The Smiley Smile Message Board

More info here - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99697

Cheers

Also VDP interview on Mojo4Music:

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2011/05/van_dyke_parks_1.html, with the following on Smie:

The Smile Sessions are finally being released in September. When somebody mentions Smile, what's the first thing that pops into your head?
Crows over a cornfield [a reference to the Parks-penned line in Smile's Cabinessence]. I hear the box set is going to be absolutely beautiful. It will be very comforting to see that it's finally commercially available.

How has your relationship with the songs on Smile changed over the years?
I really think they're fine. I don't see any septic quality in them at all. In fact, the unvarnished truth is that they are without malice. Please bring that into the contemporary framework! But I wish, darn it, that it hadn't had so much celebrity. The celebrity of it got in the way. Otherwise, it would have been fine.

Religion, to me, is music. What Brian brought to the table was a closeted understanding of low-church hymns. I knew that that man had a divine regard. That's what really made me want to serve his interest with all my heart. We were coming from entirely separate arenas - he from right-wing comfort and me from the left-wing shock therapy of being out in Los Angeles with no money. I think our common thread was that we shared that music.

Smile is a kind of fevered reimagining of Americana...
One time I was at college, studying music, and Aaron Copland came into the room to teach. I was the only undergraduate composition major. I got an A and a pat on the ass. The point is, Mr. Copland was asked during that class, "What is American music?" He said, with a shrug, "American music is anything written in America." I thought that was unforgettable. I like that.

No shots at Mike Love?

I think that, to the likes of us, the first response is just that.  ;D

Good to see he is still keeping the conspiracy going!

It will be interesting to see how the story turns if everyone gets the chance to pitch in their perspectives on all of the hallowed presumptions.

I'll bet a donut that if we were a fly on the wall [who had and could operate a time machine] at the supposed "crow flies" "confrontation", we might wonder what all the fuss has been about. Something like: Mike asks what that means, Brian listens 'cause he'd like to know too, Van Dyke says he doesn't know, end of discussion, business as usual.

Something like this ?

MEL: "Over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield" ? What does this sh*t mean ?

BDW: Ummmmmmmmmmm... (raises eyebrow in VDP's direction)

VDP: Frankly Mike, I don't know... it has no meaning... it's just a bunch of words.

[Studio explodes with laughter]

MEL: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK, so I have to sing this sh*t without knowing what it means. (grins at VDP)  Yeah, I can do that.

And he does.  ;D

Brian was a right-winger back in '66??  Maybe that's really the reason Smile ended prematurely. Brian was/is a Republican and Van is a Democrat and they argued about politics!

And I see the interviewer is referring to a "September" release.....

I took that remark about "right-wing comfort" being more of a reference to how Brian was raised than to his politics.

It's kinda funny how many people on this forum are totally anti-Van Dyke Parks, and also think Mike Love is some sort of genius who never did anything wrong. I don't get this at all to be honest. Mike's done some horrible stuff through the years and it wouldn't surprise me if he actually was pretty mean to Van Dyke. Why else would he still go on about this? Van Dyke is not a stupid guy.

Was Brian actually a registered republican during this time? I have a hard time believing that. I don't think he was very into party politics at all. Wasn't he a JFK fan though?

As did I.

And it's also highly impressive that VDP was schooled by Copland, never knew that!

And finally, I'm starting to see some people taking a few shots at VDP's credibility and attitude not just in this specific thread but around the board. I always keep this in mind, VDP wanted no part of the BWPS thing, including tickets to the premier, until Brian himself called and asked for help. Secondly, he was asked, I do believe by Carl, to play the organ at Audree's funeral and Carl embraced him afterward. Later, he was again asked to play at Carl's funeral by the family. And finally, Darian related the story that when VDP came to Brian's house to work on the BWPS material, the first thing he said after hearing a few things was "good decisions," followed later by, "man, what a relief!" Darian explained that you don't know how many times people have kept bringing up SMiLE to him and how many ill-intentioned people have been a part of Brian's life. And when it was eventually premiered, Darian said that he (VDP) was going around the backstage afterward in tears kissing all of the bandmembers faces because he was so elated. Carry on, boys and girls.

Released in September?

Now I'm confused

Does anyone else wear a bow tie nearly as well as VDP?  He looks so rakish, so jaunty, so......devil-may care in that picture.

I don't trust Van Dyke. I don't mean to defame him or question his art. I just get a funny feeling from him.

"It was an american gothic trip Brian and I were working on. I said I don't know what these lyrics are all about, they're not important, throw them away."

I really don't buy into all that stuff about the lyrics being meaningless or Van Dyke not knowing what they mean. It's right there, he just said what they were about "an American gothic trip". The lyrics pretty clearly are not meaningless.

He's also just said it was "tedious" having to explain yourself. I totally understand that it's Van Dyke's prerogative whether or not to explain himself, but artists explain themselves all the time, and in reality, the lyrics themselves are Van Dyke "explaining" himself. Why couldn't he just throw Mike a bone to keep things going smoothly? Did he really quit the project after a single argument? That seems really extreme.

It's always sounded to me like he was a little bit of a prima donna who jumped ship; 1. because he anticipated Brian's problems; 2. to launch his own career. It sounds like he just used the Mike Love thing as an excuse.

 ;)

Much respect. You were right all along.

Why do we have to be anti-Van Dyke Parks just because we get tired of hearing his little comments about Mike Love? And I have never seen anybody call Mike Love a genius who's never done anything wrong. Mike isn't my favorite guy, but that doesn't mean he's the devil.

Here's the thing I don't get-the people with the mind frame of 'Mike Love is an asshole, VDP and Brian were perfect, and The Beach Boys ruined SMiLE'. I think that at this point it's ridiculous to blame it all on one thing or person. This subject has been beat to death, and it's pretty clear that the people that continue to blame Mike Love for being the reason SMiLE was junked are as close-minded as they claim Mike Love was back in '66.

Hey, just realised Van Dyke is playing Dublin.

Guess I'll be seeing him live next Sunday

Show starting now people. Cheers

This made me think, going by what Mike was saying about his sense of humor in one of those interviews (I forget which, the car one ?), is it possible that the whole M.E.L/V.D.P thing could be down to a misunderstanding/incompatibility of Mike's sense of humor in Van Dyke's part ?

just in time for Harvest...  :p

Got here late... They're playing Orange Crate Art...

Has VDP said anything interesting?  Especially about Smile?

BTW, here's the link for live streaming...
http://www.near.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=50

Just said that a podcast will be posted tomorrow (Saturday, presumably).

Matt Smith as Doctor Who?  :P

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PLQi85xyAac/S93WH67wsWI/AAAAAAAACWs/CB0gh7gO67o/s1600/bowtie.jpg)

Not funny at all-its a warped mindset that you'd better get used to around here. Myke is the hero-VDP is the anti-christ who wrote the best lyrics to the best BW music ever composed.

I think it is more about over-ignoring the problems with one and under-ignoring the problems with the other.

Religion to me is music. I told my son last week that if he listens to "From A Distance" by P.F. Sloan he dosen't have to go to church.

It's good to hear him talk and not just reading his words... there is much more going on with him than his choice of words. I understand him much more after hearing the interview. When he and the interviewer laughed after he said the music is secondary, I laughed along. He comes from a creative place. And the anti-oil argument... do we have an alternative in place? no we do not... until then it's a shoot yourself in the foot argument. We as people need to stop arguing over left vs right and realize the destruction of our country started a long time ago, long before the oil boom or Bush or the current harbinger of death. The left/right thing is a distraction. One thing for certain is he despises cd's and that's his story and he's sticking to it.

Anyone know whether a podcast of this interview was made downloadable please?

http://nearpodcast.org/pcast/?p=1396

Many thanks TM, much appreciated.

Another great VDP interview here - http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-lyrc-jkevandykeparks-2011-05-13.smil - Excellent Einstein story from VDP  :hat

Can it be you're seeing things sort of black and white here?

Or if I'm wrong show me posts in which someone says he "totally" hates VDP and/or claims ML was a genius.