The Smiley Smile Message Board

Here's an interesting little article I saw last week in the paper (that's strange because they actually know who Van Dyke was).  It appeared in last sunday's ap stuff

The songs of summer
Bubbly, catchy, unburdened by depth: These tunes keep the season bright
ANDREW DANSBY

The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," one of rock 'n' roll's best and most enduring singles, was reissued Tuesday. It's a release pegged more to the beginning of summer than the song's trumpeted 40th anniversary, which actually takes place this fall. Still, you'd be hard pressed to find a finer Summer Song, what with its sunshiny harmonies, doo-doo-doos, na-na-nas and oom-bop-bops and perfect opening lines about being smitten in summer:

"I, I love the colorful clothes she wears, "And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair ..."

"Good Vibrations" reached No. 1 on Oct. 29, 1966, and remained on the charts for three months, right into the dead of winter. But it's a summer song to the core. "Good Vibrations" is kind of like "Jaws." It no more birthed the summer song than Jaws created the summer movie, but each is, perhaps, the perfect totem for its respective designation.

Not all summer songs are created equal. And some songs about summer aren't necessarily summer songs. Pert, sunshiny vibrations and a danceable beat usually do the trick, which is probably why R&B and hip-hop have dominated lately.

OutKast's overplayed but very hooky "Hey Ya" should enjoy nostalgic legs once people aren't sick of it. Sisqo's "Thong Song," not so much. As a rule, if a specific dance is created for a summer song, it will suffer ridicule by fall.

This summer's early contender for enduring summer song looks to be Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," a soulful, infectious cut that might make the Danger Mouse/Cee-Lo pairing a one-hit-wonder, but it's a fine one hit.

Of course, there will be disputes. We tried to track down the king of summer songs, Beach Boy Brian Wilson, for his input. Aptly, he was on vacation, according to a rep. So we e-mailed Van Dyke Parks, who collaborated with Wilson on the storied "Smile" album. He touted a song that made our Fake Summer Songs list.

"No doubt about it," Parks wrote, " `Summer in the City.' My friends Mark (Sebastian) and his brother John concocted it. Friend Eric Jacobson produced it, with great ear-candy on the bridge, replete with a taxi honk. How gritty can you get? It is, to use a present tense vernacular, da bomb."

People will always have personal favorites. Tim DeLaughter, front man for Dallas symphonic pop group the Polyphonic Spree, offers "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" by Chicago.

"I heard (it) for the first time in the '70s on a hot summer day out by the pool, right after I learned how to do a back flip for the first time," he says. "It epitomizes summer for me, when time really never mattered, only the sun and all its glory."

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and his list of his favorite 15 for a mixtape (the writers, not van dyke's)

GOOD VIBRATIONS

Beach BoysBest summer song in the history of such by the band that defined the genre.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW

Johnny Nash

Notoriously blunt critic Robert Christgau said this bright-eyed tune could "get you through a traffic jam."

HEY YA

OutKast

Overplayed, but it's a cooler-than-cool way to shake a leg and chill.

CRAZY

Gnarls Barkley

See above.

SUMMER OF '69

Bryan Adams

I hate it, but I'd be a crank not to include something so dopily nostalgic.

VACATION

the Go Go's

Perky and sing-songy with that iconic water-skiing video.

CENTERFIELD

John Fogerty

Best song ever about the boys of summer except for Don Henley's "Boys of Summer," which isn't about baseball at all. Right?

MR. E'S BEAUTIFUL BLUES EELS

A winking upbeat tune in a gloomy catalog.

GIRL

Beck

Does he say "sun-eyed girl" or "Scientology girl"? Either way, it screams SoCal.

(ANYTHING BY)

Jimmy Buffett

Like "Summer of '69," I don't much care for Buffett's hits, but this list would be even more self-indulgent if it didn't mention him.

THREE LITTLE BIRDS

Bob Marley

An optimistic and sweet way to start a day.

STEAL MY SUNSHINE

Len

Beach-ready classic by a one-hit wonder. I'm not sure what it's about, but the piano vamp is boardwalk-ready.

SUNNY AFTERNOON

Kinks

This song's narrator has lost everything, but he seems committed to enjoying a lazy summer afternoon.

IT'S THE SUN

Polyphonic Spree

A sprightly ode to summer's patron orb.

HOLLABACK GIRL

Gwen Stefani

The killer beat and a foul-mouthed cheerleader lyric haven't gotten old ... yet.


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Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/entertainment/performing_arts/14998666.htm

"present tense vernacular".. I swear, every time I read something Parks has said my opinion of him as having a large vocabulary and colorful language gets lessened.

I think the exact opposite. I love him more.

Present tense vernacular doesn't make any sense.. past tense of "da bomb" wouldn't be "groovy", it would be "da bombed" or something.. nearly all slang is in present tense.

Hmmm . . . you're kidding, right?  "present tense vernacular" is Van Dyke's way of saying "in the language of today" with present tense meaning today, now - not as in the grammatical present tense!

(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/853/kif2144thumbdk3.jpg)

Fellas, my new album album will be da SHIZNIT. Be sure to cop it y'all! To use a present tenste vernacular.

:lol

"It is, to use a present tense vernacular, da bomb."

I would love to meet V.D.P. Seems like a fantastic guy.

I think you missed the whole thing.  Van Dyke commonly puts together two phrases that don't go together, or does things like put those three words together when it doesn't really make sense unless you split it up, etc.  It's all over the old lyrics, surely you're just joking around? 

"The Pit And The Pendulum Drawn" well you can't draw a pit, but the pit and the pendulum is a famous story and the pendulum can be drawn back, etc. 


Dim music hall a costly bound... hall a costly? holocostly? I mean come on that's what he does. 

Well, that still doesn't work there, because "tense vernacular" doesn't make any sense. I like his lyrics, but when it speaks it just sounds like he's trying too hard to sound smart, and failing.

Sure it does.  Tense Vernacular.  As a matter of fact, Van Dyke has a tense vernacular in relation to you.  Think about it. 

"Present Tense" = current, happening now, grammar term (as opposed to "past tense")

"vernacular" -- think "slang"

"present tense vernacular" = current slang.  It's a normal term and makes perfect literal sense.  What's the big deal?

There's a different between "present tense" and "the present".  Van Dyke would have been better off saying "the present vernacular".  "Present tense" has nothing to do with being current or "the latest thing".

Van Dyke Parks...master of Jabberwocky...

Do you really think that VDP was thinking that a bunch of music geeks would be ripping his grammar and word usage apart on a message board when he said that?

Yes.  That's where the Tense Vernacular comes from... as in his vernacular is causing tension, as in people are criticising his words?  I really don't get why people don't see that he's using a play on words like he always does.  Makes total sense to me.

I find the "present" to be quite tense these days; I have a feeling Mr. Parks does as well.