VAN DYKE PARKS appreciation thread...

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

I might be wrong but didn't he "creatively disown" 'Clang Of The Yankee Reaper'?

Seriously? I love that one.

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.

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)

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.

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

... is posing with on the front cover of "The Image Has Cracked"

IIRC it's in the final pages of the Song Cycle 33 1/3 book, where he surveys the discography.

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.

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.

one of them is a solo re-do of "all golden" but it's awesome, so ...

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.

yeah i've just bought the mp3s, tho the 7 inches look quite nice.

nice fall morning tripping to song cycle. i didn't know about these new singles, exciting!

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/

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.

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?

VDP + Scott Walker = Bob Drake

I don't think those are Bob's parents really.

Uncles, perhaps.

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.

I love that song "G-Man Hoover". So awesome. The vocals on it are so great, too.

Oh wait i said that already early this year.

Rat-ta-tat.....TAT
Rat-ta-tat.....TAT

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

er, Songs Cycled

i got that train-themed LP on record store day but have yet to listen to it.

It's pretty good!

i love it. super-cinematic

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

also of importance
http://bananastan.com/lightbox2.03a/images/vdp_grace.jpg

http://images.ukfestivalguides.com/gallery_images/van-dyke-parks/van-dyke-parks_10.jpg

His business cards read, approximately:

Mr Van Dyke Parks
would like to apologize for his behaviour at this event
(312) etc.

L.A. not Chicago, sorry

hey tyler i'll sell it to you for $150 ;-)

"I spoke of my love for MacArthur,
The man, not the park in LA"

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.

His lecture at Red Bull Academy on arranging

http://vimeo.com/66822387

this is sounding good. http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1895&fulltext=1
liners are great too.

ty!

New single, to mark anniversary of the JFK assassination: http://bellaunion.com/2013/11/van-dyke-parks-announces-limited-edition-7-single-im-history-bw-charm-school/

Just downloaded and it's pretty nice-sounding. A-side is one of the densest things he's done since "Song Cycle"; B-side is a "Clang of the Yankee Reaper"-style Caribbean instrumental.

new single sounds great -- the strings are really nicely recorded. van dyke is on a roll!

Discovered "Discover America" for the first time about two weeks ago and it's so good I'm kind of at a loss to describe it. VASTLY superior to Song Cycle (which I also like quite a bit). I immediately went out & tracked down copies of both the Esso Trinidad Steel Band album he produced, which is also very good, and Jump, which I'm still waiting on to be delivered COME ON.

Discover America is great...
Gotta be a tie between Cale's Academy In Peril, Parks' Discover America and Nitzsche's St Giles Cripplegate as the weirdest records Warner/Reprise ever put out in the early 70s.

Too right. St Giles Cripplegate sounds like it should be on Drag City circa 2002.

has anyone heard this kathy dalton (no, not karen dalton) LP

http://www.discogs.com/Kathy-Dalton-Boogie-Bands-One-Night-Stands/release/2553972

VDP arrangements. it's at the local store but I didn't pick it up (yet), not b/c it was expensive but b/c I have no room for more LPs :(

but if anyone says it's worth a listen I'll pick it up

i've only heard the title track, but i think the backing band is basically little feat so... you probably want it? the song i've heard is not very VDP iirc.

oh why did i not notice the little feat connection?

that's as good as bought, then