VAN DYKE PARKS appreciation thread...

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.

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!

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.

well, no

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.

iirc 'good vibrations' cost $60k? and that was seen as insane, the cost of multiple LPs?

This thread inspired me to listen to Song Cycle. It's been a long time.

Joy - just won tickets to see VDP at Meltdown Festival.

i recently re-watched the brave little toaster and noticed that he had written the songs for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBEfZ8fK9Y

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.

the catering was off the hook on that record, i heard.

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

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).

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

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.

daytrotter session!

daytrotter sesh sound radddddd

great musical history/mixtape via pfork: http://pitchfork.com/news/42269-5-10-15-20-van-dyke-parks/

check it out! http://www.bananastan.com/

Well, holy shit! This is exciting! Something about that website is super infectious.
I love the arrangements compilation too, that's a great idea.

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 ...

WAU these new songs are amazing!

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.

The 33 1/3 book on "Song Cycle" is superb. Just finished it and can't wait to read it again.

Yeah, it's so good. The anecdote about the greyhounds cracks me up

Can anyone confirm/deny that Van Dyke Parks did the arrangements for Dillard and Clark's "Why Not Your Baby?"

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!:)

Oh I didn't know about this one. Who wrote it?

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.

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".

yeah, it is great -- wonder when vol. 2 is coming?

Who wrote it?

The book about Song Cycle is by Richard Henderson

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, 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!

got the 33 1/3 for Christmas and it is one of the better ones I've read from that series.

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...

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.

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

...but I can't find any info that suggests otherwise.

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.

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

I coulda sworn.... it was ridiculously long iirc, so I'll take your word for it.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M4993&type=A

April 9th 1 hour live show streaming at Kennedy Center website

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!

Baaaaah why didn't I notice that show that sounds *amazing*

The horse's mouth has just confirmed that he did not write that arrangement but that he did dig Dillard & Clark the most.

the horse's mouth! van dyke is the cool uncle i wish i had.

pretty fabulous live thing here: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/07/152218499/van-dyke-parks-on-mountain-stage