VDP today on NPR said.....

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

The hit record thing really only comes up in reference to VDP dissing The Beach Boys/Mike who've have gigantic hits ..... and whatever one cares to infer regarding that. It would never come up if such dissing didn't occur .....

[KittyKat]

Van Dyke's son Richard is currently filming a documentary on his father.  Could be interesting.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

I'm the last guy to be an authority here, but on some of these provocative VDP quotes, I'm just thinking he's making funny, as well as maybe, uh, influenced by something or other....

[smilethebeachboysloveyou]

I still like this story - from the New York Times - Van Dyke Parks:

"Many years later, when Terry Melcher wanted to take the song 'Kokomo' to the tropical islands, he called me and wanted to use my Rolodex, so to speak. So, I brought some great   musician friends -- people who'd played with Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Cecil Taylor -- to play with me on that session. I was paid well for my work, although it was a nonunion session -- no hospitalization, no dental, nothing extra if it went   commercial. The Beach Boys, after all, were Republicans -- unions weren't something to mention to them. We weren't dealing with Studs Terkel. We were dealing with Bruce Johnston and Mike Love, who'd become the entity known as the Beach Boys. Of course, the song went to number one, and Mike Love always made a very big deal out of the fact that it was made without Brian Wilson. And that was always very alarming to me because beyond the Beach Boys' beautiful music, my allegiance has always been to Brian Wilson, who hired me years ago and told me he'd give me 50 percent of anything we wrote together. He said that speaking from his throne at a time when I was nobody. Isn't that the sign of a marvelous person?"

Parks recalls he saw Love one final time when Melcher called him to Monterey to play synthesizer on the Beach Boys' final album, recorded without Brian, 1992's dreadful Summer in Paradise. A neighbor offered to fly the musician to Monterey in his one-engine plane if Parks agreed to cover gas and other expenses. When he got there, Love was meditating in Melcher's living room. "For the first time in 30 years, he was able to ask me directly, once again, 'What do those lyrics -- Over and over the crow flies, uncover the cornfield -- mean?'" Parks said about that meeting in '95. "And I was  able to tell him, once again, 'I don't know.' I have no idea what those words mean. I was perhaps thinking of Van Gogh's wheat field or an idealized agrarian environment. Maybe I meant nothing, but I was trying to follow Brian Wilson's vision at that time." Parks says Love asked if he could fly back to L.A. in the plane with him. "We had a nice chat and he insisted that he wanted to split the cost of the flight with me, so he gave me a card with his number on it. The next morning, I called to discover it was a disconnected number. And that was the last time I saw Mike Love."

I found this article that was linked from the Wikipedia page for "Kokomo" in which VDP tells the same story, except that in this version it took place during his involvement with "Kokomo."  What do we make of this discrepancy?

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,640541_3,00.html

Surprisingly, he compliments Kokomo (albeit in a somewhat backhanded way).

[halblaineisgood]

.

[felipe]

VDP is probably lying. Everytime Brian was asked he said the cello was Carl's idea. And the triplet I have also heard Brian saying it came from Da Doo Ron Ron piano

[The Heartical Don]

Van Dyke's son Richard is currently filming a documentary on his father.  Could be interesting.

Directed by Richard Dyke Parks. Produced by Richard Dyke Parks. Scored by Richard/Van Dyke Parks- waht's that? His middle name's not Dyke?...

Van Dyke is his full first name. His son's full name is Richard Hill Parks. And I am awaiting that film eagerly.

[halblaineisgood]

.

[joshferrell]

so, what is Van Dyke's middle name? I wonder. wikipedia?

Dick... it Van Dick Dyke.....and his wife's name is Moore Tyler Mary..

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Dick's up mmm mmm mmm aboard a tidal wave..

[KittyKat]

Do not ever call Van Dyke by the name of Van only. He gets very upset.

As he gets older and grayer, he reminds me of Strother Martin.

[The Heartical Don]

Do not ever call Van Dyke by the name of Van only. He gets very upset.

As he gets older and grayer, he reminds me of Strother Martin.

I saw VDP live in The Hague, Holland, in 2008 (if memory serves), together with Inara Geoge, daughter of the late Lowell George. VDP has been a friend of the family for very long now.

VDP introduced Inara (who was the main act, she performed her debut album An Invitation in full.

He said about her: '...she knew me when I was a brunette...'.

It's one of these instant gags that make him such a wonderful raconteur, IMHO.