.................................the blog nobody reads: Van Dyke Parks

Showing posts with label Van Dyke Parks. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Van Dyke Parks "Song Cycle” 1968 |TWILIGHTZONE

Van Dyke Parks "Song Cycle" 1968

"Van Dyke Parks has always been one of the great charlatans of US music history!"

Former child actor Van Dyke Parks had reinvented himself as a songwriter, arranger, raconteur, and budding conceptualist when Warner Bros. bankrolled this brave, baroque 1968 debut, which has achieved true notoriety in the annals of '60s California pop.
More heard-of than heard, Song Cycle sailed against the tide of guitar-driven, blues-drenched rock to bet on the orchestral ambitions of Sgt. Pepper, weaving a conceptual tapestry from folk, Tin Pan Alley, and classical strands. In place of generational anthems or confessional love songs, Parks's coy, modest tenor offered intricate, impressionistic wordplay ripe with puns, multiple-entendres, and geopolitical allusions far beyond the pale of countercultural rock. On songs such as "The All Golden," "Palm Desert," and "Laurel Canyon Blvd.," you'll hear poetic links to Brian Wilson's most convoluted, internalized soundscapes, as well as a wily musical intelligence that will either intoxicate or infuriate you. Not unlike a brattier, Californian cousin to Stephen Sondheim, Parks revels in musical and thematic puzzles, and Song Cycle offers his most seductive and challenging ones. - Sam Sutherland

1 Vine Street (R Newman)

2 Palm Desert (Van Dyke Parks)

3 Widow's Walk (Van Dyke Parks)
4 Laurel Canyon Blvd. (Van Dyke Parks)
5 The All Golden (Van Dyke Parks)
6 Van Dyke Parks (Public Domain) say what now?

7 Public Domain (Van Dyke Parks) come again . . . ? What the heck?
8 Donovan's Colours (Donovan Leitch)

9 The Attic (Van Dyke Parks)
10 Laurel Canyon Blvd. (Van Dyke Parks)
11 By The People (Van Dyke Parks)
12 Pot Pourri (Van Dyke Parks)
CD bonus track 13 The Eagle And Me (Arlen/Naiberg) (originally released as a single on Warner Bros)

Producer: Leonard Waronker

here . . . .

Then came 'Discover America' and we all bought the album thanks to my old friend and collegiate pal Steve Roberts I think! . . .

“Here she come with she face like Jack Palance - Go To FRANCE!"

Monday, December 16, 2024

Pete Case - Small Town Spree | Le Ramasseur De Mégots,

peter case small town spree van dyke parks t bone burnett

Le Ramasseur De Mégots

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Van Dyke Parks :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Posted on October 16, 2023

Ahead of planning an upcoming concert at the Getty Museum, Van Dyke Parks caught up with AD from his home in Los Angeles. In addition to his philosophies on arranging and composition, we discuss some of the more understated (yet fascinating) parts of his prolific career: the audio/visual unit he created at Warner Brothers, relationship with Haruomi Hosono, fascination with steel drums and tuneful percussion, the moment he was embraced by psychedelia, and much more.

Van Dyke Parks, like many folk I guess, I discovered through Ry Cooder and an early purchase and fascination for his album Discover America followed and every project since we knew that a genius was involved whether as a fellow player (keyboards) or as an exemplary producer. Here Aquarium Drunkard pins down the maestro for a fascinating interview exploring his resurgence in profile and why younger musicians still seem to seek him out . . . . . .

VAN DYKE PARKS : The Four Mills Brothers - with Haruomi Hosono & The World Shyness (Yuzo Kayama AKA Dr. K. (guitar), Miharu Koshi (accordion), Ren Takada (steel guitar), Wataru Iga (bass), Motoya Hamaguchi (drums), plus Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboard) during a concert tribute to Hosono.

Or this . . . . from 1996 a concert featuring Hominy Grove . . . . let’s go there!

Wednesday, May 05, 2021

NEWSROOM: Lucinda Williams, Van Dyke Parks, Lily Allen, Talking Heads,

ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS

BIG O

NEWSROOM

LUCINDA WILLIAMS, A STROKE SURVIVOR

Speaking in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 68-year-old singer-songwriter said she spent five weeks in the hospital after a blood clot developed on the right side of her brain in November of last year. A few days before Thanksgiving, Williams was in her bathroom getting ready to take a shower when she had trouble keeping her balance. She stumbled and struggled to stand up straight and couldn't walk. "An ambulance came and got me and we told them not to put the big siren on. We didn't want to alarm the neighbours or anything," she explained. "But they put the siren on."

Williams spent a week in the intensive care unit where doctors discovered a blood clot on the right side of her brain, which affected the left side of her body. She was then transferred to a rehabilitation centre to begin a month-long treatment of therapy. Williams was discharged on December 21 and is now undergoing physical therapy. She now walks with a cane, is unable to play guitar, and has lingering pain in both her left arm and left leg. However, thanks to the lack of brain damage, doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

She said, "I do, like, walking, with the cane and they watch me and see how well I'm doing. And then I have to do hand and arm exercises. It's really about regaining my strength and mobility, and range of motion. That's what they work with me on."

She added: "The main thing is I can still sing. I'm singing my ass off, so that hasn't been affected. Can't keep me down for too long."

NEW VAN DYKE PARKS

'Van Dyke Parks Orchestrates Verónica Valerio: Only in America' teams the musical iconoclast with singer-songwriter-harpist Verónica Valerio for a new, four-song EP. It merges the sensibilities of the Mississippi-born hero of California music with the Veracruz, Mexico native to create a miniature suite that very much reflects the times in which we're living. Valerio reached out to Parks to initiate the pairing. Valerio, who studied music in Veracruz and New York, reflects in the press release, "Two years ago, I wrote Van Dyke because he is a sincere person, a selfless communicator, polite, a fighter and great artist." Parks returns the compliments: "Her music got me out of the hall of mirrors of pop culture which is unavoidable as we turn on a radio or television. This was my exit... the record I wanted to do with this girl in quarantine! Never met her. But I have a longstanding love for Hispanic music - I think it's the moment to be part of the 'browning of America': crossing the aisle, learning the lingo. It has idiomatic value, a supreme unimportance to the value of profit." Parks orchestrated all of the music; Valerio sings in Spanish. Klaus Voormann has provided the striking cover artwork for Van Dyke Parks Orchestrates Verónica Valerio: Only in America. Due on June 11 from BMG/Modern Recordings in vinyl and digital formats.