Van Dyke Parks on Twitter

[KittyKat]

He can be frustrating sometimes, but he's witty and he's done a lot in music outside of his work with Brian W. That's too bad Brian's organization doesn't want him to re-release OCA. The problem with leaving in-demand albums unreleased is it creates a market for illegal downloading. People might actually buy a reissue of the CD or download it for pay on iTunes or Amazon. Maybe Brian's management doesn't want it to compete with his own releases, but it only brings about more publicity for Brian, which is a good thing for selling his own product.

[ontor pertawst]

I hope they can work it out eventually , Bananastan would make some real sexy Orange Crate Art vinyl. A great opportunity to release the outtakes, as well...

[rn57]

https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/376396125441228800/photo/1

This morning VDP put up what looks like a pretty recent pic of him, Randy Newman, and Brian, who is wearing a red shirt that I don't recall seeing on him before.  Randy looks pretty cheerful; VDP looks pensive.

Van Dyke is also guest-editing Magnet magazine's website for the week, posting stuff about the Nilsson boxset etc.

[Smilin Ed H]

From Jools Holland's show.

[absinthe_boy]

VDP is a wordsmith par excellence. Twitter is part of his natural habitat.

I don't know what might have happened between him and Brian but it does seem to stem from the period when TSS was being put together. VDP has said some distinctly negative things about Brian in the time since then whilst sometimes still showing warmth. Clearly VDP feels he has been slighted by Brian.

[Pacific Coast]

"No stranger bedfellows could be found in politics, music, or Fire Island: Van Dyke Parks;Randy Newman;Brian Wilson"


What are you trying to tell us, Mr. Parks?

[KittyKat]

I know, Fire Island?   

Van Dyke is so hilarious on Twitter, though. He's posted hundreds and hundreds of tweets since discovering it a few weeks ago to promote his album. Some of them make no sense, or he'll post the same photo three times in a row, or he'll tweet to himself.  It's about what you'd expect from a Van Dyke Parks' Twitter, I guess.

[Mr. Cohen]

The philistines have uttered their pronouncements! Geronimo leaps and bounds over the dust bowl, again, crows the c*ck.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I don't know what might have happened between him and Brian but it does seem to stem from the period when TSS was being put together.

My uneducated guess is that VDP was supportive of TSS until he discovered that it was being used as Phase One of the Beach Boys reunion which he didn't really want to happen.  Either that or he wasn't invited to participate in the release by writing liner notes or something like that, or possibly a combination of the two.

I don't know what to make of the photograph, but hopefully it means that he and Brian have managed to mend their relationship at least slightly.  I'm a big fan of most of VDP's solo music, but I also think we should remember that his relationship with The Beach Boys extends well past Smile.  He helped them get their record contract with Warner after the Capitol contract expired, he came to the rescue with "Sail On, Sailor" when the label didn't want to release Holland, he sang on "A Day in the Life of a Tree," and, most importantly, played the essential accordion parts on "Kokomo" and several Summer in Paradise songs.

[Amazing Larry]

I don't know what might have happened between him and Brian but it does seem to stem from the period when TSS was being put together.

My uneducated guess is that VDP was supportive of TSS until he discovered that it was being used as Phase One of the Beach Boys reunion which he didn't really want to happen.  Either that or he wasn't invited to participate in the release by writing liner notes or something like that, or possibly a combination of the two.

I don't know what to make of the photograph, but hopefully it means that he and Brian have managed to mend their relationship at least slightly.  I'm a big fan of most of VDP's solo music, but I also think we should remember that his relationship with The Beach Boys extends well past Smile.  He helped them get their record contract with Warner after the Capitol contract expired, he came to the rescue with "Sail On, Sailor" when the label didn't want to release Holland, he sang on "A Day in the Life of a Tree," and, most importantly, played the essential accordion parts on "Kokomo" and several Summer in Paradise songs.

There's no accordion on Kokomo and if there was, I'd hate it even more.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I don't know what might have happened between him and Brian but it does seem to stem from the period when TSS was being put together.

My uneducated guess is that VDP was supportive of TSS until he discovered that it was being used as Phase One of the Beach Boys reunion which he didn't really want to happen.  Either that or he wasn't invited to participate in the release by writing liner notes or something like that, or possibly a combination of the two.

I don't know what to make of the photograph, but hopefully it means that he and Brian have managed to mend their relationship at least slightly.  I'm a big fan of most of VDP's solo music, but I also think we should remember that his relationship with The Beach Boys extends well past Smile.  He helped them get their record contract with Warner after the Capitol contract expired, he came to the rescue with "Sail On, Sailor" when the label didn't want to release Holland, he sang on "A Day in the Life of a Tree," and, most importantly, played the essential accordion parts on "Kokomo" and several Summer in Paradise songs.

There's no accordion on Kokomo and if there was, I'd hate it even more.

Wikipedia has done me in!  Though perhaps if I listened to the song more, I would have recognized that.

[Gertie J.]

yeah, daddy's deaf.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I don't know what might have happened between him and Brian but it does seem to stem from the period when TSS was being put together.

My uneducated guess is that VDP was supportive of TSS until he discovered that it was being used as Phase One of the Beach Boys reunion which he didn't really want to happen.  Either that or he wasn't invited to participate in the release by writing liner notes or something like that, or possibly a combination of the two.

I don't know what to make of the photograph, but hopefully it means that he and Brian have managed to mend their relationship at least slightly.  I'm a big fan of most of VDP's solo music, but I also think we should remember that his relationship with The Beach Boys extends well past Smile.  He helped them get their record contract with Warner after the Capitol contract expired, he came to the rescue with "Sail On, Sailor" when the label didn't want to release Holland, he sang on "A Day in the Life of a Tree," and, most importantly, played the essential accordion parts on "Kokomo" and several Summer in Paradise songs.

There's no accordion on Kokomo and if there was, I'd hate it even more.

There's accordion all over it. It's one of the most prominent instruments in the song!

[TimmyC]

Yeah, the VDP accordion parts on the SIP tracks are fantastic. Otherwise, count me in as someone who is less than enthralled with the man. The fact that he spit on the 2012 reunion alone makes him dead to me. 

[SMiLE Brian]

In hindsight, after the events of the C50 blowup, he was right to have misgivings about it.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

Yeah, the VDP accordion parts on the SIP tracks are fantastic. Otherwise, count me in as someone who is less than enthralled with the man. The fact that he spit on the 2012 reunion alone makes him dead to me. 

Maybe I shouldn't have ended my comment with those snarky references; I actually do think VDP made significant contributions to the Beach Boys after Smile.  Would anyone have picked up the Beach Boys had he not made the recommendation to Warners?  They weren't exactly at their commercial peak at that point.  If not, there would be no Sunflower, no "'Til I Die," no Love You.  His contributions to the band far outweigh whatever damage his lack of support for C50 may have done (and I'm not sure they did any significant damage).

[puni puni]

At this point, I'm almost positive that VDP took huge offense with the accusations that he introduced Brian to LSD. That's why he's not on TSS.

[KittyKat]

At this point, I'm almost positive that VDP took huge offense with the accusations that he introduced Brian to LSD. That's why he's not on TSS.

I don't think the Stamos mini-series has much to do with Van Dyke's more recent problems with Brian, because it's very old news. Someone posted on this board that Van Dyke was initially enthusiastic about the current day Beach Boys releasing the boxed Smile Sessions set, and was planning on writing some liner notes for the book.  He wound up not doing that, but I don't think that had anything to do with his objections to the BB reunion, either.  He also seems to have a problem with Brian's wife, not just the Beach Boys and Mike. He made a cutting remark about Brian's new biopic being produced by "Mrs. Wilson" and not having much hope that it will be truthful in regards to how he, Van Dyke, will be portrayed in it.

[puni puni]

I comment only to combat any doubt that Mike Love delayed the release of Smile by 40 years purely out of a mislaid jealousy. Smile was an obviously good work.

Mike's instrument? An insinuation that I promoted drugs that infected the lyrical outcome. That isn't so.

Brian pipes up to state that it was [Van Dyke] Parks who turned him on to LSD and amphetamines. “We wrote Heroes and Villains on uppers”, he says, adding with delightful ingenuousness that “I’m not sure, but I think The Beatles took psychedelic drugs too”.

Al Jardine instantly disputes Brian’s claim about Parks, adding, in a near-whisper, “I wouldn’t say that”.

“Well, if that’s Brian’s recollection…” interjects Mike Love.

Given that Parks has continued to voice criticism of Love over the years, hidden agendas may be jutting through here.

^ August 2012 issue. Read the parts in the middle.

[hypehat]

The fact that he spit on the 2012 reunion alone makes him dead to me. 

You have got to be kidding.

[Rocky Raccoon]

The fact that he spit on the 2012 reunion alone makes him dead to me. 

You have got to be kidding.

Because obviously nobody had any reason to be ambivalent about the reunion, especially now, right? 

[hypehat]

The fact that he spit on the 2012 reunion alone makes him dead to me. 

You have got to be kidding.

Because obviously nobody had any reason to be ambivalent about the reunion, especially now, right? 

 





BTW Rocky such sarcasm means that you're dead to me 

[SMiLE Brian]

I want VDP to be the surprise guest at BW's shows this year.

Hopefully singing Mike Love's BBs songs to really needle him.

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I want VDP to be the surprise guest at BW's shows this year.

Hopefully singing Mike Love's BBs songs to really needle him.

If Brian made VDP sing Mike's lyrics, whom would that needle more: VDP or Mike?

[SMiLE Brian]

Good point about that....

I just want Mike to see his archnemsis doing the Wheeeennnnn part of BTTYS.