The Smiley Smile Message Board

Seriously, this man is brilliant beyond words. I don't think even he realises how good he is. This song that I'm about to post a link to is almost like an entire play or Broadway show condensed into just under five minutes. This song says more about 9/11 than any documentary or big shot hollywood movie could ever even hope to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=65Bv7i8J69s&NR=1

Damn straight! And man o man, if you're ever in a mopey mood... put "Discover America" on and you'll be at the very least, involuntarily tapping your foot.

A seasoned broadway composer could **** that out of his ass.

While I'm not a big fan of Wall Street in particular and I try not to be an ass-kisser of all things BeachBoysian, I'd say Mr. Parks is the equal of any Broadway composer.  Or at least any from the past 50 years or so (myself not being a big fan of most of what I still call "modern" musicals, despite some of them being older than I am).

Damn straight!  :) I'm not really knowledgeable of Broadway enough to site comparison's, but the one composer that keeps popping up in my mind is Gershwin. I keep thinking that Van Dyke Parks may just be a modern day Gershwin.

And that's where we might have to part ways... I wouldn't put him quite into that category, as I consider Gershwin to be in the country's top 10 or so composers ever (along with people like Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Bob Dylan, and Brian Wilson, to name a few immediately apparent ones). Honestly I think he's a better arranger than composer, though in an interesting way where his personality comes through in the arrangements--not always what you want from the arranger, depending on the composer or performer situation. But he is really good and certainly not inferior to many people I hear out there.

His album Jump! is a great work of Broadway.

I think the main problem I have with Van Dyke is how unprolific he is - even his 'new' album is a collection of old tracks. One of his best albums is a covers record. It gets a bit hard to call him a great current songwriter when he's (seemingly) only written two or three songs this century.

But I love his modern arranging - very innovative, such as on Ys or the Inara George record. Or something like his Heroes & Villains or his cover of He Needs Me by Harry Nilsson. Lots of great ideas. I don't quite know why he doesn't get more work. Probably because of the reason you suggest.

Prolific is relative to what musical activity he undertakes....he arranges several albums or parts thereof every year, and has since the early 70s.

VDP's Jump! is pretty much my favorite album of that low dishonest decade, the Eighties....and for my money the greatest original-cast album for any musical that never made it to New York. (It was apparently done with a full orchestral setting about 20 years ago in North Carolina; otherwise, the only full live performances were done in New York and LA when the record came out. But I don't know of any production involving sets and costumes.)

Van Dyke is a perfectionist, bringing his work to completion slow but sure.  A prime example is his song "I'm History." He started to mention it in interviews not long after Jump! came out in January 1984.  I think he first performed it in the 1990s.  Nowadays, he still calls it a work in progress - and suggests it might be the capstone of his career when he has it to his satisfaction.  But he does play it every so often, as here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvifW0pxvo0

I've put that clip up before but it merits another go-round.

I know, but I love his songwriting so much, you know? I get the feeling the mass indifference his career has suffered when he did write songs and produce his own records has soured him on the enterprise. He mostly plays songs from Jump! and Orange Crate Art out of his official discography live, for instance.  The rest is the scattered tracks from Discover America and the aforementioned arranging projects and covers - Gottschalk, Nilsson and Wilson.

Latest Van Dyke I adored was the version of Big Rock Candy Mountain on the reissue of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I'd love to know how that came about.