Okay here it goes... I was in college and never in my life would I step into a time machine with music in that first year back at school after a six year absence from academia. It was there where I met a lifelong friend. He was full of wit, intelligence and humor. He was also full of vast musical knowledge. Where my music map ended, his helped me revise it and add a few more things that I did not know existed. Figure if you will seeing a map of the USA and seeing half of America after we bought the Louisiana Purchase and all you see the west of the Mississippi River blank. Not seeing what is beyond that point. We know the other end of the US is the Pacific Ocean, but that is about all we know.
This map got constant revisions. This map was quickly out-dated. This map needed a much needed help from what he thought he knew and what he needed to know. With this friend he taught me a lot about some of the simplest music. This music was even my dad was a fan of, but where my dad stopped on his map and I attempted to fill in the rest of it. I failed and all I knew was the album that changed most of our lives right? This album is called Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds to me was brilliance, to my dad it was losing focus on the "Surf Sound" and harmonies that he loved. This was really intelligent stuff that my brain had yet to comprehend.
The music of the Beach Boys got help for Brian Wilson by way of the name Van Dyke Parks. There are many stories on how they met, but one thing is for certain they had a long lasting friendship and I'am so glad they did meet. Trying to figure out their immediate connection was more difficult. One day I will dive into the beginning of this fruitful relationship. For now, lets talk about Van Dyke Parks or what I know about him. I know him as a child actor staring in various movies and TV. He also did a few off Broadway productions. I have this book that has a young Van Dyke Parks acting a few operas and musicals. It was a shock to see him in one of the photos. I mean a man in this early of his musical journey and see him on Broadway no less.
There is more to the life of Van Dyke Parks, but you can look this stuff up on your own. What intrigued me was the music he had made. He was on a ton of session work and took many offers including joining the Byrds, Frank Zappa and Mothers and even Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He passed on all of them and wanted to do his thing. He got Frank Sinatra to record a song his brother wrote called "Something Stupid" and it became a huge hit for Sinatra. This caught the attention of Warner Bros music who gave him a contract.
Fast forward to the college years and to discover my friend had made a mix CD (remember those) with Van Dyke Parks on it. The song "Donovan's Colours" jumped out when I had that first listen in my dorm doing homework. I knew of Van Dyke Parks, but this now was something I had to take seriously. One day I brought the mix CD to the radio station and looked through all our vinyl in the library. There was no Van Dyke Parks to be found. Telling this friend how I enjoyed the mix, I told him that how much Van Dyke's music was not like anything other on this CD.
Looking up more information on the record it was Warner Bros most expensive record to make. $35,000 at the time. An average record cost about $10,000 to make back then. It turned out to be the least profitable one. It did not sell well, and gained cult like status. Many of these things you can look up on Wikipedia. Other notable things about the album that "Vine Street" was written by Randy Newman for Van Dyke Parks. Some of recording technique was really ahead of it's time, some of this was tape delay and tape manipulation and something called the "Farkle effect" in which the tape was spliced just a bit and folded like a fan (odd) and attached to a tape overhead. This was done in the song "The All Golden." Here is more of explanation Three-quarter-inch masking tape was creased in eighth-inch folds and wrapped like a fan around the capstan of an Ampex 300 full-track mono tape machine at 30ips. The tape then ran through the recorder and fluttered as the rubber capstan bounced, and, by bringing back the output of the farkle to the mix, Botnick was able to attain the sought-after effect while adding plenty of echo from the famed Sunset Sound chamber and delaying it further via an Ampex 200 three-track at 15ips.
Some of this sound was done also on the song "Strange Days" by the Doors and if you can listen to it,
there is a heavy amount of distortion on the song. The many studio tricks on this album were far ahead of it's time. The ad above assured the people who did buy it wore out their copies and asked them to send them back and get two mew ones, one for your self and one to "educate a friend." The songs "Palm Desert" "All The Golden" and "Donovan Colours" are my personal favorites on the album. Allmusic.com called it forward thinking and as well backward minded. Well, whatever it is, it's a favorite of mine.
In conclusion I give many thanks to my friend who spurred the creativity wheels moving with just one song. Also want to thank the author Richard Henderson who wrote an awesome 33 1/3 book about the album Song Cycle. It's totally worth seeking out. One more shout out to my friend who gave me that one song. He made a Van Dyke Parks mix on a streaming service, mentioned it on social media and Van Dyke Parks actually thanked him for his efforts. Whatever Van Dyke Parks is to you, to me he is a genius in music. Weather his own production or helping someone else. Just check out the credits in Fiona Apples first album. He does some orchestral arrangements on one song and that one song has his music written all over it. If you are willing to take a dare, on something new fresh and really not part of it's time in 1967 then this is the album for you. Check it out and tell me what you think, cult, classic, or obscure it's got the making of a great album. Enjoy!
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