“The Making of Song Cycle”
From the podcast Life of the Record : Van Dyke Parks and Richard Henderson on “The Making of Song Cycle.”
AI and VDP
It’s dispiriting to see so much AI-generated blather about stuff one loves. Example: an explanation of Van Dyke Parks song.
Recently updated
The Honeymooners: Van Dyke Parks played Tommy Borden, not Tommy Manicotti.
Ramona, memories, oranges
Here’s some orange crate art from JSTOR. With “Ramona Memories,” from the San Fernando Heights Lemon Association.
Inara G. and Van Dyke P.
From 2015, Inara George and Van Dyke Parks.
The Histories in LA
The Histories (Old Black Joe), a collaboration between David Hartt and Van Dyke Parks.
Los Beach Boys
Los Lobos cover “Sail On, Sailor” — and other songs from Los Angeles.
Van Dyke Parks and Verónica Valerio
Marco Werman talks with Van Dyke Parks and Verónica Valerio about their new album, Van Dyke Parks Orchestrates Verónica Valerio: Only in America.
Don Heffington (1950–2021)
I heard Don play with Van Dyke in Chicago and St. Louis. So I can agree with his Lone Justice bandmate Marvin Etzioni, quoted in Variety: “Like Ringo, he didn’t play drums, he played songs.”
The Histories (Old Black Joe)
The Histories (Old Black Joe) is a new 45 from Van Dyke Parks, released by the Chicago gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey.
“Surf’s Up”
In today’s Atlantic crossword, by Peter Gordon, a nice tip of the hat: 10-D, nine letters, “Surf’s Up singers, with the.”
Orange Crate Art redux
I think the Omnivore description — “sounds like nothing before or since” — is objectively accurate. Orange Crate Art is music of no time and for all time.
Orange Crate Art returns
Coming June 26, from Omnivore Recordings, a remastered reissue of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’s 1995 album Orange Crate Art, with instrumental tracks and three unreleased songs, including an affecting Wilson-Parks interpretation of “What a Wonderful World.”
VDP in and on uncharted waters
Van Dyke Parks talked with the Los Angeles Times about life in these uncharted waters.
¡Spangled!
All-American song of the highest order.
VDP and “Southern Nights”
Allen Touissant: “While I was finishing the album Van Dyke Parks visited me in the studio. He was a wonderful guy, a genius of a guy. He said, ‘Well, consider that you were going to die in two weeks. If you knew that, what would you think you would like to have done?’
VDP’s “Tabu”
The Silver Lake Chorus has recorded an unreleased Van Dyke Parks song.
Sanford Sylvan (1953–2019)
Elaine knew him when she was a teenager, and heard him sing many times. The two of us heard him in a Boston Shakespeare Company production of Mother Courage, directed by Peter Sellars. It was our third date, January 24, 1984. Linda Hunt played Mother Courage. I’ll never forget it.
“The Immigrants”
Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks’s recording of David Rudder’s “The Immigrants” has made Jon Pareles’s list of the best songs of 2018.
“The Immigrants”
A new recording from Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks: “The Immigrants.”
VDP on TCM
Fans of Van Dyke Parks should know that Turner Classic Movies is airing The Swan.
Recently updated
The Honeymooners episode with VDP as Tommy Manicotti is back online.
Van Dyke Parks meets Merle Haggard
As told by Kinky Friedman.
Being wrong about beauty
Elaine Scarry: “Those who remember making an error about beauty usually . . . recall the exact second when they first realized they had made an error.” With Pet Sounds as an example.
A song for the day
“I’m History,” words and music by Van Dyke Parks.
VDP talks about Randy Newman
“There are a lot of insults on the way to a record album. I mean, there’s blood on the tracks.”
Steve Young (1942–2016)
He is the subject of Van Dyke Parks’s extraordinary song “The All Golden.”
VDP and Harry Shearer
A smart and funny conversation, with a virtual cast of dozens that includes Ry Cooder, Astrud Gilberto, Eartha Kitt, Randy Newnan, Brian Wilson, Howlin’ Wolf, and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
VDP’s next-to-last
“His friend Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame, introduced him to the packed house. ‘Van Dyke Parks,’ he said, ‘is not just a genius. He is a fucking genius.’”
VDP’s Lost Weekend
Van Dyke Parks’s last piano/vocal performances.