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Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who has composed various film and television soundtracks. He is best known for his 1967 album ''
Song Cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rare ...
'' and for his collaborations with Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop music, pop composition, ex ...
and the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
(particularly the album ''Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile.
Among humans, a smile expresses ...
''). In addition to producing or arranging albums by Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...
, Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal ov ...
, Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter and protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer). Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, political activism, often alliterative lyrics, and ...
, Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving m ...
, Happy End, Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...
and Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francis ...
, Parks has worked with performers such as Syd Straw
Syd Straw (born 1958) is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw ('' The Pajama Game''), she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joine ...
, Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
, U2, Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
, Inara George
Inara Maryland George (born July 4, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell an ...
, Kimbra
Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two Grammy Awards and s ...
, Suzy Williams
Susan Dimiti "Suzy" Williams is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to notoriety in the musical duo Stormin’ Norman & Suzy. Williams has performed at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Hotel Palmas in the Canary Is ...
, and Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Ben Gillies on drums, Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got their big bre ...
.
Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the popul ...
, Parks spent his childhood studying clarinet, piano, and singing at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...
. He started his professional career as a child actor. During the 1950s, he worked steadily in movies and television, and in the early 1960s, he majored in music at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technolog ...
. After dropping out of university in 1963, he relocated to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, where his first paid gig was arranging "The Bare Necessities
"The Bare Necessities" is a jazz song, written by Terry Gilkyson, from the animated 1967 Disney film ''The Jungle Book'', sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli.
Background
Originally, it was written for an earlier draft o ...
" for the 1967 Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
film ''The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...
''. Following this, he involved himself with the growing West Coast music scene, subsequently playing with—or appearing on records by—acts like the Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B ban ...
, the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole con ...
, Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...
, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Harpers Bizarre. His LP ''Song Cycle'' mixed a number of genres (including bluegrass, ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...
, and show tunes) and framed classical styles in the context of 1960s pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
. It was released to underwhelming sales, but attracted a cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
in later years.
Starting in the 1970s, Parks made repeated excursions into Afro-Caribbean music
Afro-Caribbean music is a broad term for music styles originating in the Caribbean from the African diaspora. These types of music usually have West African/Central African influence because of the presence and history of African people and their ...
, notably on his 1972 album '' Discover America'' and on records he produced for the Esso Trinidad Steel Band and Mighty Sparrow. At the same time, he managed the audio/visual department of Warner Bros. Records, which was the earliest of its kind to produce music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...
s for artists. Since then, he established himself in motion pictures and over the years has directed, arranged, produced, and composed soundtracks for theatrical films and television shows such as ''Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird'' (1985), and ''
Upon dropping out of Carnegie Tech in early 1963, Parks relocated to Los Angeles with the intent of being involved with the growing West Coast
The Brave Little Toaster
''The Brave Little Toaster'' is a 1987 American animated musical film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thu ...
'' (1987). Much of his later work has been in commissioned orchestral arrangements for lesser-known indie acts.
Early life
Born in 1943 inHattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the popul ...
, as the youngest of four children, Parks spent time in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles (French: ''Lac Charles'') is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcas ...
, during his childhood. His older brothers played brass instruments. His father, Richard Hill Parks, was a doctor who served as chief psychiatric officer in the Dachau liberation reprisals
During the Dachau liberation reprisals,The incident at Dachau does not meet the ''legal'' definition of ''reprisal'', an illegal act conducted to dissuade an enemy nation from performing its own illegal acts. The massacre was not officially sanc ...
. Having studied with Karl Menninger
Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 – July 18, 1990) was an American psychiatrist and a member of the Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.
Biography
Mennin ...
, Richard's specific medical specialties were neurology and psychiatry, and he was the first doctor to admit African-American patients to a white southern hospital. Richard was also a part-time clarinetist and had a dance band to get through medical school, Dick Parks and His White Swan Serenaders. Parks's mother was a Hebraic scholar.
As Parks was growing up, there were two grand pianos in the family living room, and at age 4 he began studying the clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...
. He attended the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...
, studying voice and piano, and would sing " Gershwin, Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
, atonal music, everything". Parks also was a street urchin in ''La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'' at the Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...
and sang the title role in ''Amahl and the Night Visitors
''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer.Menotti, Gian-Carlo: ''Amahl and the Night Visitors (piano-vocal score)'', G. Schirmer, Inc., 1997. It was commissi ...
'' at New York City Opera
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, du ...
. During his childhood, Parks became extremely fond of old-style American music, most notably the sounds of Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It origin ...
. This interest in Depression-era songwriting correlated heavily with his artistic goals and interests during the 1960s and beyond. He was also deeply affected by musicians Spike Jones and Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...
, which led him to develop an interest with studio experimentation in the form of pop music. Parks has said that the first record he ever purchased may have been Dean Martin
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...
's "Memories Are Made of This
"Memories Are Made of This" is a popular song about nostalgia, written in 1955 by Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, and Frank Miller. They were the members of a three-pieced group called " The Easy Riders", who served as a backing band for Dean Mar ...
."
He began his professional career as a child actor. Between 1953 and 1958, he worked steadily in films and television, including the 1956 movie '' The Swan'', starring Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
Kelly ...
. He appeared as Ezio Pinza's son Andrew Bonino on the NBC television show '' Bonino''. One of his co-stars on ''Bonino'' was 14-year-old Chet Allen, who appeared as Jerry Bonino. Parks and Allen were roommates at the Boychoir School. Parks also had a recurring role as Little Tommy Manicotti (the kid from upstairs) on Jackie Gleason
John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was know ...
's ''The Honeymooners
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fo ...
''.
After graduating from McKeesport High School, Parks majored in music at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technolog ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, where he studied with Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
from 1960 to 1963, and developed an interest in Mexican music
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of musical genres and performance styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably deriving from the culture of the Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. It also ...
. In 1962, Parks began studying acoustic guitar. According to Parks, he learned 50 requinto solos of Mexican boleros but gave up the prospect when he realized playing guitar had become too commonplace.
Music career
1960s
Upon dropping out of Carnegie Tech in early 1963, Parks relocated to Los Angeles with the intent of being involved with the growing West Coast beatnik
Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle.
History
In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the under ...
subculture and to play with his older brother Carson Parks
Clarence Carson Parks II (26 April 1936 – 22 June 2005), also known as C. Carson Parks, was an American songwriter, music publisher, musician and singer, best known for writing the hit song "Somethin' Stupid". His younger brother is the composer ...
as the Steeltown Two (later enlarged to three), which eventually became the folk group the Greenwood County Singers. The group included future RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also ...
producer and recording artist Rick Jarrard
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
* Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and myco ...
. Parks later said of this decision, "Going to California meant I escaped John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...
. I escaped the abstractions, the music you can't remember, the highbrow angst." The two Parks brothers performed together at various coffeehouses around San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. One of the people in attendance at a Santa Barbara performance turned out to be future Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
member David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
, who at the time remarked to friend David Lindley, "If they can get away with it, so can we." While in California, Parks attempted to land a job performing on the television show ''Art Linkletter's House Party
''House Party'' is an American radio daytime variety/talk show that aired on CBS Radio and on ABC Radio from January 15, 1945 to October 13, 1967.Dunning, John''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''(Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 3 ...
'' but was not accepted. Parks took a short hiatus from this group, briefly moving to New England to be part of the Brandywine Singers, earning up to $3,000 a week.
In 1963, his older brother Benjamin Parks, a French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
player, was killed in an auto accident in Frankfurt while working for the US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
in Germany, one day before his 24th birthday. Terry Gilkyson informed Parks of the news and, to help make up for it, hired Parks as an arranger for his song "The Bare Necessities
"The Bare Necessities" is a jazz song, written by Terry Gilkyson, from the animated 1967 Disney film ''The Jungle Book'', sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli.
Background
Originally, it was written for an earlier draft o ...
", which was later featured in the Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
animated feature ''The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...
''.
Parks reacted strongly to Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles " Please Please Me", " From Me to You" and " She Loves You" ...
. Of it, he claimed, "I lived under a billboard that said 'The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
is coming,' and I got the sense that it was a plague, and that it was going to have cultural implication throughout the world. ... It's almost like the vestigial functions, the appendixes of the musical life that I had just begun to have a scant association with were being excised from the body of music with the advent of folk music gone electric. So I started to learn piano." He has repeatedly stated his annoyance with contemporary pop music during the mid-1960s and the culture's increasing anglophilia, going so far as to say, "apart from '' Pet Sounds'' I didn't find anything striking coming out of the United States." However, he had a favorable opinion of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his self-titled debut album ''Bob Dylan'' had contained only two original songs, this album ...
'', and Parks has said to have been impressed with Dylan's "speaking-voice" style. Accordingly, "I also looked at his written lyrics and realized that he didn't capitalize his letters. He was trying to copy e.e. cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
and, while it was transparently imitative, I thought it was a good position."By 1964, Parks was growing more and more interested in songwriting. Parks has said that while bass player Hal Brown of the Brandywine Singers took him sightseeing around a decrepit "almost-ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
", the two had a chance encounter with the San Francisco group the Charlatans in an old saloon. The group derided the 21-year-old Parks for his "preppy
Preppy (also spelled preppie) or prep (all abbreviations of the word ''preparatory'') is a subculture in the United States associated with the alumni of old private Northeastern college preparatory schools. The terms are used to denote a pers ...
" and "square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
" appearance, and Parks responded by showing off a song he had recently written named "High Coin", which impressed the group so much that they asked if they could record it. Parks agreed, and the Charlatans' version of "High Coin" received much airplay
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
in San Francisco, which established Parks within the hippie counterculture. Soon after, Parks quit the Brandywine Singers and signed an artist contract with MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
, for which he recorded the singles " Number Nine" and " Come to the Sunshine", which did not succeed commercially. They were both produced by Tom Wilson. Two years later, Parks's compositions written for other artists were becoming known for their lyrical wordplay and sharp imagery. Producers Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker (born October 3, 1941) is an American record producer and music industry executive. As the president of Warner Bros. Records, and later, as the co-chair of DreamWorks Records, Waronker was noted for his commitment to artists and ...
and Terry Melcher
Terrence Paul Melcher (born Terrence Paul Jorden; February 8, 1942 – November 19, 2004) was an American record producer, singer, and songwriter who was instrumental in shaping the mid-to-late 1960s California Sound and folk rock movements. His ...
were reportedly obsessed with the song "High Coin" in particular, and Waronker contacted Parks to persuade him to switch to Warner Bros. Records. The two then turned their attention to a relatively unknown group, the Tikis, and transformed them into the novelty act Harpers Bizarre, which became a success for the label. Harpers Bizarre performed a few of Parks' compositions on their albums, and Parks himself appears on the recordings alongside other uncredited musician friends. During this period, Parks worked frequently as a session musician, arranger, and songwriter and became acquainted with future close friends Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...
, Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal ov ...
, and Beach Boys
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
bandleader Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop music, pop composition, ex ...
. Parks also performed on the Byrds' album '' Fifth Dimension'' and declined an offer by David Crosby to join the band.
In 1965, Parks briefly joined Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of ...
's Mothers of Invention on stage, where he was referred to as "Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
." Asked why he left, Parks said, "because I didn't want to be screamed at", although he attended sessions for the Mothers' 1966 album ''Freak Out!
''Freak Out!'' is the debut studio album by American rock band the Mothers of Invention, released on June 27, 1966, by Verve Records. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, it is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's ...
''. At some point, he performed at least one solo date with guitarists Steve Young and Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has co ...
as the opening act for the Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American rock band popular during the mid- to late-1960s. Founded in New York City in 1965 by lead singer/songwriter John Sebastian and guitarist Zal Yanovsky, the band is widely known for a number of hits, including ...
. They performed as "The Van Dyke Parks." Parks soon wrote a song for Young entitled "The All Golden." He was also later asked to join Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
but declined.
Meeting Brian Wilson
Parks initially became aware of the Beach Boys during their early popularity in the early 1960s. Speaking of them in 1995, he said, "I knew they didn't surf.…I felt some resentment about hem and I had been a fan of ''Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones
''Four Freshmen and 5 Trombones'' is a 1956 album by The Four Freshmen "It reached number six nationally and resided on the charts for over eight months." It was the first album bought by Brian Wilson, who would be greatly influenced by the Four F ...
''.…Instinctively, I was not a Beach Boy fan. 'Something really dumb about it.'" He added that, "I loved '' Pet Sounds'', you see. I came back to love them, and thought they had done a great job. It seemed to me that they would be fine in fighting spirit to take on this challenge of wresting that trophy out of the hands of those interlopers." Parks went on to call Wilson "the biggest event of that era" but was hesitant to label him a "genius", believing Wilson to be more "a lucky guy with a tremendous amount of talent and a lot of people collaborating beautifully around him."
According to most accounts, in 1966, Parks was introduced to Wilson while attending a party held at Terry Melcher's home. Wilson biographer Peter Ames Carlin dates their meeting to mid-July, whereas music historian Keith Badman cites February. However, Parks had already met Wilson at least once before, in December 1965, when David Crosby, a mutual friend, invited him to Wilson's home in Beverly Hills.
Wilson's (since-discredited) 1991 memoir, '' Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story'', suggested that he had met Parks, or had heard of him, through an unnamed mutual friend in December 1964. Author David McGowan suggests that the friend may have been Loren Schwartz, who had supervised Wilson's first LSD trip. According to Parks, Wilson "sought me out" after he had heard about him through mutual friends, "a neighborly couple" that experimented with psychedelic drugs. "People who experimented with psychedelics—no matter who they were—were viewed as 'enlightened people,' and Brian sought out the enlightened people."
In Wilson's 1991 memoir, it was written that his first impressions of Parks was "a skinny kid with a unique perspective" and that he "had a fondness for amphetamines
Substituted amphetamines are a class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substituting, one or more hydrogen atoms in the amphetamine core structure with sub ...
" at the time. Parks hesitantly confirmed this, but added, "Those were ''his'' amphetamines. They were in ''his'' medicine cabinet. I'd never had amphetamines. I was working for Brian Wilson at 3:30 AM when he wanted to have his amphetamines." It was also Parks who introduced Wilson to Beatles publicist Derek Taylor, who later became the Beach Boys' publicist for some time during the 1960s.
''Smile'' and collapse
Unsatisfied with ''Pet Sounds'' collaborator Tony Asher's lyrics for " Good Vibrations", Wilson first asked Parks to help him rewrite the lyrics to the song; Parks declined, stating that he didn't think he could improve on them. During the recording of "Good Vibrations" in 1966, Parks claims to have suggested to Wilson while attending a session to have the cellist play triplet notes. Impressed by the results, Brian Wilson soon convinced Parks to write lyrics for the Beach Boys' next LP, the ambitious but ill-fated ''Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile.
Among humans, a smile expresses ...
''. In preparation for the writing and recording of the album, Wilson purchased several thousand dollars' worth of marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...
and hashish
Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitoring ...
for himself and his friends, including Parks.
In light of Wilson's increasingly fragile mental state, the group tensions, and his signing to Warner Bros., Parks's involvement in ''Smile'' effectively ceased after early 1967, when he left to begin work on his solo career. Giving his reasons, he said, "I walked away from the situation as soon as I realized that I was causing friction between him and his other group members, and I didn't want to be the person to do that. I thought that was Brian's responsibility to bring definition to his own life. I stepped in, perhaps, I 'took a leap before I looked'. I don't know, but that's the way I feel about it.…As soon as I found out I was entering an eat or be eaten situation... I was raised differently. I didn't want to be part of that game." Recording sessions ground to a halt soon after, as Wilson became increasingly withdrawn, and the album was shelved a few months later.
''Song Cycle'' and aftermath
Sometime in the mid-1960s, Parks visitedFrank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
while working at Warner Bros. Sinatra was dispirited by the rise of rock, and was considering retirement. To help alleviate this, Parks pitched his brother Carson's song " Somethin' Stupid" as a duet for Sinatra and his daughter Nancy. Purportedly on Lee Hazlewood
Barton Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960 ...
's advice, Sinatra recorded "Somethin' Stupid", and it became his first million-selling single. This bought credit for Parks at Warner Bros, and they proceeded to fund Parks's one single: a cover of Donovan's "Colours
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
", from his 1965 album '' Fairytale''. It was credited to "George Washington Brown"—a fictitious pianist from South America—purportedly to protect his family from the potential infamy of his "musical criminology". "Donovan's Colours" received an ecstatic two-page review by Richard Goldstein, which convinced the label of Parks's ability.
In 1967, Parks completed his first solo album, ''Song Cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rare ...
'', produced by Lenny Waronker. Besides original compositions by Parks, ''Song Cycle'' includes interpretations of Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...
's "Vine Street", Donovan's "Colours", and the traditional "Nearer, My God, to Thee
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because t ...
". The album's production reportedly cost more than US$35,000 (equal to US$ today), making it one of the most expensive pop albums ever recorded up to that time. It sold very poorly despite rave critical reviews but gained status as a cult album in later years. Shortly after ''Song Cycle'', Parks released a standalone 7" single: the A-side "The Eagle and Me" backed with "On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak To Me", which also sold poorly.
Parks has been critical of the flower power
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsbe ...
movement, which occurred toward the end of the decade, saying "Rock became a corporate classification, just like the blues. They took off its sexual organs. Some people got paid a lot of money to bottle the rebellion of the '60s, and that's when it started to mean zero to me." He added, "To me, 1969 really suggested the death knell of the counter-culture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
revolution. The terrible event of Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
showed the cultism of the period; I was always wary of crowds. I didn't go to Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
. I didn't want to be in a mudflat waiting to get into a portable toilet. I thought it was a terrible idea. So I stayed at my office at Warner Bros.…I don't even know what happened around then, for many reasons. One is I was working so hard and was too busy to really get totally turned around by what other people were doing."
The aftermath of his work on ''Smile'' and ''Song Cycle'' left Parks wanting to focus more behind-the-scenes and with lesser-known artists, such as Randy Newman and Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...
, and expressed discontent with being " typecast" by his songs. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters by that time, and now ranks third afte ...
was also life-altering for Parks and changed his "very reason for being". Sometime after, he met the Esso Trinidad Steel Band, a Trinidadian calypso band who had been performing with Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...
in Las Vegas. According to Parks, "I saw them as enslaved in their relationship to Liberace; I thought it was a vulgarity. I wanted to save them from their trivialization." What had begun as Parks's desire to popularize calypso at that point became his focal point, and he worked with the steel band for the next several years. Speaking about his life then, Parks stated, "My favorite group was the Esso Trinidad Steel Band, whom I worked with. I loved calypso all my life. I knew every Trinidadian in Hermosa Beach back then, there were probably about 20 families. Now there's a huge population."
During the late 1960s, Parks became one of the first owners of a prototype Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
and recorded a number of experimental advertising jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...
s for various companies such as Datsun
Datsun (, ) was an automobile brand owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, only vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986, but relaunche ...
and the Ice Capades
The Ice Capades were traveling entertainment shows featuring theatrical ice skating performances. Shows often featured former Olympic and US National Champion figure skaters who had retired from formal competition. Started in 1940, the Ice Capa ...
. Parks plays the Moog on the Biff Rose
Paul "Biff" Rose (born October 15, 1937) is an American comedian and singer-songwriter.
Biography
Born in New Orleans, Rose moved to Hollywood where he found a job working as a comedy sketch writer with George Carlin working sometimes on the M ...
song "Ain't No Great Day", from Rose's second LP, ''Children of Light''. Parks was also instrumental in the genesis of the 1970 album ''In a Wild Sanctuary'', by the electronic outfit Beaver & Krause
Beaver & Krause were an American musical duo comprising Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause. Their 1967 album ''The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music'' was a pioneering work in the electronic music genre. The pair were Robert Moog's sales represent ...
. While having lunch with the duo, Parks suggested that they record an ecological concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Some ...
through the use of field recording
Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...
s and synthesizers. Parks and Randy Newman helped the duo get signed to the Warner Bros. label.
1970s
In 1972, Parks's travels to theWest Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
inspired his second solo album, '' Discover America'', a tribute to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
and to calypso music. Parks re-arranged and re-produced obscure songs and calypso classics. Parks also produced the album ''Esso'' for the Esso Trinidad Steel Band in 1971. It was cultivated as a tribute to Prince Bernhard
, house = Lippe
, father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe
, mother = Armgard von Cramm
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld
, birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany
, death_date = ...
, the head of the World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...
at the time. According to Parks, "Everything was directed to making it a proper, political, green album." This direction was continued in the 1975 release ''Clang of the Yankee Reaper
''Clang of the Yankee Reaper'' is the third studio album by Van Dyke Parks, released in 1976. It continues his exploration of calypso music started in the previous album '' Discover America'' (1972). In particular, it contains several songs by Mi ...
''.
In the early 1970s, Parks was brought in to produce the third album by seminal Japanese folk rock band Happy End while working on ''Discover America'' at Sunset Sound Recorders. He also helped with the writing for the closing track, . Sometime after, Parks became acquainted with member Haruomi Hosono
, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...
, who went on to be one of the founding members of the electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...
. Parks went on to participate in a number of Hosono-related projects.
Although ''Smile'' had dissolved in mid-1967, Parks's collaborations with Wilson had not, for the time being. He was instrumental in getting the Beach Boys signed to Reprise
In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...
and contributed vocally to " A Day in the Life of a Tree" and the writing of " Sail On, Sailor." Several songs with his lyrics, written during the ''Smile'' sessions, appeared on later Beach Boys albums, including " Surf's Up," " Heroes and Villains," and "Cabinessence
"Cabinessence" (also typeset as "Cabin Essence") is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1969 album ''20/20 (The Beach Boys album), 20/20'' and their unfinished ''Smile (The Beach Boys album), Smile'' project. Written by Bri ...
.'
In September 1970, Parks became head of the audio/visual department of Warner Bros. records. This department was the earliest of its kind to record videos to promote records. Parks made the department up by himself and had few employees at Warner Bros. Together they made more than a dozen promotional films documenting artists including Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...
, Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her st ...
, Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...
, Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million reco ...
, and Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...
. They were by nature documentary films, which could be rented or bought by any accredited music school. Parks later described the department as "promotional—but they could create an income stream for musicians who were hard-pushed into tours that required drugs to sustain them." Although each production ran for about ten minutes and required at least $18,500 to create, one exception was a video for the Esso Trinidad Steel Band, which ran about forty minutes. It also happens to be one of two films known by Parks to have survived since then, the other being a promotional video for Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...
.
Parks recorded only two albums during the 1970s, but he had performed on numerous albums recorded by friends who were working in or around the Los Angeles music scene—notably Harry Nilsson, whom Parks considered the "smartest guy" he had ever met in the music business. During the early 1970s, Parks dealt with prescription drug abuse. He later spoke of himself as being "dead for five years", and he spent the first half of the decade "trying to regain an interest in living." Parks later stated, "When I was head of audio-visual services and on the A&R staff at Warner Bros., a man came into my office and he had a snake and his name was Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
. Right then, I knew that my days were numbered as a person really interested in the record business." About his department during this time Parks stated, "I provided that each artist would get 25% of the net profits of the rentals or sales. It was going to be a very promising market for the artist. Warners soon grew tired of what I thought was a fair equation of participation in creative profits, and basically isolated me."
After ''Clang of the Yankee Reaper'', Parks quit his day job at Warner Bros. and "retreated from further record interests, seeking the more gregarious plain-speaking of the film community…with no less satisfaction." He spent the next several years, and most of the 1980s, focusing more on motion picture and television projects, writing scores for high-profile films, such as ''Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour'', taking on as much work as he could to stay out of unemployment.
Parks's association with Australian rock band
musicOMH interview with Van Dyke Parks, 2011
Welcome to Bananastan!
The Van Dyke Parks Bananastan Archive
80-minute 1984 KCRW radio interview by Bob Claster ''A Visit with Van Dyke Parks''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Van Dyke 1943 births 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American musicians 20th-century pianists American male child actors American entertainment industry businesspeople Record producers from California Brian Wilson Living people Musicians from Hattiesburg, Mississippi People from Ventura County, California Songwriters from Mississippi Experimental pop musicians Baroque pop musicians Art pop musicians People from Lake Charles, Louisiana American music arrangers Bella Union artists
1980s
Parks made a slight comeback in 1984 with the album '' Jump!'', which featured songs adapted from the stories ofUncle Remus
Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...
and Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
. The album exhibits a Broadway-style reduced orchestra with Americana additions, such as banjo, mandolin, and steel drums. Parks composed the album but did not arrange or produce it. Martin Kibbee contributed to the lyrics. Following up on the album, Parks wrote a series of children's books—''Jump'' (with Malcolm Jones), ''Jump Again'', and ''Jump On Over''—based on the Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
tales, illustrated by Barry Moser
Barry Moser (born 1940) is an American artist and educator, known as a printmaker specializing in wood engravings, and an illustrator of numerous works of literature. He is also the owner and operator of the Pennyroyal Press, an engraving and smal ...
, and loosely accompanied by Parks's own album '' Jump!''. The books contain sheet music for selected songs from the album. Parks also published a book called ''Fisherman & His Wife'' in 1991, which came packaged with a cassette.
By 1984, Parks was refused future collaborations with Wilson, instead being informed by an unnamed representative that " Mike Love is Brian Wilson's exclusive collaborator." Though Parks worked with the other Beach Boys on songs such as on " Kokomo" and the album ''Summer in Paradise
''Summer in Paradise'' is the twenty-seventh studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on August 3, 1992, by Brother Records. Produced by Terry Melcher, it is the only album not to feature any new contributions from Brian Wils ...
'', he did not work together with Wilson until a few years later, during the aborted album ''Sweet Insanity
''Sweet Insanity'' is an unofficial album by American musician Brian Wilson that was produced in 1990 as the follow-up to his first solo album, ''Brian Wilson'' (1988). It was largely written and produced by Wilson alongside his former psychologi ...
''.
He wrote "City Of Light", "It's A B-Movie", "Cutting Edge", and "Worthless", all of which were used in the film ''The Brave Little Toaster
''The Brave Little Toaster'' is a 1987 American animated musical film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thu ...
'', directed by Jerry Rees. During the 1980s and 1990s, Parks grew considerably more active in arranging and producing albums by independent artists, which inspired him to return more fully to the music business.
Following ''Jump!'', in 1989 Warner Brothers released ''Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...
''. This concept album focuses on the history of Japanese-U.S. relations from the 19th century to the "trade war" at the time of its release. The songs are pop tunes with an orchestral treatment including Japanese instruments and old Parks Caribbean favorites like steel drums. The album did not sell well and was not widely noticed by critics. To promote the album, he performed some shows in Japan with musicians such as Haruomi Hosono
, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...
, Syd Straw
Syd Straw (born 1958) is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw ('' The Pajama Game''), she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joine ...
, harmonicist Tommy Morgan
Thomas Morgan Edwards (December 4, 1932 – June 23, 2022) was an American harmonicist and session musician, who had been active since the 1950s. He was considered one of the most heard harmonica players in the world, playing in over 500 fea ...
, and steelpan player Yann Tomita.
1990s
Between 1992 and 1995, Parks teamed up again with a then-reclusive Brian Wilson to create the album ''Orange Crate Art
''Orange Crate Art'' is the first collaborative studio album by American musicians Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, released in 1995 on Warner Bros. Records. The album consists mostly of songs written and arranged by Parks, with Wilson featured as ...
''. Parks wrote all of the songs on the album, except "This Town Goes Down at Sunset" and George Gershwin's instrumental "Lullaby", with vocals by Wilson. ''Orange Crate Art'' is a tribute to the Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
of the early 1900s and a lyrical tribute to the beauty of Northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
. It was recorded during a stressful period for Wilson, after being involved in court orders relating to years of psychiatric misconduct to which he had been subject. According to Parks, "When I found him, he was alone in a room staring at a television. It was off." The album was met with poor commercial reception, much to the disappointment of Parks.
1998 saw the release of Parks's first live album, '' Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove'', which shows a love of the work of 19th-century American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.
Life and c ...
, as well as performances of several of Parks' better-known and lesser-known songs. The live ensemble includes Sid Page
Sid Page is an American violinist who has been active in many genres of music since the late 1960s. He has been a member of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. From 1973 to 1974, he was a member of Sly and the Family Stone and appeared on their album ...
as concertmaster.
2000s
Parks's association with Australian rock band Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Ben Gillies on drums, Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got their big bre ...
began with his work on their fourth studio album ''Diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
'' in 2002. Parks was attracted to the music of lead singer and guitarist Daniel Johns and has stated that what most attracted him to the band was Johns' courage. He composed orchestral arrangements for Silverchair's fifth album ''Young Modern
''Young Modern'' is the fifth and final studio album by Australian alternative rock band Silverchair, released on 31 March 2007 and co-produced by Daniel Johns and Nick Launay. The title comes from a nickname given to Daniel Johns by composer ...
'' album in 2007. Daniel Johns, the band's lead singer, traveled to Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
with Parks to have the arrangements recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The album's title is a nickname Parks uses for Johns.
Parks was contacted by Wilson in 2003 to help with preparing a live performance of ''Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile.
Among humans, a smile expresses ...
''. He agreed, and the duo re-recorded the album and then presented it on a world tour, beginning with the world premiere performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which Parks attended. Parks later provided some lyrics to ''That Lucky Old Sun
"That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls around Heaven All Day)" is a 1949 popular song with music by Beasley Smith and words by Haven Gillespie.
Background
Like " Ol' Man River", its lyrics contrast the toil and intense hardship of the singer's li ...
'', released in 2008. The album once again featured almost completely new compositions written by Brian Wilson, but with minimum input from Parks compared to the previous ''Smile'' collaboration.
Parks worked with Inara George
Inara Maryland George (born July 4, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell an ...
on a record released in 2008, ''An Invitation'', and they performed two songs together on January 8, 2008, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...
in Los Angeles, as part of the program ''Concrete Frequency: Songs of the City''.
In 2009, Parks performed in '' The People Speak'', a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
's ''A People's History of the United States
'' A People's History of the United States'' is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fund ...
''. Parks performed with Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, a ...
on the documentary broadcast on December 13, 2009, on the History Channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
. They played "Do Re Mi" and reportedly a couple of other Guthrie songs that were excluded from the final edit.
2010s
In 2010, Parks stated "At this point, I don't have an album in me. But I have some songs, so I'm putting them out as 45 rpm stereo records this summer." Between 2011 and 2012, Parks issued six double-sided singles, which featured new original songs, collaborations, unreleased archival recordings, re-recordings of older tracks, and covers. The singles also featured guest spots from singers Gaby Moreno andInara George
Inara Maryland George (born July 4, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, one half of The Bird and the Bee, a member of the band Merrick, with Bryony Atkinson, and a member of the trio The Living Sisters, with Eleni Mandell an ...
of The Bird and the Bee
The Bird and the Bee (stylized in all lowercase) is an American indie pop musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of Inara George ("the bird") and Greg Kurstin ("the bee"). Kurstin is a seven-time Grammy Award–winning producer and multi- ...
. Parks has also stressed the importance of the singles' artwork, contributed by visual artists such as Klaus Voormann
Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann (born 29 April 1938) is a German artist, musician, and record producer.
Voormann was the bassist for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, and performed as a session musician on a host of recordings, including " You're So ...
, Ed Ruscha
Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...
, and Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade'' and '' Ra ...
. Artist Charles Ray also sculpted two life-size statues of Parks.
In August 2011, Parks was contacted by electronic musician Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
, who requested that he supply orchestral arrangements. His arranging work was released in December 2011 as the iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...
-exclusive bonus track "Skrillex Orchestral Suite by Varien
Nikki Kaelar (born May 15, 1990), better known by her stage name Varien, is an American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Varien has incorporated or experimented with such styles as industrial, metal, orchestral, neofolk, and ambie ...
" on the '' Bangarang'' EP. Parks admitted in 2013:
In November 2011, after 44 years, a compilation box set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
of the Beach Boys' ''Smile'' sessions was finally released by Capitol Records. Parks was personally absent from ''The Smile Sessions advertising campaign and liner notes, and refused to comment on the box set, despite initially giving his approval. In promotional interviews for ''The Smile Sessions'' and the Beach Boys' 50th Reunion Tour, Mike Love suggested that ''Smile'' collapsed due to substance abuse, and that the project was heavily influenced by Parks' drug use. One interview included an off-the-cuff comment by Brian Wilson saying that it was Parks who introduced him to LSD and amphetamines, something Parks has previously denied. Later in 2011, Parks formally responded to these claims via his web site in a post that accused Love of Mammon and historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
. In February 2013, ''The Smile Sessions'' went on to win the Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
for Best Historical Album.
While in Tokyo in January 2013, Parks performed with Haruomi Hosono
, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...
for the first time in years. In March 2013, Parks announced the release of ''Songs Cycled
''Songs Cycled'' is the seventh studio album by Van Dyke Parks, released on Bella Union in 2013. It is his first of original material since 1995's ''Orange Crate Art''. It features relatively new compositions, re-recordings, and covers by Parks. ...
'', which compiled his six 2011–12 singles into one LP. It was Parks' first full album of relatively new material since 1995's ''Orange Crate Art''. The album was released on May 6, 2013 through Bella Union
Bella Union is a British independent record label founded in 1997 by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. It is now run solely by Raymonde.
History
After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twin ...
. Also in March, Parks performed at the 2013 Adelaide Festival
The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...
with Daniel Johns and Kimbra
Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two Grammy Awards and s ...
. In September 2013, Parks curated a "Best-of" CD by New Orleans pianist/composer Tom McDermott entitled ''Bamboula''. Parks memorialized the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
by releasing a new original composition entitled "I'm History" on November 22.
Parks underwent unsuccessful hand surgery in 2014, causing his hands to freeze after about forty minutes of playing piano. On May 9, 2015, Parks performed what he called his "final piano performance" at the Largo in Los Angeles. Guest performers included singer Gaby Moreno; songwriter-producer Joe Henry
Joseph Lee Henry (born December 2, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released 15 studio albums and produced multiple recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums.
Early life
H ...
; Grizzly Bear's Edward Droste; New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra
Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two Grammy Awards and s ...
; and jazz guitarist-composer Grant Geissman. Of upcoming projects Parks said: "t will
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
set poetry to music, to underscore poems. So I will still be performing once I get that done. I will be looking to find a celebrated string quartet to take things to an irreducible minimum. I can pick up a quartet in Peoria, or in Europe, to perform something like this. I also hope to find a film project that interests me."
Film and television work
Parks has also scored much music for feature-length motion pictures and television series, including ''Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...
''s '' Follow That Bird'', Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
's '' The Two Jakes'' and '' Goin' South'', ''Casual Sex?
''Casual Sex?'' is a 1988 American comedy film about two female friends in their 20s who go to a vacation resort in search of perfect men. It starred Lea Thompson, Victoria Jackson, Andrew Dice Clay, Jerry Levine, Mary Gross and was directed by ...
'' '' Private Parts'', ''Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.The Company
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', and for the ''Pee-Wee's Playhouse
''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's po ...
Christmas Special''.
Parks had four songs featured in the animated film ''The Brave Little Toaster
''The Brave Little Toaster'' is a 1987 American animated musical film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thu ...
'' (1987). He worked closely with David Newman on the film's score as well. He composed the theme song for Rudy Maxa's ''Savvy Traveler'' radio program on NPR.
Parks composed the faux-psychedelic song "Black Sheep" (a parody of ''Smile'' and Brian Wilson's style in general) for '' Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story'', sung by John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly (born May 24, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer, and writer. After his film debut in '' Casualties of War'' (1989), he gained exposure through his supporting roles in '' Days of Thunder'' (1990), '' ...
, who portrays the titular character.
Parks has taken small television and film roles including appearances in ''Popeye'', ''The Two Jakes'', and as Leo Johnson's defense attorney Jack Racine in episode #2005 of ''Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 ...
''. The HBO Family
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is bas ...
series '' Harold and the Purple Crayon'', is narrated by Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
with music and lyrics written and sung by Parks. He and David Mansfield
David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer.
Mansfield was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was a first violinist in the New York Philharmonic. David played guitar, pedal steel guita ...
are co-credited with the music for the 2006 miniseries '' Broken Trail'' (2006).
Discography
;Studio albums * ''Song Cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rare ...
'' (1967)
* '' Discover America'' (1972)
* ''Clang of the Yankee Reaper
''Clang of the Yankee Reaper'' is the third studio album by Van Dyke Parks, released in 1976. It continues his exploration of calypso music started in the previous album '' Discover America'' (1972). In particular, it contains several songs by Mi ...
'' (1975)
* '' Jump!'' (1984)
* ''Tokyo Rose
Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...
'' (1989)
* ''Fisherman & His Wife'' (1991)
* ''Orange Crate Art
''Orange Crate Art'' is the first collaborative studio album by American musicians Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, released in 1995 on Warner Bros. Records. The album consists mostly of songs written and arranged by Parks, with Wilson featured as ...
'' (1995) (with Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop music, pop composition, ex ...
)
* ''Songs Cycled
''Songs Cycled'' is the seventh studio album by Van Dyke Parks, released on Bella Union in 2013. It is his first of original material since 1995's ''Orange Crate Art''. It features relatively new compositions, re-recordings, and covers by Parks. ...
'' (2013)
;Live album
* '' Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove'' (1998)
;Compilations
* ''Idiosyncratic Path: Best Of Van Dyke Parks'' (1996)
* ''Arrangements: Volume 1'' (2011)
* ''Super Chief: Music For The Silver Screen'' (2013)
Filmography
Film
:Television
References
Bibliography *External links
* * *musicOMH interview with Van Dyke Parks, 2011
Welcome to Bananastan!
The Van Dyke Parks Bananastan Archive
80-minute 1984 KCRW radio interview by Bob Claster ''A Visit with Van Dyke Parks''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Van Dyke 1943 births 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American musicians 20th-century pianists American male child actors American entertainment industry businesspeople Record producers from California Brian Wilson Living people Musicians from Hattiesburg, Mississippi People from Ventura County, California Songwriters from Mississippi Experimental pop musicians Baroque pop musicians Art pop musicians People from Lake Charles, Louisiana American music arrangers Bella Union artists