Van Dyke Barks

[Hank Briarstem]

One might wish to compare VDP's Twitter acknowledgement of Brian Wilson's birthday to his acknowledgements of the birthdays of Chet Atkins and Errol Flynn. What would one surmise?

[Autotune]

That there is a strain in that relationship of some sort.

[donald]

Maybe it's preprogrammed to insert name and send on the recipients dob

[Hank Briarstem]

Ah Van Dyke, there is an old saying - Out in the barnyard, the chickens do their number.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

One might wish to compare VDP's Twitter acknowledgement of Brian Wilson's birthday to his acknowledgements of the birthdays of Chet Atkins and Errol Flynn. What would one surmise?

Yeah...he wished two others a happy birthday the same date with some kind of nice comment included about their talents. Not Brian. And he posted a link to a video mocking the band. Huh.

The insiders here say theres no bad blood between them, but honestly stuff like this makes me feel differently. Maybe its a joke or something but over a long stretch of time these kinds of jokes stop bein funny or endearing and just come off as mean

[bgas]

One might wish to compare VDP's Twitter acknowledgement of Brian Wilson's birthday to his acknowledgements of the birthdays of Chet Atkins and Errol Flynn. What would one surmise?

Yeah...he wished two others a happy birthday the same date with some kind of nice comment included about their talents. Not Brian. And he posted a link to a video mocking the band. Huh.

The insiders here say theres no bad blood between them, but honestly stuff like this makes me feel differently. Maybe its a joke or something but over a long stretch of time these kinds of jokes stop bein funny or endearing and just come off as mean

VDp is slipping quicly into dementia

[SBonilla]

One might wish to compare VDP's Twitter acknowledgement of Brian Wilson's birthday to his acknowledgements of the birthdays of Chet Atkins and Errol Flynn. What would one surmise?

Yeah...he wished two others a happy birthday the same date with some kind of nice comment included about their talents. Not Brian. And he posted a link to a video mocking the band. Huh.

The insiders here say theres no bad blood between them, but honestly stuff like this makes me feel differently. Maybe its a joke or something but over a long stretch of time these kinds of jokes stop bein funny or endearing and just come off as mean

VDp is slipping quicly into dementia

Maybe slipping in popularity around these parts. Dementia? He's as sharp witted as ever.

[Gohi]

I actually tweeted at him about this, which is kind of dumb I realize, but he was clearly trying to mock Brian in some way. Between this, his agreeing with Loren Daro and his "victim of Brian Wilson's buffoonery" comment, I really don't like the vibes Van Dyke Parks is putting out there about Brian. It all comes off as very bitter and mean-spirited.

[nakostopoulos]

I actually tweeted at him about this, which is kind of dumb I realize, but he was clearly trying to mock Brian in some way. Between this, his agreeing with Loren Daro and his "victim of Brian Wilson's buffoonery" comment, I really don't like the vibes Van Dyke Parks is putting out there about Brian. It all comes off as very bitter and mean-spirited.

One of the reasons I always love VDP--in addition to his literary nature--was that he seemed at least above the sort grapes grudge-holding that seems to infect rock 'n' roll is general (and the BBs in particular); when he tried to correct Mike Love's revisionism on the SMiLE Sessions, he at least formed an argument that wasn't bilious.

I must say, this hat doesn't look very good on him...

[phirnis]

Bitter, yes. Mean-spirited, not necessarily, depending on what actually went on between these guys.

That said, I find myself less and less interested in that kind of soap opera stuff. VDP is a brilliant artist and a big part of some of Brian's most celebrated work. These days that's what I prefer to focus on.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

I actually tweeted at him about this, which is kind of dumb I realize, but he was clearly trying to mock Brian in some way. Between this, his agreeing with Loren Daro and his "victim of Brian Wilson's buffoonery" comment, I really don't like the vibes Van Dyke Parks is putting out there about Brian. It all comes off as very bitter and mean-spirited.

Honestly it just strikes me as childish and silly. If he is ticked at Brian, whatever the reason it would be, surely theres a better way to go about it than this. Just be the bigger person and move on. If asked about it, say why you're ticked. Or just say Brians not a part of my life anymore, I dont wanna talk about him. But all the petty digs on Twitter just reduces him to middle school level bullying. I'd expect more from the man who wrote the thought-provoking lyrics to SMiLE.

If there's no bad blood and this is all coincidence...then Van ought to work on how he comes across. The fact that theres been quite a few threads wondering about this should be a red flag that maybe hes not coming off well. Brian even just called him his favorite collaborator very recently...and how does VDP treat him in turn? Not very respectfully at all.

What gets me is throwing himself behind Daro. Even if Daro WAS telling the truth (which Im highly skeptical of) he was still unspeakably rude to Brian's family, posters on this forum he doesnt even know and was generally unpleasant. Why stand up for a person like that? If that's someone VDP is willing to go to bat for, that speaks volumes and none of it good

[Autotune]

Barks used to have a lot of credibility among BB fans. Some people took verbatim his story about that flight with Mike Love after an accordion session, and Mike supposedly gave him a business card so Van could reach him and collect the airfare costs. According to VDP the phone number did not work anymore. At the time I thought he was making up a story; these days I kinda wish it was true.

Still, a remarkable musician and lyricist.

[mysticmoon1993]

I don't think his tweet was necessarily mean-spirited... but maybe that's because I always thought the Beach Boys shred video was hysterical. More questionable than the video he linked is the fact all he wrote was "Brian Wilson, born June 20", while he elaborated on Errol Flynn and Chet Atkins.

[SBonilla]

Credit is everything in the music and movie business. I think Van Dyke Parks was in sort of a Wag The Dog situation with Brian and Smile. He was under credited for his some of his contributions and uncredited for others; orchestration for one.

If he has feelings about that, it is perfectly natural and understandable. I don't have a problem with him airing his opinions, observations and feelings on his social media site.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Credit is everything in the music and movie business. I think Van Dyke Parks was in sort of a Wag The Dog situation with Brian and Smile. He was under credited for his some of his contributions and uncredited for others; orchestration for one.

If he has feelings about that, it is perfectly natural and understandable. I don't have a problem with him airing his opinions, observations and feelings on his social media site.

But then...just be an adult and honestly say so. I dont care if he and Brian are friends or what. But if you dont like him, either keep it to yourself or explain why. Dont just fling barbs whenever you get the chance, its not going to get you any respect. However, if he really was the mastermind behind a lot of the arrangements (and not just lyrics) for SMiLE, thats awesome and Id have a lot more respect for him if he just said so. Id believe it too, itd really explain why Brian says hes his best collaborator--because he challenged Brian and forced him to create better music than if he were left to his own devices.

[clack]

It's quite common for several musicians to contribute ideas to an arrangement without receiving record-sleeve credit.

Was VDP hired as an arranger? Did he write out charts for strings, horns, or woodwinds? If not, he has no beef on that score.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I actually tweeted at him about this, which is kind of dumb I realize, but he was clearly trying to mock Brian in some way. Between this, his agreeing with Loren Daro and his "victim of Brian Wilson's buffoonery" comment, I really don't like the vibes Van Dyke Parks is putting out there about Brian. It all comes off as very bitter and mean-spirited.

Honestly it just strikes me as childish and silly. If he is ticked at Brian, whatever the reason it would be, surely theres a better way to go about it than this. Just be the bigger person and move on. If asked about it, say why you're ticked. Or just say Brians not a part of my life anymore, I dont wanna talk about him. But all the petty digs on Twitter just reduces him to middle school level bullying. I'd expect more from the man who wrote the thought-provoking lyrics to SMiLE.

If there's no bad blood and this is all coincidence...then Van ought to work on how he comes across. The fact that theres been quite a few threads wondering about this should be a red flag that maybe hes not coming off well. Brian even just called him his favorite collaborator very recently...and how does VDP treat him in turn? Not very respectfully at all.

What gets me is throwing himself behind Daro. Even if Daro WAS telling the truth (which Im highly skeptical of) he was still unspeakably rude to Brian's family, posters on this forum he doesnt even know and was generally unpleasant. Why stand up for a person like that? If that's someone VDP is willing to go to bat for, that speaks volumes and none of it good

Agreed.

[rogerlancelot]

A quick VDP story:

One year my Yahoo e-mail account was hijacked and started sending everybody in my mailing list spam mail including Van Dyke who kept replying to each spam message with some funny stuff before I figured out that my e-mail had been hacked. I'll have to do a search in my e-mail to find what I'm talking about. One of the replies I remember was telling me to keep my shoes on. As bitter as he may come off with some people, he was genuinely hilarious to me. How many people respond to a  half dozen spam messages other than VDP???

[Moon Dawg]

  Van Dyke and Mike should go in a room to write songs. Maybe they don't need old Brian Wilson. 

[Gertie J.]

A quick VDP story:

One year my Yahoo e-mail account was hijacked and started sending everybody in my mailing list spam mail including Van Dyke who kept replying to each spam message with some funny stuff before I figured out that my e-mail had been hacked. I'll have to do a search in my e-mail to find what I'm talking about. One of the replies I remember was telling me to keep my shoes on. As bitter as he may come off with some people, he was genuinely hilarious to me. How many people respond to a  half dozen spam messages other than VDP???

he probably was unbusy.

[Paul J B]

Credit is everything in the music and movie business. I think Van Dyke Parks was in sort of a Wag The Dog situation with Brian and Smile. He was under credited for his some of his contributions and uncredited for others; orchestration for one.

If he has feelings about that, it is perfectly natural and understandable. I don't have a problem with him airing his opinions, observations and feelings on his social media site.

Well that makes one of us.

This guy has a huge ego and comes off as a pretentious pain in the ass. His claim to fame concerning the Beach Boys is that he worked with Brian on an album that was scrapped. It was a great work, and some of the tracks saw the light of day in the 60's and 70's, but still he walked off the project and Brian scrapped it. That is the bottom line. His name has come up, and in most cases with tons of praise for decades in books, articles and documentaries about Brian and the BB's. In reality he has gotten way to much credit and publicity from his blip in time with Brian.

The man had squat to do with what...99 percent of the body of work from Brian and the BB's yet has been making snarky comments concerning them since...well decades really.

[SBonilla]

[/quote]

In reality he has gotten way to much credit and publicity from his blip in time with Brian.


[/quote]

Mighty potent blip.

[puni puni]

That said, I find myself less and less interested in that kind of soap opera stuff. VDP is a brilliant artist and a big part of some of Brian's most celebrated work. These days that's what I prefer to focus on.

This thread should have ended with this post rather than going on with lame attempts to discredit VDP's inimitable body of work from the last 50 years. He's almost like Brian Eno's antecedent.

[joshferrell]

can someone please post what he said so e can see for ourselves? thanks 

[puni puni]

https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/612279658428563456