch, oil on panel, circa 1520, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Modern Art, Kansas City, Missouri. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘If I Was A Sculptor’ – Songs Connected to Painting and/or Sculpture
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs connected to paintings and/or sculpture.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Mona Lisa’, written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston, performed by Nat King Cole (1950)
‘Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa / Men have named you’
‘Your Song’, written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John (1970)
‘If I was a sculptor’
‘Vincent’, written and performed by Don McLean (1972)
‘Starry starry night’
‘Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)’, written by Paul and Linda McCartney, performed by Paul McCartney and Wings (1973)
‘The grand old painter died last night’
‘If’, written by David Gates, performed by Telly Savalas (1974)
‘If a picture paints a thousand words’
‘Art for Art’s Sake’, written by Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, performed by 10 cc (1975)
‘Art for art’s sake / Money for god’s sake’
‘Run Paint Run Run ’, written by D. Van Vliet, performed by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (1980)
‘Run paint run run’
‘Hieronymus’, written Jodi Phyllis, performed by the Clouds (1991)
(inspired by painter Hieronymus Bosch)
………………………………………………..
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) connected to painting and/or sculpture along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: Wikipedia has been a good general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, which was published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ – Bob Dylan / The Band
Although the song and more particularly the chorus was appropriated some time ago, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again still goes well with the opening lines
Went down to Santa Fe, where Renoir paints the walls
Described you clearly, but the sky began to fall
Always wondered about the connection between Santa Fe and Renoir but could never find one. Thanks, KD.
Thanks for opening the batting, Col – a fine thing to see Bob at the beginning of our new theme.
Thank you for putting an Oz pub classic near the top of proceedings, Mickey.
Of course, the opening line of ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ is ‘Went down to St Tropez…’, isn’t it? (Initially, I misheard the opening line as ‘Went down to Santa Fe where Manuel paints the walls’!)
Ha! Yes, I reckon I once heard a punter sing St. Tropez and not Santa Fe but I was probably wrong.
It’s interesting how the opening line of this song has been so widely, er, interpreted – it also sounds like ‘Went down to San Jose where Manuel paints the walls…’
Dylan’ – Visions Of Johanna’
‘But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles’
Great opening selection KD – looking forward to this theme and what is revealed.
The Old Master Painter – Frank Sinatra
Painting the Clouds With Sunshine – Bing Crosby
Paint you a Picture – David Crosby
Thanks, Karl, for the wonderful ‘Visions of Johanna’ – a great artist at the top of his form.
Glad you really liked my opening selection, too!
Thanks for your opening three, Fisho – you’ve picked some fine singers, as usual.
The Painter – Paul Anka
Human Work of Art (Your painted pictures are the way the world should be) – Cliff Richard
Thanks for the Anka and Richard numbers, Fisho – my early feeling is that this theme is going to yield many interesting songs, as well as more songs than I originally thought.
Here’s 2 from Conway Twitty
Portrait of a fool (Paint two eyes, make them cry. Paint two lips. Make them lies and you’re painting the portraint of a fool(
Clown (I’ll paint a smile for you to cover up my frown)
Thanks for the Conway Twitty double, Fisho. As I may have mentioned before, he featured in my parents’ record collection to a significant degree..
But it’s like I’m stuck inside a painting
That’s hanging in the Louvre
My throat start to tickle and my nose itches
But I know that I can’t move
Must I Paint You A Picture – Billy Bragg
Get Started, Start A Fire – Graham Parker (“The Mona Lisa’s sister doesn’t smile”)
My Baby Does Good Sculptures – The Rezillos
Artists Only – Talking Heads
Statue of Liberty – XTC (does this one count?)
Pablo Picasso – Modern Lovers
Man With Golden Helmet – Radio Birdman
Girlfriend – Modern Lovers (“If I was to walk through the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Well first I’d go to the room where they keep the Cezanne”)
Thank you, DB, for ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight’ – Dylan’s certainly getting a good run so far in relation to this new theme – and an excellent thing, too!
A big ‘hat’s off’ to Swish – he beat me by a few minutes to Billy Bragg’s ‘Must I Paint You A Picture’ – 0ne of my favourite Bragg songs. The closing lyrics….
‘Must I paint you a picture
About the way that I feel?
You know my love for you is strong, girl
You know my love for you is real’
Thanks, Swish, for your fine array of songs and artists. Of course, XTC’s ‘Statue of Liberty’ fits here; interestingly. Little River Band also recorded a different song with the same title.
“you’ve been the subject of so many dreams since I climbed your torso” …
“and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt”
– thanks Andy Partridge
Yep, to clarify – immediately above, Swish is quoting some of the lyrics of XTC’s ‘Statue of Liberty’.
Namatjira (He painted Australia as it should be) – Slim Dusty
A Picture Nobody Could Paint – Bobby Darin
Water Color Canvas – Bobby Darin
Thanks for these latest ones, Fisho. You’ve reminded me, with your Bobby Darin choices, that I believe he’s one of the most exciting voices in twentieth century popular music .(Big call, I know.)
Nobody’s Child: Electric Light Orchestra (the most prominent lyrics are “Painted lady”).
Love songs: Fleming and John (lyrics include “paint me a picture with images blurred”).
Thanks for these contributions, Liam. Jeez, ‘Nobody’s Child’ – to single out the first of your choices – gets ‘the big production’, doesn’t it?
I’ll Paint You a Song – Glen Campbell
Painted Desert – Gene Autry
Artists and Models (Painting portraits of their pretty little chicks) – Dean Martin
Pretty as a Picture – Dean Martin
Thank you for these most recent choices, Fisho. You’re certainly coming up with the goods today!
Rolling Stones – Paint It, Black
Paint Your Toes – Billy “Crash” Craddock
Brown Eyes (If words could paint a picture, there’d be no words to say) – The Paltridge Family
Not sure if the following qualifies, anyway, here goes
I’m On My Way (Gotta dream boy, Gotta a song, paint your wagon and come along) – Theme song from Paint Your Wagon.
Portrait of My Love (For nobody could paint a dream) – Steve Lawrence
Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart (Something has invaded my mind, painting my sleep with a colour so bright) – Gene Pitney
Let’s go:
Worst Day, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs (Imagine if they made Pablo Picasso watch his paintings destroyed/Compared to that, compared to me, he’s only slightly annoyed)
Local Hero, Bruce (I seen a face staring out of a black velvet painting/From the window of the five and dime/I couldn’t quite recall the name/But the pose looked familiar to me)
Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Chuck Berry (Marlo Venus was a beautiful lass/She had the world in the palm of her hand/She lost both her arms in a wrestling match/To meet a brown-eyed handsome man/She fought and won herself a brown-eyed handsome man)
To Her Door, Paul Kelly (Did they have a future?/Would he know his children?/Could he make a picture/And get them all to fit?)
Thanks, Karl, for ‘Paint it, Black’. Fine song! I was wondering when this one would see the light, so to speak.
Thank you, Fisho, for your latest input. Though the emphasis indicated so far is upon painting in an artistic sense – who am I to quibble, I suppose, when any kind of painting ‘act’ is some form of expression, loosely speaking. I say this in relation to your ‘Paint Your Wagon’ song – so into our list the song goes!
Thanks, Rick, for your quartet of choices. To choose just one for comment – ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’ serves to remind me how fine a wordsmith Chuck Berry was. I think this way almost every time I read or hear lines from Chuck Berry songs.
The Painter’s Work – Kate Bush
Your Song (If I was a sculptor, but then again no. Or a witch who made potions in a traveling show) – Cilla Black
Sorry gang, can’t read my own writing the Kate Bush song is The Painter’s LINK and not WORK.
Thank you, Fisho, for your most recent choices. Didn’t know Cilla Black did a version of Your Song, which I included in my initial songs for this theme.
The Native Born – Archie Roach
“Albert Namatjra painted
Not so much the things he saw
But what he felt inside and how he loved the Flinders Range
The only thing he ever wanted
The reason that he painted for
Was that everybody share the dream
His land would never change”
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Dylan – Desolation Row
Here’s three from the great Roger Whittaker
The Green, Green Grass of Home (Though the paint is cracked and dry)
Portrait – Hold On
River Lady (I know they’ll scrape her paint off)
Thanks for Native Born, Dave. Spot on pick.
Thanks for Desolation Row, Karl. Dylan is beginning to accumulate quite.a tally in relation to this theme.
Thank you for the Roger Whittaker trio, Fisho.
A Case of You – Joni Mitchell
“On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh you’re in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I’d be on my feet
oh I would still be on my feet
Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I’m frightened by the devil
And I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid”
(Apart from being a superb songwriter, Joni has always been a pretty good artist as can be seen from some of her record covers)
The Dangling Conversation – Simon and Garfunkel
“It’s a still-life watercolor
Of a now late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtain lace
And shadows wash the room”
Jackson Browne – The Pretender:
I’m going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we’ll fill in the missing colors
In each other’s paint-by-number dreams
Dublin Blues – Guy Clark
“[Chorus]
Forgive me all my anger, forgive me all my faults
There’s no need to forgive me for thinking what I thought
I loved you from the get go and I’ll love you till I die
I loved you on the Spanish Steps the day you said goodbye
[Verse 3]
I have been to Fort Worth and I have been to Spain
I have been too proud to come in out of the rain
I have seen the David, I’ve seen the Mona Lisa too
I have heard Doc Watson play “Columbus Stockade
And speaking of Dublin, here is a song about destroying a sculpture, specifically, Nelson’s column in Dublin,
which an Irish Republican blew up in 1966.
Nelson’s Farewell – The Dubliners
“Oh, poor old Admiral Nelson is no longer in the air
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
On the eighth day of March in Dublin City fair
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
From his stand of stones and mortar he fell crashing through the quarter
Where once he stood so stiff and proud and rude
So let’s sing our celebration, it’s a service to the nation
So poor old Admiral Nelson, toora loo
Oh, fifty pounds of gelignite it sped him on his way
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
And the lad that laid the charge, we’re in debt to him today
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
In Trafalgar Square it might be fair to leave old Nelson standing there
But no one tells the Irish what they’ll view
Now the Dublin Corporation can stop deliberation
For the boys of Ireland showed them what to do
For a hundred and fifty seven years it stood up there in state
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
To mark old Nelson’s victory o’er the French and Spanish fleet
Toora, loora, loora, loora, loo
But one thirty in the morning without a bit of warning
Old Nelson took a powder and he blew
Now at last the Irish nation has Parnell in higher station
Than poor old Admiral Nelson, toora loo
Get Me Down Me Filling Knife – Dominic Behan lyrics by Dominic and Brendan.
“Get me down me filling knife,
Get me down me stock,
Get me down me filling knife
We’ve a big job on the lock
(Chorus) Wshaw he was a quare one,
Fol de ribba dibba jibba
He was a quare one
I’ll tell you
In the cold hard winter time,
We painters bare a cross,,
Stuck up like Christ between two thieves
The foreman and the boss
(Chorus)
The Autumn leaves are falling
The nights are getting thin
The painter cleans his pot out well
And he hands his brushes in.
(Final Chorus)
(OK, I am cheating here. The Behan boys had worked as house and building painters not artists. It was a family trade followed for several generations. However the song seemed to fit with the painting theme of the thread and the Dublin theme of this post) Also it is as close to folk as I have managed so far on this thread.
Many thanks, Dave, for your Joni Mitchell and Simon and Garfunkel songs. Also for your folk-related contributions, which I’m sure all regular readers of – and contributors to – these themed songlists look forward to. In this instance, I was especially ‘tickled’ by the actual destruction of a statue in the archetypally Irish ‘Nelson’s Farewell’.
Thanks, Karl, for ‘The Pretender’; I really like this song and Browne’s work in general.
She Belongs To Me – Bob Dylan
She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back (repeat)
She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black
Excellent, Karl – thank you for ‘She Belongs To Me’.
And an appreciative nod to everyone who helped us to make the half-century!
Tip of the hat to Dave for putting in Guy Clark’s Dublin Blues, one of my favourite songs.
Pictures and Paintings, Charlie Rich (Title track on Charlie’s final album, critically considered his Magnum Opus)
Kangaroo Hop, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs (one of Warner’s classics is a listicle of Australiana, circa 78, and cites Norman Lindsay)
Patterns, Mercury Rev (from their most recent album, and another spell binding song: Patterns in the games we play/I see patterns/The way a broken heart shatters/And Jackson Pollock paints)
Achin’ To Be, The Replacements (raw, honest sentiment, the only way Westerberg knows how to write: Well, I saw one of your pictures/There was nothin’ that I could see/If no one’s on your canvas/Well, I’m achin’ to be)
Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Bob Dylan
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
Thanks for your latest quartet, Rick. To pick just one for comment – Warner’s ‘Kangaroo Hop’ is one of those particularly interesting multi-theme songs. It fits previous Almanac themed songlists of ours – dancing, animals, Australian Place Names, even ‘churches, chapels and cathedrals’ (with Dave’s mention of the Wayside chapel) …
Thank you for your most recent Bob contribution (‘Love Minus Zero/ No Limits’ ), Karl – Dylan is most certainly the ‘clubhouse leader’ with regard to this theme. In that context, for comparison, I can’t think of a single Beatles song mentioning paintings or sculpture – but I could possibly be missing some. ( And having just written this, I remember ‘Fixing a Hole’ from Sgt Peppers has the line ‘I’m painting my room in a colourful way’.)
Typo immediately above – should be ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’
Hank Williams said it Best, Guy Clark (One man’s bat is another man’s ball, one man’s art is another man’s scrawl)
Don’t Mess me ‘Round, The Buzzcocks (You’ve got too much talkie-talkie/And don’t you say one more thing/I’ll make your insides look/Like a Jackson Pollock painting)
Ain’t that Pretty at All, Warren Zevon (I’d like to go back to Paris someday and go to the Louvre museum/Get a good running start and hurl myself at the wall)
Jesus and Elvis, Hayes Carll (Jesus and Elvis/Painted on velvet/Hanging at the bar here every night/It’s good to be back again/Oh, me and my old friends/Beneath the neon cross and the string of Christmas lights)
Thank you for this latest quartet, Rick – an interesting and stimulating batch, as your song ‘sets’ usually are. Between Zevon’s ‘Ain’t That Pretty at All’ and ‘Jesus and Elvis’ (‘painted on velvet’) I couldn’t help but think of Zevon’s ‘Porcelain Monkey’, about Elvis Presley (as you’d know, RK):
‘He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
Gave it all up for a figurine
He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
And his face on velveteen…’
I think ‘Porcelain Monkey’ qualifies for this theme – a porcelain monkey and even a face on velveteen are, respectively, close enough to sculpture and painting in my book.
In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed
Michelangelo indeed could’ve carved out your features
(Jokerman)
I paint landscapes. I paint nudes.
(I Contain Multitudes)
His eyes were two slits that would make a snake proud
With a face that any painter would paint as he walked through the crowd
(Angelina)
Then she says, “I know you’re an artist,
draw a picture of me!”
I say, “I would if I could, but
I don’t do sketches from memory”
(Highlands)
Michaelangelo – Emmylou Harris
“Last night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were older
You were looking like Picasso
With a scar across your shoulder
You were kneeling by the river
You were digging up the bodies
Buried long ago
Michelangelo”
Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) – Peter Sarstedt
“I’ve seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes it does”
Pinball Wizard – The Who
“He stands like a statue, becomes part of the machine
Feeling all the bumpers, always playing clean
Plays by intuition, the digit counters fall
That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball”
Thank you, DB, for your Dylan quartet with the accompanying quotes. ‘Dylan songs connected to painting and sculpture’ has certainly emerged as an important sub-theme in this thread, as I indicated earlier.
Thanks for your latest three, Dave. I thought ‘Pinball Wizard’ was an exceptionally sharp-eyed (and ‘eared’, if you like) pick up.
This will probably be the final Dylan lyric on the theme – It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
The empty handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets
The sky too is fallin’ in over you
And it’s all over now, baby blue
For the record, this song features in my latest Dylan covers article – published this morning.
Thanks, Karl, for ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, probably one of my favourite Dylan songs.
I look forward to reading your latest Dylan covers article, too.
Watching paint Dry – Joshua Bond
Stop to Watch the Painting Dry – Maddy Davis
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest two songs – and for your contributions to this theme more broadly.
Dead Fox, Courtney Barnett (Heading down the Highway Hume/Somewhere at the end of June/Taxidermied kangaroos are lifted on the shoulders/A possum Jackson Pollock is painted on the tar)
The Painting, David Byrne and Brian Eno (Oh I will set – my easel out/And lay the paints – all round about/From dark to light – from red to blue/From hot to cool – in every hue)
New Paint, Loudon Wainwright III (title’s a metaphor – I reckon it fits the theme but maybe not)
When God Paints, Alan Jackson, not as syrupy as the title suggests (When God paints, birds sing/He colors every feather on a sparrow’s wings/When God paints, the wind blows/With a stroke of love, he dips his brush in a rainbow)
does this one out of left field qualify?
Trust British Paints (Sure Can) – advertisement from Rolf Harris as he drummed on a paint tin.
Looking For An Answer, Karl Dubravs (off the 2019 ‘Life & Love’ album – available on YouTube & from all good e-music stores :)!)
‘I’m looking for an answer, it’s as simple as that
Maybe it’s in the letter ‘Q’ owned by the Cat In The Hat
Or maybe it’s in a painting I saw in a gallery in Ballarat
When I find the answer, I’ll know exactly where I’m at’
Thanks for your latest four, Rick. Just had a listen to ‘New Paint’ and I reckon it qualifies on a metaphorical level – though, as an aside, I feel the song could do with a chorus, middle eight, or instrumental solo (or combo of these).
Thank you for the British Paints ad, Fisho. It’s a brief ditty, but, loosely speaking, on topic.
Thanks, Karl, for your Karl Dubravs entry. It’s thematically apt – and a plug of one’s own work is fair enough here and there, I reckon!
In the fifties Jack Davey compared “The Dulux Show’. Here is the ditty that was sung for it – “Say Dulux at your Hardware Store, tell them what you want it for, soon you’ll use it more and more, Dulux, Dulux, Dulux”
Thanks for the Dulux material, Fisho. Your knowledge of subject matter like this is commendable.
Here’s a lyric I am sure you will appreciate KD…
Into White – Cat Stevens
‘A simple garden, with acres of sky
A Brown-haired dogmouse, If one dropped by
Yellow Delanie would sleep well at night
With everything emptying into white’
Thank you, Karl. Yes – I do like the four lines of ‘Into White’ you just sent along, especially the painterly fourth line.
Hey KD
A better painterly line is the 3rd line…..
Here’s what I recently discovered: There’s a painter, Beauford Delaney, who’s known for a series of works done primarily in the color yellow, like self-portrait and yellow abstraction.
Interesting, Karl – excellent info. Thanks for providing it. Which is the better painterly line is still a matter of opinion, though, like most things. That said, I certainly like the ‘side bits’ of material (e.g. the ‘Beauford Delaney’ stuff) that some like yourself put into the comments of these themed songlists – they provide an interesting added dimension to the overall picture.
Picasso Baby, Jay-Z (song off one of his lesser albums)
Dancing Together, Fatboy Slim and David Byrne (a musical based on Imelda Marcos – Went to the house of Mary Lasker/Saw Matisses, Picassos, Renoirs and Gauguins/Golf course and flowers, statues and stables/I met a Whitney, Rockefeller and Brown)
Going Down, The Stone Roses (There she looks like a painting/Jackson Pollock’s number five/Come into the forest and taste the trees/The sun starts shining and I’m hard to please/Ring-a-ding-ding-ding, I’m going down, I’m coming round)
Do the Strand, Roxy Music (The Sphynx and Mona Lisa/Lolita and Guernica/Did the strand)
Many thanks for these latest song choices, Rick – great to see the ‘painting and sculpture’ theme still lives!
There will be a new theme up this Friday, 20 December.
Cheers!