man, this is something else. i don't even know what to think.
― fischer-price my first chukkas (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 16 April 2010 14:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Song Cycle? That record has a lot going on ... and it's just a half hour long right? Feel like you could spend a lifetime listening to it and not get to the bottom of it.
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 14:54 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah a friend gave me a copy on vinyl cuz he had it forever and didn't like it...
listened for the first time last night and this AM...
sorta like a weird beach boys but with way strange melodies and arrangements.
almost kinda like aaron copeland type stuff in some ways...
not entirely sure how i feel about it.
― Ndamukong HOOS (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:00 (fourteen years ago) link
oh man i envy u yr first play
― Big Fate (as Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner) (history mayne), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:01 (fourteen years ago) link
fave VDP joint might be mojo men's "sit down i think i love you" but "palm desert" is some insanity
― Big Fate (as Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner) (history mayne), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:02 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, i mean, it's not a record that makes a hell of a lot of sense at first. but it's worth the effort. also just kind of amazing he was allowed to make it!
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:03 (fourteen years ago) link
My friend's fiancee posted a status update at midnight that reads:"attn music nerds: Van Dyke Parks gets two thumbs down." Made me laugh.I don't listen to them very often but I love Song Cycle and Discover America.His weird version of the "ode to joy" is pretty amazing.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:14 (fourteen years ago) link
is there a comp of Van Dyke's pre-Song Cycle stuff? Production, arrangements, guest spots, etc.? Don't know how much there is, but he pops up in non-Beach Boy spots occasionally.
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Not that I am aware of but it would be great to have.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link
There are these singles (don't think I've heard them, unless Donovan's Colours is the same as Song Cycle)# "Number Nine / Do What You Wanta", 1966, single 45# "Come to the Sunshine / Farther Along", 1966, single 45# "Donovan's Colours, Pt. 1 / Donovan's Colours, Pt. 2" 1968" single 45 (under the pseudonym George Washington Brown)
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:19 (fourteen years ago) link
I should ask my friend that is utterly OBSESSED with VDP if he could whip something together.He probably owns all that stuff.I wish I could have gone with him to see Van Dyke in person in Arkansas maybe six or seven years ago. Heard the show was great.He's such a charming and funny individual, that Parks.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:22 (fourteen years ago) link
― tylerw, Friday, April 16, 2010 3:03 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yeah it's awesome that there was this weird window of time where that could happen...like now it would have to be some weirdo indie self recorded thing on a small label, but in the 60s it's like hell yeah let's get Lenny Waronker and Bruce Botnick on this
they must've spent a ton on making this record
― Ndamukong HOOS (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Hell yeah they lost money:
http://posterscene.com/images/items/full/vandyke1.jpg
― Roomful of Moogs (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link
haha, was just looking for that ad. hilarious. though it sounds like small potatoes, even for back in the day? maybe not. dunno what that would be inflation-wise these days.
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:29 (fourteen years ago) link
ugh now i really want to hear the early pre-Song Cycle stuff. Doesn't seem like it's ever been compiled ... but someone out there on the internet must've put it all together. Don't let us down, Internet!
― tylerw, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:30 (fourteen years ago) link
It's true that the first time you hear it, it sounds like an underwater gramophone playing scratchy music hall records sung by actual penguins.
― village idiot (dog latin), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link
well, no
― Big Fate (as Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner) (history mayne), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link
though it sounds like small potatoes, even for back in the day? maybe not. dunno what that would be inflation-wise these days.
Dunno either. I was looking at the liners for Odessey and Oracle the other day, and there was a quote from an A & R guy were he said 4000 pounds (about $6000) was considered an expensive budget back then. IIRC Forever Changes cost $2500-3000.
― Roomful of Moogs (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:36 (fourteen years ago) link
iirc 'good vibrations' cost $60k? and that was seen as insane, the cost of multiple LPs?
― Big Fate (as Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner) (history mayne), Friday, 16 April 2010 15:38 (fourteen years ago) link
This thread inspired me to listen to Song Cycle. It's been a long time.
― Moodles, Friday, 16 April 2010 15:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Joy - just won tickets to see VDP at Meltdown Festival.
― village idiot (dog latin), Tuesday, 18 May 2010 11:16 (thirteen years ago) link
i recently re-watched the brave little toaster and noticed that he had written the songs for it
― teledyldonix, Tuesday, 18 May 2010 16:48 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBEfZ8fK9Y
― teledyldonix, Tuesday, 18 May 2010 16:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Harold / Purple Crayon, too.
Very excited to see VDP at Primavera this year. Re-reading that Warner ad is nutty. $50k is a tonne of money, though I can't imagine how and why Song Cycle cost that much.
― ◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝ (Ówen P.), Tuesday, 18 May 2010 18:16 (thirteen years ago) link
the catering was off the hook on that record, i heard.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 18 May 2010 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
this has probably been posted a ton of times on this forum but it can't be posted enough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xq7hhBipE
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 18 May 2010 18:21 (thirteen years ago) link
I just noticed he wrote the songs for Brave Little Toaster when I re-watched it a couple weeks ago. Funny how my friend tells me how much he loved City of Light and another song at the beginning. I always favored the last 3 songs (at the dump song , future technology song, "it's just a like a movie" song).
― CaptainLorax, Tuesday, 18 May 2010 22:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Van Dyke Parks is the greatest! Here is a fileshare of some things I put together that are rare, unreleased and live performances including his first singles pre Song Cycle. I'd also like to recommend the short book Song Cycle by Richard Henderson on the 33 1/3 series. It sheds alot of light on that particular psychedelic classic.
http://www.mediafire.com/?7pcob8aaemum3
― lightnin, Thursday, 6 January 2011 01:24 (thirteen years ago) link
nice! thank you, as you may have seen upthread, i've been wanting something like this - i tracked down some of the early stuff but not all of it. my friend met VDP recently and said he was a super nice dude.
― tylerw, Thursday, 6 January 2011 02:29 (thirteen years ago) link
daytrotter session!
― Dominique, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 23:54 (thirteen years ago) link
daytrotter sesh sound radddddd
― tylerw, Friday, 18 February 2011 16:45 (thirteen years ago) link
great musical history/mixtape via pfork: http://pitchfork.com/news/42269-5-10-15-20-van-dyke-parks/
― tylerw, Friday, 22 April 2011 15:59 (thirteen years ago) link
check it out! http://www.bananastan.com/
― tylerw, Friday, 27 May 2011 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
Well, holy shit! This is exciting! Something about that website is super infectious.I love the arrangements compilation too, that's a great idea.
― KRSTRMFT (Ówen P.), Friday, 27 May 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i've always been meaning to do something like that arrangements comp myself. he beat me to it! new stuff sounds cool -- very van dyke! interesting that he says he "doesn't have an album" in him ...
― tylerw, Friday, 27 May 2011 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
WAU these new songs are amazing!
― KRSTRMFT (Ówen P.), Friday, 27 May 2011 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
Note what he charges for the physical copies of those songs! Yiyiyiyi! As it should be!
$70 for six singles! That's ...bananas! At least you can just download them for cheap.
― tylerw, Friday, 27 May 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
The 33 1/3 book on "Song Cycle" is superb. Just finished it and can't wait to read it again.
― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 13 April 2012 11:58 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, it's so good. The anecdote about the greyhounds cracks me up
― I'm not going leftfield on you... (hypehat), Friday, 13 April 2012 12:08 (twelve years ago) link
Can anyone confirm/deny that Van Dyke Parks did the arrangements for Dillard and Clark's "Why Not Your Baby?"
― ghosttaster, Friday, 13 April 2012 12:34 (twelve years ago) link
The 33 1/3 book on "Song Cycle" is superb. Just finished it and can't wait to read it again.― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee)
I am already reading it for a second time!:)
― t**t, Friday, 13 April 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
Oh I didn't know about this one. Who wrote it?
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Friday, 13 April 2012 13:20 (twelve years ago) link
VDP's "list of collaborative work" is very accurate in that it meticulously records the exact, official credits he's received. It is inaccurate insofar as album credits are inaccurate. According to the official records, no, he did not.
I haven't read "Song Cycle" but I've started on the 33 1/3s again (on Nation right now, yay); I'll pick that one up.
― Ò (Ówen P.), Friday, 13 April 2012 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
xp that is, "no he did not arrange Dillard and Clark"
BTW, "Arrangements vol. 1" is *just* *great*. Love esp. the Sal Valentino tracks, the arrangements burn and twist like a distant anthill. Bonnie Raitt's "Wha' she go do".
― Ò (Ówen P.), Friday, 13 April 2012 13:29 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, it is great -- wonder when vol. 2 is coming?
― tylerw, Friday, 13 April 2012 15:17 (twelve years ago) link
Who wrote it?
The book about Song Cycle is by Richard Henderson
― t**t, Friday, 13 April 2012 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
― tylerw, Friday, April 16, 2010 11:29 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Looks like about $235,918.54 in 2010 dollars. A chunk of change!
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 April 2012 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
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 (twelve years ago) link