VAN DYKE PARKS appreciation thread...

^ Ha.

Anybody have info on that Datsun commercial?

Certainly gotten the best out of Brian Wilson. Surprisingly good album, and easily the best thing he has done since "Till I Die".

(Discounting "sMiLe" of course, but those songs were composed and largely arranged back when he was still in his artistic prime)

Certainly gotten the best out of Brian Wilson. Surprisingly good album, and easily the best thing he has done since "Till I Die".

Which album? Orange Crate Art?!?!

Is anyone sharing "Do What You Wanta" on their site?

I'm really enjoying Discover America right now.

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)

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

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.

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.

for me, tho, the meta jokes and retreats into obscurity and constantly shifting arrangements are kind of what put me off SC!

Um, that's kindof all there is...

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.

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.)

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.

I think it grounds some of the lyrics, gives them some other meanings.

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".

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.

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...

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 Parks
apologizes for his behavior on the night of .....
and sincerely regrets any damage or
inconvenience he may have caused."

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/van-dyke-parks-interview

Thanks for the interview link!

*puts on Tokyo Rose*

I'm going to his alleged only australian concert in Sept. What should I expect from a VDP live performance?

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

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/3918635601_01abd3a39b_o.jpg

fans of discover america check this recently reissued recording of the esso trinidad steel band (produced by van dyke parks in 1971):

http://www.othermusic.com/perl-bin/OM/CD_Show_Info.cgi?ID=2443489.18394&catalog_id=86681

i'm about to check this out as well:

mighty sparrow - hot & sweet (produced by parks 1974)

http://www.othermusic.com/perl-bin/OM/CD_Show_Info.cgi?ID=2443489.18394&catalog_id=84140

and i'mma gonna check out "the company" ost, whereon there's 2 van dyke parks tunes that i've never heard anywhere else (curtain calls & blue snake and zebras).

The concert a couple of weeks ago was really awesome. His dad jokes between every song were a+.

He played a bunch of stuff from Discover and Jump which was pleasing.

I also got him to sign a copy this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FG4C1NQWL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

and was annoyed how much of a dork I was in front of him

Hey the man himself is on a brief tour right now and in SF tonite and Santa Monica in a few days. Attended his Portland show last night and couldn't recommend higher for anyone even remotly interested- do yourself a favor. Played a pretty representative swath of his material; closed with "He Needs Me"!

Oh and my gf got his same business card from upthread :)

Yep saw him late last year, it was totally fun + awesome

dad jokes? is he a dad?

he is gay, right...?

NO.

nope

just fairly camp

He is a dad,and v v happily married afaik?

Yes.

man, this is something else. i don't even know what to think.

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.

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.

oh man i envy u yr first play

fave VDP joint might be mojo men's "sit down i think i love you" but "palm desert" is some insanity

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!

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.

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.

Not that I am aware of but it would be great to have.

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)

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.

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, 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

Hell yeah they lost money:

http://posterscene.com/images/items/full/vandyke1.jpg

"The static in this batcave of bloggery" he has an amazing way with words.

someone ought to employ him as a lyricist!

my heart sings whenever i find some Song Cycle appreciation in the wild- http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/a-brief-history-of-prog-folk-fleet-foxes/

I listened to it for the first time in ages just the other day. It really is great

just listened to this 10 times in a row (got the Sundazed reissue of the single in Toronto the other day)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOmA3sS34ls

Can you imagine is VDP produced a whole album for Randy Newman that sounded like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xq7hhBipE

GODDAMN that is fucking great!!

the Harpers Bizarre cover is p sweet too, VDP plays keyboards on it

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

he is great on twitter

yeah his twitter is great. if you say anything about how he is under appreciated, his career was sabotaged, mike love is an asshole, or his brilliance knows no bounds, he will smash that fuckin fav & RT immediately. i like his "birthday" series.

Didn't know this

On Aug. 9, '69, just after 3:00 p.m, I rapped on the door at 10050 Cielo Dr., to visit Terry Melcher at home. He'd moved. On that front lawn I'd 1st met Brian. Sharon met me, clued me in. Asked if I wanted to come join her & her guests. Decent! I declined. pic.twitter.com/UTvtlbZtYB

— Van Dyke Parks (@thevandykeparks) November 21, 2017

Saw that as well. Yikes.

According to Karina Longworth on her Manson podcast, every Hollywood celeb of the time has a story about going to the Tate house or being invited that day. Makes me a bit sceptical about VDP.

i was yapping about vdp at a show recently and this dude came up and showed me his biz card

https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/23509069_10155771033790600_2409688217229193297_o.jpg?oh=7fd7c2035f17535994f7922665ed9bb8&oe=5A919AAB

ha yes!! i was just telling my friend about that business card
also recently converted another friend to the righteous ways of SONG CYCLE...
it is the gospel/disease I spread

Ah yeah I got given one of these when I met him. Totally forgot about that. Hope I still have it somewhere

's weird. I used to follow VDP on Twitter and he also followed me. Then he blocked me. I'll never know why. He's also the only person to block me on there. I still revere the man!

Maybe it was an accident?

he's been having a ball with puns on "he is not your run of the mill Alabama garden variety country fare" lately

lol fuck switch Alabama around

He wanted to look at the 16 mm copy of the Zapruder film I would show in slo-mo, trying to fathom what had actually happened when our brloved JFK got his head blown away in Dallas. I had the only copy in town. https://t.co/wmMh1hpIc6

— Van Dyke Parks (@thevandykeparks) December 9, 2018

Discover America is the Clear Spot to Song Cycle's Trout Mask Replica - don't ask me to choose a favourite.

Their paths intersect through the work of @thevandykeparks.

Here's a non-linear 17 hour tour of Van Dyke Parks' compositions, performances, productions, and arrangements:https://t.co/13ShAMJmmy

— Tim Gurczak (@TimGurczak) May 25, 2021