-carlos nyc
― Carlos Ramirez (Carlos Ramirez), Monday, 8 December 2003 09:24 (9 years ago) Permalink
― teeny (teeny), Monday, 8 December 2003 14:43 (9 years ago) Permalink
― Beta (abeta), Monday, 8 December 2003 15:28 (9 years ago) Permalink
― may pang (maypang), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:25 (9 years ago) Permalink
― bad jode (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:37 (9 years ago) Permalink
― bad jode (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:38 (9 years ago) Permalink
― bad jode (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:42 (9 years ago) Permalink
― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 04:23 (9 years ago) Permalink
― harveyw (harveyw), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 10:00 (9 years ago) Permalink
One more vote for Discover America. His calypso period is out there.
― Oscar Trout (Oscar Trout), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:32 (7 years ago) Permalink
― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:47 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 20 April 2006 21:33 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Thursday, 20 April 2006 22:39 (7 years ago) Permalink
― hank (hank s), Thursday, 20 April 2006 23:58 (7 years ago) Permalink
― I know, right?, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:54 (6 years ago) Permalink
Song Cycle must have really blown some minds back in '68. I love it.
― Bill in Chicago, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:41 (6 years ago) Permalink
― I know, right?, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:48 (6 years ago) Permalink
― I know, right?, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:52 (6 years ago) Permalink
Yeah Song Cycle feels like Wilson doing a score for Looney Tunes.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 31 August 2008 22:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
Song Cycle is amazing. i like blasting it and singing along while i'm driving through hollywood or beverly hills.
it isn't hard to listen to, it's just really hard to 'crack'? sort of a maze, it's easy to lose track of.
― Matt P, Sunday, 31 August 2008 22:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
on the whole i prefer discover america to SC
― impudent harlot, Sunday, 31 August 2008 22:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
SC has as much great bits ("the all golden", "the attic") as meh bits ("by the people", "widow's walk")
― impudent harlot, Sunday, 31 August 2008 22:29 (4 years ago) Permalink
I've exhausted saying things about this but I love Song Cycle, it is a nearly perfect thing
― I know, right?, Sunday, 31 August 2008 23:00 (4 years ago) Permalink
An appalling lack of appreciation for Jump! here.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 1 September 2008 04:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
It's honestly unbelievable. (I'm finally giving it a real listen tonight.)
― Matt P, Monday, 1 September 2008 06:20 (4 years ago) Permalink
Jump!?
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 1 September 2008 13:16 (4 years ago) Permalink
well I'm looking for youth not experience
― PappaWheelie V, Monday, 1 September 2008 14:42 (4 years ago) Permalink
^ Ha.
Anybody have info on that Datsun commercial?
― Owen Pallett, Monday, 1 September 2008 17:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
Certainly gotten the best out of Brian Wilson. Surprisingly good album, and easily the best thing he has done since "Till I Die".
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 1 September 2008 19:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
(Discounting "sMiLe" of course, but those songs were composed and largely arranged back when he was still in his artistic prime)
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 1 September 2008 19:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
Which album? Orange Crate Art?!?!
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 1 September 2008 20:34 (4 years ago) Permalink
Is anyone sharing "Do What You Wanta" on their site?
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 1 September 2008 21:27 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm really enjoying Discover America right now.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 2 September 2008 18:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
I've been all over this guy for days now and have so much to report.
"Occapella" from Discover America is funky, sexy and brilliant — at least two of which are words I never thought I would associate with VDP.
Clang of the Yankee Reaper is a really interesting record — the title track, obv., but also some really remarkable calypso interpretations of pop songs. By this point, he was literally finding songs that said what he wanted to say and covering them, rather than writing them (and tweaking them: "Cannon In D by Pachabel" is actually not Pachabel at all (or in D) but a Lutherian hymn about God's might). I also like that, according to the credits at least, VDP supposedly only sings here — as if this record could have been created by anyone other than him.
Jump, as previously noted, has some incredible, incredible stuff. The skipping, opening melody of "Many Mile To Go" is one of the best moments of his career, easy. And reviving minstrelry as an artform takes serious balls.
Orange Crate Art has its moments — but is a little harder to dig into because—not in spite—of Brian Wilson's voice.
GREAT and moving six-part Dutch biography on him here: .
(note: There's very little Dutch narration in this, so don't be discouraged by it)
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 10 September 2008 19:17 (4 years ago) Permalink
meh bits ("by the people", "widow's walk")
What the fuck?! the disney choir on by the people is amazing and the slide/step rhythms of widows walk are almost funny in a heartbreaking way. This album is inconsistent but never less than great, it's just that the flashes of incandescent genius throw it off kilter a bit
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 10 September 2008 19:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ah, right: Song Cycle! How could I have forgotten?
Consider me among one of the people who thinks it's a remarkable, ambitious quasi-failure. It's triumph and failure are kind of interchangeable: its disorienting, unrelenting psychedelia. It's almost as if VDP can't bear the notion that a good idea might wear out its welcome.
I'd also add, tho, that the one place it completely and brilliantly comes together is "The Attic," which as a standalone track fairly lords over a lot of the rest of the material.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 10 September 2008 21:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
In many ways it's the album described here on all those Tusk threads, that is, it's a morass of webby sound strung around these strange creeping pop songs. Rich and ornate, but also rough and improvisatory. The structures of songs are chaotic and unfocussed but the long threading vocal lines kind of prick along the surface with these curling lyrical trails. The opening cover of Vine St. is like a curtain pulling away to reveal another curtain, it's a surreal and oddly cinematic way to open an album but immediate impression is not to take anything for granted, which for the remainder of the album is a tenet that holds fast. In fact it's a remarkably visual album, underlined by the snatches of field recordings used mainly as incidental introductions and particularly Park's colourful lyrics splashed with runic expressions and delicately abstract aphorisms.
There's a kind of anxiety in how Parks tries to hide his voice behind a number of studio tricks, particularly the almost dubby echo of "Widows Walk", this element of obscuration becomes a major theme of the album, where the restless collage of sounds becomes a constant masking of areas. To put it another way, each part appears solid and concrete when listened to as part of the whole embellished arrangement, but taken by itself they echo and disappear behind other parts. Maybe this is the great haze of the american songwriting tradition that Parks makes new through a kind of creative archeology. His meta jokes with Public Domain/Van Dyke Parks certainly reveal someone for whom the back alleys of music and the names in liner notes are nearly as important as the music itself. The vast, constantly shifting arrangements, then, are like the endless tangle of archives, record stores, names; not so much a nostalgia for a bygone era, but a love of the means by which we understand it.
― I know, right?, Thursday, 11 September 2008 01:02 (4 years ago) Permalink
for me, tho, the meta jokes and retreats into obscurity and constantly shifting arrangements are kind of what put me off SC!
― donna rouge, Thursday, 11 September 2008 01:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
Um, that's kindof all there is...
― I know, right?, Thursday, 11 September 2008 01:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
Like, I think it takes a certain type of person to be so in love with a time they never experienced, and this album is like the soundtrack to that.
― I know, right?, Thursday, 11 September 2008 01:20 (4 years ago) Permalink
Interesting aside: When I interviewed Van Dyke he said Song Cycle is essentially a very personal and emotional album that documents him coping with the death of his brother. (Maybe I mentioned that once before. Oh well, it's an interesting piece of background info, which has definitely altered the way I listen to the record at times.)
― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 11 September 2008 02:48 (4 years ago) Permalink
I tried listening to it with that in mind the other day. Other than maybe some of the sentimental elements of it...I didn't really sense the connection.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 11 September 2008 03:19 (4 years ago) Permalink
I think it grounds some of the lyrics, gives them some other meanings.
― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 11 September 2008 15:21 (4 years ago) Permalink
Apart from the title track I've never been able to get into "Clang OTYR". I used to play "Jump" a lot, but I haven't heard it in years. No love here for "Tokyo Rose"? Didn't like "Orange Crate Art".
― Wrinkled Aeneas (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 September 2008 15:27 (4 years ago) Permalink
Clang... didn't connect with me at first either — but after a while, the calypso tunes started getting deeper, more interesting and, frankly, more catchy to me. And the whole "Cannon in D" (note the misspelling) closing is seriously twisted — sort of what would happen if "Tusk" were performed by a disco band in a church.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 11 September 2008 15:53 (4 years ago) Permalink
BTW, sitting up at 7am w/ my daughter on a Sunday, I just noticed that VDP is doing the songs for HBO's "Harold and the Purple Crayon" animated series. The songs today featured him singing about the cycle of life (Harold's goldfish died, apparently), were catchy as hell (think Jump!) and were scored for orchestra and sitar! Harry Nilsson would have been very, very proud...
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 1 March 2009 13:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
i had the honour of interviewing him a few months back and he invited me to his gig with inara george in camden. really charismatic and vocal guy, on and off stage. i had a quick chat with him after the gig but he was being harassed by everyone there. he handed me a card which read:
"Mr. Van Dyke Parksapologizes for his behavior on the night of ..... and sincerely regrets any damage orinconvenience he may have caused."
http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/van-dyke-parks-interview
― the next grozart, Sunday, 1 March 2009 14:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
Thanks for the interview link!
*puts on Tokyo Rose*
― t**t, Sunday, 1 March 2009 18:40 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm going to his alleged only australian concert in Sept. What should I expect from a VDP live performance?
― wilter, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 23:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
when i was in LA i lived near laurel canyon blvd and every time i had to cross it i started humming the song cycle track
― hallmark race cards (donna rouge), Thursday, 23 July 2009 00:00 (3 years ago) Permalink
got the 33 1/3 for Christmas and it is one of the better ones I've read from that series.
― Moodles, Friday, 13 April 2012 16:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
I love "Song Cycle" but yeah every time I try to play it for someone it becomes apparent just how weird it is. I think my favorite VDP song is "G-Man Hoover". Sad that youtube doesn't have a video i can embed...
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 April 2012 16:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
Can anyone confirm/deny that Van Dyke Parks did the arrangements for Dillard and Clark's "Why Not Your Baby?"
― ghosttaster, Friday, April 13, 2012 7:34 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
would also like to know this. my favorite gene clark song btw.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 14 April 2012 05:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
He played piano with Clark in 1966 and would work with Dillard on the "Popeye" soundtrack, but he didn't arrange "Why not your baby", it's not on his CV and it doesn't sound like him
― Ò (Ówen P.), Saturday, 14 April 2012 11:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
...but I can't find any info that suggests otherwise.
― Ò (Ówen P.), Saturday, 14 April 2012 11:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'd read that he DID arrange it on his official website back when it had a list of his outside work... Strange.
Saying it doesn't sound like him is kinda weird, tho - everything the guy arranges doesn't have to sound like Song Cycle and it's possible they just told him to do the strings rather than the whole session, which sounds like a normal Dillard & Clark arrangement. But I don't know for sure, obviously.
― I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Saturday, 14 April 2012 13:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
The list from his old website isn't *official*-- it was compiled by a guy named Gerhard. Furthermore, it doesn't have the D&C song on it.
I could post the list, I saved it to disc, but it's long
― Ò (Ówen P.), Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
I coulda sworn.... it was ridiculously long iirc, so I'll take your word for it.
― I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M4993&type=A
April 9th 1 hour live show streaming at Kennedy Center website
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
https://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=13395
i'm going to this! it was a bit more exciting when it was 'mystery special guests' rather than those two guys, but still, exciting!
― michael nyman cat (Merdeyeux), Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
Baaaaah why didn't I notice that show that sounds *amazing*
― Ò (Ówen P.), Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
The horse's mouth has just confirmed that he did not write that arrangement but that he did dig Dillard & Clark the most.
― Ò (Ówen P.), Saturday, 14 April 2012 14:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
the horse's mouth! van dyke is the cool uncle i wish i had.
― tylerw, Saturday, 14 April 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
pretty fabulous live thing here: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/07/152218499/van-dyke-parks-on-mountain-stage
― tylerw, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
I might be wrong but didn't he "creatively disown" 'Clang Of The Yankee Reaper'?
― Lil' Kim Philby (Call the Cops), Friday, 11 May 2012 07:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
Seriously? I love that one.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 11 May 2012 13:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah i think that's a cool record! haven't heard him say anything about it that I can recall. for real, the npr show is really nice, everyone should listen to it.
― tylerw, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
Checking it out. Still sad I couldn't make it to his gig with a string trio in St Louis.(I saw Mission of Burma at a local gig that night instead, so not complaining too much)(except there were hardly enough people at the Burma gig)
― Trip Maker, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Here's something I don't understand: why does Discover America, which is, sure, a covers album, why does it begin with somebody else's recording? On one hand I think it's rebellious and fun, and a nice 'tip of the hat' to the beginning of Vine Street (somebody else's song segueing into somebody else's song). But it confounds me that Track 1 is just, well, somebody else's record.
― poxen, Saturday, 12 May 2012 02:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
Because he's trying to educate the rest of us dullards in the world about Trinidadian music I would assume? Also it's a great track! One thing I've never understood about that album is why he credited the tracks written by Trinidadian artists to Van Dyke Parks, I know he explains in the sleevenotes that all royalties from the tracks went to the writers but why not list them? Was it a publishing thing?
Haven't listened to "Clang of the Yankee Reaper" in years, but I remember it being a bit too Trinidad and not enough VDP, apart from the title track... and "You're a Real Sweetheart". I can't imagine him disowning it though, why would he? I doubt he had record company pressure, he seems to have been able to record whenever and whatever he wants throughout his career... a rarity! (Post punk bores like me like to point out that "Clang of the Yankee Reaper" is one of the albums Mark Perry
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Saturday, 12 May 2012 10:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
... is posing with on the front cover of "The Image Has Cracked"
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Saturday, 12 May 2012 11:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
IIRC it's in the final pages of the Song Cycle 33 1/3 book, where he surveys the discography.
― Lil' Kim Philby (Call the Cops), Saturday, 12 May 2012 11:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ahh, I haven't read that one, oddly enough. Tom, your explanation makes sense, and I get that tune in my head All The Time.
― poxen, Saturday, 12 May 2012 14:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
so at my count, with these singles, VDP is at 11 songs. as a whole, it's seriously a GREAT album (if he'd put it out as such). as good as anything he's done! FOR REAL.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 July 2012 18:31 (10 months ago) Permalink
one of them is a solo re-do of "all golden" but it's awesome, so ...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 July 2012 18:35 (10 months ago) Permalink
Yes, these are all good. I like the packaging and the "available on iTunes or as a 7-inch" thing, he's a hip geezer.
― Ówen P., Wednesday, 18 July 2012 19:05 (10 months ago) Permalink
yeah i've just bought the mp3s, tho the 7 inches look quite nice.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 July 2012 19:09 (10 months ago) Permalink
nice fall morning tripping to song cycle. i didn't know about these new singles, exciting!
― We demand justice: who murdered Chanel? (Matt P), Monday, 8 October 2012 15:39 (7 months ago) Permalink
Took a bit of work but I'm really enjoying Discover America now.
http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/van-dyke-parks-discover-america-round-37-toms-selection/
― yugi ex, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 06:31 (7 months ago) Permalink
i got some deluxe CD reissue of that at a used record store--but i can't find any trace of its having existed online. it's a legit european release, maybe it was recalled or only released in a limited edition or something.
anyway it is good but yeah it really takes some getting used to esp if you know many of the songs from other performances as i do.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:11 (7 months ago) Permalink
I don't think I knew any of the original versions - certianly not well enough to recognise them - how different are they in terms of arrangement, performance? I'm assuming they probably didn't have orchestras, for a start, but VDP used stuff like steel drums on some of the tracks. How faithful are they, I guess?
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:36 (7 months ago) Permalink
VDP + Scott Walker = Bob Drake
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 10:34 (7 months ago) Permalink
I don't think those are Bob's parents really.
― t**t, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:34 (7 months ago) Permalink
Uncles, perhaps.
― t**t, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:35 (7 months ago) Permalink
arrangements are odder and more strident than originals in most cases, but VDP's voice is also very much an acquired taste. me, i haven't really acquired it per se, i just sort of put up w/ it. anyway arrangements + his singing give songs a kind of arch, vaguely ironic flair that at first kind of irritated me. but at some point on most of the songs the weirdness kind of gels at some point.
have folks heard his arrangement of that bonnie raitt calypso song. at some level it could probably be considered a horrid misstep--almost a kind of blackface routine, w/ ms raitt adopting an outsized patois and the arrangement cranking up the steel drum. but it kind of works. at least, it's interesting to hear her stretch out a bit.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 17:28 (7 months ago) Permalink
I love that song "G-Man Hoover". So awesome. The vocals on it are so great, too.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 18:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
Oh wait i said that already early this year.
Rat-ta-tat.....TATRat-ta-tat.....TAT
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 18:41 (7 months ago) Permalink
http://bellaunion.com/2013/02/van-dyke-parks-to-release-songs-cycled-on-may-6th/
his new album Song Cycled is out on May 6. it's a collection of all his recent singles
― second geir, lean right (little hongro hongro go faster faster) (unregistered), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 17:21 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
er, Songs Cycled
― second geir, lean right (little hongro hongro go faster faster) (unregistered), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 17:25 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
i got that train-themed LP on record store day but have yet to listen to it.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 09:00 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
It's pretty good!
― insert witticism here (hypehat), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 09:41 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
i love it. super-cinematic
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 13:24 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
ugh, i need to get that, is it available still anywhere? this ry cooder vid from 1970ish that VDP made is kind of great. http://bananastan.com/scrapbook.html#videos
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 15:00 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
also of importance
― tylerw, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 15:06 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 15:58 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
His business cards read, approximately:
Mr Van Dyke Parkswould like to apologize for his behaviour at this event(312) etc.
― flamboyant goon tie included, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 22:27 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
L.A. not Chicago, sorry
hey tyler i'll sell it to you for $150 ;-)
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, 2 May 2013 02:08 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
"I spoke of my love for MacArthur,The man, not the park in LA"
― Bees Against Racism (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:55 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Got Songs Cycled yesterday, it's a weird one - there's an Esso Trinidad Steel Band track in there completely uncredited, it lifts stuff really unsubtly from his scores, but there's so much good stuff here and I wasn't able to shell out for the 7' series. The Parting Hand and Sassafrass are glorious, and throughout his arranging and production are amazing. <3 Van Dyke.
― insert witticism here (hypehat), Sunday, 5 May 2013 10:24 (2 weeks ago) Permalink