Vine Street: I POLLed a guitar today...

1. Randy Newman, "Vine Street (demo)"
Demo from May 1968, that is after the Van Dyke Parks' version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKBIIR0033Y

2. Van Dyke Parks, "Vine Street"
From "Song Cycle", released November 1967. The intro is a version of the traditional song "Black Jack Davey" performed by Steve Young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4wsudFG0UA

3. Harpers Bizarre, "Medley: Bye Bye Bye/ Vine Street"
From "The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre", released September 1968. The intro is a version of a 1966 b-side by the Tikis, the forerunner of Harpers Bizarre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOn-1A_iw6I

4. Harry Nilsson, "Vine Street"
From "Nilsson Sings Newman", released February 1970. The intro is an untitled song fragment composed by Newman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85ZUmqHQwW0

5. Lulu, "Vine Street"
From "Melody Fair", released June 1970. Intro same as the Nilsson version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epxh3CetPo8

Glad to have learned that there are so many versions of the song! And thanks for providing the links as well! The only one I've heard other than 'the original' (ie Van Dyke's) is the Randy Newman one so I'm curious to hear the rest and will do so with pleasure right now. 'Song Cycle' is one of my all-time favourite LPs, so my vote goes to that one in any case --- I've been listening to 'Vine Street' in its spot as the opening track on Parks's incomparable masterpiece for more than 50 years now, so for me, this song, which Parks 'commissioned' Newman to write in the first place, will always be 'just' The Crazy Way That Song Cycle Begins --- With A Song Not Even Written by Van Dyke Parks! (Or actually WITH TWO non-Parks songs if you include the snippet of 'Black Jack Davey' from 'the tape that we made' that leads into 'Vine Street' proper.) BTW, has there ever been an ILM 'Song Cycle' poll? My vote in such a poll could only be for 'The All Golden', even though I love every second of the album, and could theoretically nominate any song on the record (this week, 'Donovan's Colors' has my grabbed some extra attention, as I finally got hold of the RSD reissue of the original mono mix of the album. In mono, the arrangement of that song, counter-intuitively, becomes even more dazzling and overwhelming than the stereo mix. The mono mix also includes a so-quick-it's-nearly-sublimal single Parks-sung line of Donovan's original --- probably an unintentional left-over sonic artifact due to tape bleed and/or the radical track-bouncing, according to Richard Henderson's truly superb 33 1/3 'Song Cycle' book. One of the very best 33 1/3 books.

I typed some words on the topic of Ives-inspired post-modernity for a Parks Birthday Tribute a few months ago-- I haven't heard any works that sought to capture Ives' patchwork-post-modernity more than Song Cycle and Parks' sublimation-of-authorship is so intensely realised on that album, no more so than on its opening track-- important to remember that almost every other bar contains a quotation, this is Concord Sonata as a pop song. I voted Parks but could've easily voted for the Newman demo.

TO: brb (flamboyant goon tie included) --- your essay sounds super --- where did this Parks Birthday Tribute appear? I'd love to read something specific about the the Parks/Ives parallel(s) ... The Ives name is often dropped when 'Song Cycle' is mentioned (and also in reference to SMiLE to some extent), but usually in passing, without detailed examination. More developed takes on the the LP's 'Ives-Inspired patchwork' are welcome, and needed.'Song Cycle' is a fascinating collision between 1) Parks's fearless dive into what later non-classical scholars might anachronistically describe as proto-sampling, while it is, indeed, a direct development of, and with conscious reference to, Ives's much-earlier exploration of similar high/low collisions in purely-notated musics. And 2), with Ives integrated into Parks's compositional vocabulary, he eagerly brings about a head-on collision with the technology of late 60s pop recording studio experimentation. Something that Parks (aided by Bruce Botnick's know-how and Lenny Waronker's go-ahead) takes beyond even the concurrent innovations of The Beatles, Beach Boys, (and the likes of Joe Meek et al.) I also find the 'sublimation-of-authorship' concept to be right on the money, something that contains both the oft-remarked puns, alliterations, and citations of Parks the lyricist, but is matched by similar musical quotation and devices. And also extends to 'Song Cycle's many playful conceptual ploys, stuff along the lines of ending Side 1 with 'Van Dyke Parks' (by 'Public Domain') and opening Side 2 with 'Public Domain' (by 'Van Dyke Parks'). All good reasons (along with the album's sheer beauty) for 'Song Cycle' to keep finding new admirers. SO -- I would love to read the words you typed!

i've tried to give them all a fair shake of the stick but Song Cycle is nonpareil, this is no contest. i'm very fond of Harpers Bizarre in general. Lulu can't sing.

i'm very fond of Harpers Bizarre in general

So am I funnily enough, even though they are the tweest band ever.

there's a powerful vibe of my earliest childhood about them plus that tweeness has some kind of edge to it - melancholy or something

Re Newman and Ives, you could take it back to modernism as post-modernism: Ezra Pound's star-making remix of "The Waste Land," incl. Eliot's use of quotes as well as his original writing. Before and after that: the folk process, songtrees and all.
"Vine Street" still shines like a vine on my ancient, always thin-sounding, bargain bin copy of Newman Sings Nilsson, voted for that (also I haven't heard the others, but this is one is fine anyway.)

Ha Nilsson Sings Newman, of course! What would Newman Sings Nilsson be like? Maybe ok.

But this xgau take sounds about right

Nilsson Sings Newman [RCA Victor, 1970]
For those benighted who still believe the original can't sing, here's a sweeter version, including appropriately lovely versions of two rare urban celebrations--"Vine Street" (the one that led off Van Dyke Parks's Song Cycle) and "Dayton, Ohio 1903." Not so dynamic musically, though--just Nilsson singing, and Newman behind on piano. B+