What does /mu/ think of Van Dyke Parks?

I wish he was my grandpa

better than beyonce

if he hadn't written the lyrics to Smile, no one at /mu/ would care about his sorry ass

>>68587939
not true btw

I tried listening to Song Cycle yesterday and it was way too "theater-ish" if you know what I mean. Sounded almost like the soundtrack to a musical.
Objectively great but not something I cared for. Will probably revisit at some point and may like him better at a later date.

>>68587915
I didn't like Song Cycle that much but Discover America was nice. It had a fuzzy, warm cartoonish feel to it, whereas Song Cycle was just bizarre and jading.

Brilliant, Song Cycle is an all-time great. It takes some time to appreciate and get past the eccentricities but it's incredibly well-written

>>68587915
I love wacky show tunes xD

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He's pretty awesome

>>68587942
this is probably true desu

thems sum good ass lyrics on smile tho

>>68588944
is he the son of Paul Simon and Weird Al Yankovic?

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>>68590200
I mean...

The album is superior to Pet Sounds or any Beach Boys album

Fight me

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>>68590239
...and

>>68587942
He arranged Ys too.

>>68587915

Would make sweet, tender love to him.

Nowadays, he spends most of his free time tweeting random stuff on twitter

>>68587942
I didn't even know that and I love this album

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>"[Happy End] recalled that Parks was drunk during production and tried to lecture them about Pearl Harbor and World War II."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_End_(1973_album)

This man insulted one of the influential japanese bands ever, then 16 years later, make a Japanese-American fusion album, Tokyo Rose wasn't even impressive or good. I think he is a hack.

>>68590649
oh nevermind the fact he helped create one of the most influential american albums ever and went on to make one of the most underrated albums ever with his solo work. Happy End are great and all but don't be a butthurt weeb

I hated Song Cycle when I first heard it, but I revisited it and it became one of my all time favorites

>>68590720
I can see that, and calling him a hack is a little bit much. He has make song great works, but saying that then making a japanese inspired album in full swing of cool japan is a little telling. I think he is overrated in all respects but I was wrong in saying he is a hack.

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...qt

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i really like this song. recommendations for other van dyke songs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_uaeGlh_cw

>>68590839

same here senpai

First time I heard it I thought I was getting meme'd. Few listens it finally clicked, on Widows Walk for whatever reason.

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>>68587942
smile is cool enough that its ok

>>68591095
cmon, no one has any good van dyke songs

>>68592257
have you listened to song cycle?

>>68587915

the patrician version of Brian Wilson

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>>68592467
brian wilson is the patrician version of brian wilson

Found this yesterday and thought it was interesting, adds a little onto the Brian/Mike/Van Dyke stories. This thread seems most fitting to post it in:
>Van Dyke Parks recalls working on "Kokomo"
>Many years later, when [producer] Terry Melcher wanted to take the song ‘Kokomo’ to the tropical islands, he called me and wanted to use my Rolodex, so to speak. So, I brought some great musician friends — people who’d played with Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Cecil Taylor — to play with me on that session. I was paid well for my work, although it was a nonunion session — no hospitalization, no dental, nothing extra if it went commercial. The Beach Boys, after all, were Republicans — unions weren’t something to mention to them. We weren’t dealing with Studs Terkel. We were dealing with Bruce Johnston and Mike Love, who’d become the entity known as the Beach Boys.
>Of course, the song went to number one, and Mike Love always made a very big deal out of the fact that it was made without Brian Wilson. And that was always very alarming to me because beyond the Beach Boys’ beautiful music, my allegiance has always been to Brian Wilson, who hired me years ago and told me he’d give me 50 percent of anything we wrote together. He said that speaking from his throne at a time when I was nobody. Isn’t that the sign of a marvelous person?

>>68588944
>>68589536
pretty dope mustache

>>68587915
Fuck off Will

>>68594118
who?

>>68591095
how tall is van dyke anyways