Van Dyke Parks Last Piano/Vocal performance

[chrs_mrgn]

Per his son, Richard Parks, on Twitter.

"Get tix for @thevandykeparks at @LargoLosAngeles on May 8 & 9! His last performances at the piano, ever. Be there!"

https://twitter.com/reechardparks/status/575015402419306496


The Lost Weekend - LAST PIANO/VOCAL PERFORMANCES by Van Dyke Parks wtih Very Special Guests
Fri, May 8, 2015
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:30 pm
$50.00

Seat assignments begin at 6:00PM, Doors open for drinks at 7:00PM, Showtime at 8:30PM | When you arrive at Will Call on the night of the show, seats will be assigned first come first served, from the front of the theatre to the back. If you want to sit closer, be sure to come earlier. | NO LATE ENTRY * NO REFUNDS * NO EXCHANGES

http://www.largo-la.com/event/805127-lost-weekend-last-los-angeles/


Will anyone here be going to this?

[bgas]

Per his son, Richard Parks, on Twitter.

"Get tix for @thevandykeparks at @LargoLosAngeles on May 8 & 9! His last performances at the piano, ever. Be there!"

https://twitter.com/reechardparks/status/575015402419306496


The Lost Weekend - LAST PIANO/VOCAL PERFORMANCES by Van Dyke Parks wtih Very Special Guests
Fri, May 8, 2015
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:30 pm
$50.00

Seat assignments begin at 6:00PM, Doors open for drinks at 7:00PM, Showtime at 8:30PM | When you arrive at Will Call on the night of the show, seats will be assigned first come first served, from the front of the theatre to the back. If you want to sit closer, be sure to come earlier. | NO LATE ENTRY * NO REFUNDS * NO EXCHANGES

http://www.largo-la.com/event/805127-lost-weekend-last-los-angeles/


Will anyone here be going to this?

 I wonder just HOW many final performances VDP will be making? 
http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,19963.0.html

As May 2nd is  not now his last, how can anyone believe that May 8th will be last. Seems to me he's just milking it; he'll probably still be playing for another 10 years

[anazgnos]

I believe this is just about retiring from piano/vocal playing as he's always done, due to the age/injury thing with his hands.  The implication is he still will perform in some kind of vocal only capacity.

I'll be at the May 9th show.  Don't really care if it's FINAL final or whatever, really any chance to see the guy is something to jump at. 

A tiny part of my brain wants to get its hopes up about those "special guests", but rationally I know we can cross Brian right off that list of candidates...

[bgas]

I believe this is just about retiring from piano/vocal playing as he's always done, due to the age/injury thing with his hands.  The implication is he still will perform in some kind of vocal only capacity.

I'll be at the May 9th show.  Don't really care if it's FINAL final or whatever, really any chance to see the guy is something to jump at. 

A tiny part of my brain wants to get its hopes up about those "special guests", but rationally I know we can cross Brian right off that list of candidates...

So, that reminds me. Is this a two night appearance?  The Lost weekend promo seems to suggest only the 8th, but you're goiing the 9th? 
Expecting more special guests on Saturday as opposed to Friday night? 

[anazgnos]

I believe this is just about retiring from piano/vocal playing as he's always done, due to the age/injury thing with his hands.  The implication is he still will perform in some kind of vocal only capacity.

I'll be at the May 9th show.  Don't really care if it's FINAL final or whatever, really any chance to see the guy is something to jump at. 

A tiny part of my brain wants to get its hopes up about those "special guests", but rationally I know we can cross Brian right off that list of candidates...

So, that reminds me. Is this a two night appearance?  The Lost weekend promo seems to suggest only the 8th, but you're goiing the 9th? 
Expecting more special guests on Saturday as opposed to Friday night? 

It's two nights if you look on their calendar.  I just bought Saturday night because it's an easier night.

I might try to make the free Pasadena show too.  I don't see any info about that gig outside of twitter though, so I don't know if it's an RSVP situation or you just show up or what.

[rn57]

I believe this is just about retiring from piano/vocal playing as he's always done, due to the age/injury thing with his hands.  The implication is he still will perform in some kind of vocal only capacity.

I'll be at the May 9th show.  Don't really care if it's FINAL final or whatever, really any chance to see the guy is something to jump at. 

A tiny part of my brain wants to get its hopes up about those "special guests", but rationally I know we can cross Brian right off that list of candidates...

So, that reminds me. Is this a two night appearance?  The Lost weekend promo seems to suggest only the 8th, but you're goiing the 9th? 
Expecting more special guests on Saturday as opposed to Friday night? 

It's two nights if you look on their calendar.  I just bought Saturday night because it's an easier night.

I might try to make the free Pasadena show too.  I don't see any info about that gig outside of twitter though, so I don't know if it's an RSVP situation or you just show up or what.

At this point there's not that much info about the May 2nd show at the South Pasadena Public Library.  This tweet from Van Dyke,
 https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/567805182798536704
says it's at 6 pm that day.

According to the document below it is a part of the annual Eclectic Music Festival held in South Pasadena, but that festival's site doesn't list this event.  It says VDP will be accompanied by a seven piece band and that the event will be free.

So the plus is, you wouldn't have to pay $50, but the not-so-plus is that it seems unlikely to have the kind of "very special guests" that are advertised for the May 8/9 Largo shows.  And since this is Van Dyke we're talking about, who knows just who might show up? Were I in town, I'd go to both South Pasadena and a Largo show - or maybe both the Largo shows. 

It's worth mentioning that the pages for the Largo shows are accompanied by another of VDP's reminiscences of his early days in showbiz.  This time, he talks about doing a play called The Cool Wind And The Warm with some names familiar to viewers of old movies and TV - Eli Wallach, Maureen Stapleton, Vincent Gardenia, Carol Grace aka Mama Carlson, and a young Suzanne Pleshette. 

He doesn't mention in the essay that this production ran on Broadway for six months in '58 and '59, but without him - he'd been in its tryouts in Philadelphia, but was replaced by Timmy Everett, a pretty talented actor who died young, before it reached New York.

http://www.ci.south-pasadena.ca.us/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=7243

[rn57]

Or at least three anyway.  

On his Twitter feed, @thevandykeparks, he says he'll have Latin Grammy-winning Gaby Moreno with him at the Largo on May 8, and another Grammy winner, Kimbra, on May 9.  Grant Geissman, a pretty eminent jazz guitarist who's often worked with VDP, will apparently be there both nights.

Should mention that VDP is getting a little wilder than usual on Twitter, which is pretty durn wild.  A few hours ago he put up an image of his famous "Van Dyke Parks apologizes" business card - which, since it's got his email address on it, means that he's provided you, fellow SS-ers, with the chance to ask him about, well, who else he's gonna have at the Largo. Or how Nilsson came to record his song "Cheek To Cheek."  (Might as well ask him that first because mentioning Harry always puts him in a good mood.)

VDP also tweeted a few days back that "it is common knowledge that I had the only copy in LA of the Zapruder film, circa '67." He also tweeted that he showed it to Paul Krassner and Phil Ochs that year, and that the CIA was tapping his phone because he had it.

Well....I'm disinclined to get into too much detail, because that would belong in the Sandbox, but suffice to say that if Van Dyke actually had the filmed record of JFK's assassination in '67, it would be very startling indeed, as Googling the words Zapruder, film, history shows.  For one thing, if it were true, he most likely could have gotten it only from some Anouk Aimee or Jeanne Moreau lookalike working for French intelligence.  But then again...this is Van Dyke we're talking about....and the ladies dug him then as much as now....so maybe it did happen.

[The Shift]

Does anyone know whether Van will be playing any Final Last Ever Shows here in the UK?

[rn57]

Does anyone know whether Van will be playing any Final Last Ever Shows here in the UK?

As I wrote before, VDP has said on Twitter that these are just the last times he'll play a keyboard in public because of hand difficulties.  What he might do in the way of singing in public in the future I don't know, but the Tweet below suggests that he's thinking of doing spoken-word soon. 

Which by itself might be kinda problematic, because VDP has been known to get in trouble if he doesn't get back to singing in a show within, say, six or seven minutes.  Back in the mid-'80s, he did a set in LA - I think it was at McCabe's guitar shop - in which he helped himself to a potable just potent enough to start him talking about Mo Ostin, at that time the head of Warner Bros Records. His remarks were said to have resulted in his being dropped from the label's roster for a year or so.

https://twitter.com/thevandykeparks/status/585858002424438784

[rn57]

I've seen VDP's business card reproduced online a few times in the last four or five years but only just noticed something funny - his site's URL is misspelled on it! (Should be "Bananastan" not "Banastan")

[rn57]

https://twitter.com/amalialevari/status/597157466569252864

Above links to a photo of VDP's performance at the Largo in LA last night - Randy Newman was the most famous guest onstage but he also had Gaby Moreno, Inara George, Joe Henry and some others. Wonder who'll show up tonight for the second and last show.

[bgas]

As reported on PSML, VDP played H&V; hoping someone was there and recorded it for youtube! 

>>Saw his very long and generous and hyped as his very last
public
performance....at least playing piano, was the rub he revealed to cover
any
future desire to perform again, which I hope he does. More or less
claimed
his hands are slower than his head now, though I thought the
performance
itself revealed no diminution in his skills.

At any rate, he
actually played "Heroes and Villains"---in the many, many
times I've seen him
perform since the 90s he's never played anything from
SMILE. He prefaced it
with talk of how very scared he was to try this, but
how it was a part of the
fabric of his life, so....then he played like a
minute of some OTHER piece of
music/song with lyrics that I wish I
remembered including I think some
reference to a "lifeline"? And then that
turned abruptly without stopping into
HandV.

He also gave a nice shoutout to Brian before playing "Orange Crate
Art,"
noting twice that it was "written for the voice of Brian Wilson" and
the
old (I think) comment about how Brian's was a voice he wanted to hear
sing
the word "orange."

He did a great job with HandV. My jaw dropped, never
expected to see/hear
that moment.

Brian
Doherty <<

[Fire Wind]

It's not a new event, though.  He played it at Union Chapel before, and with an orchestra at the Barbican in 2012.

[nakostopoulos]

Quick question: figure this may be the best thread for it, but what exactly was the issue between VDP and Brian over TLOS lyrics? Are he and Brian estranged at this point in time?

[The Shift]

You chaps are aware of this, aye?

http://youtu.be/AFxdAkfjeVg

I thought the estrangement between BW and VDP was more related to TSS than TLOS?

[rn57]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-van-dyke-parks-largo-coronet-20150512-story.html

The above is an interview with VDP, which lists some of those present at his two Largo shows.  Eric Idle was there....and VDP's old cohort Lenny Waronker. Plus (somewhat surprisingly, given VDP's sometimes tumultuous relationship with him) Mo Ostin.

Van Dyke explains further about the keyboard playing - says that his hand operation wasn't a success and that he can only play 40 minutes at a time before his hands "freeze up."  Which makes it impossible to sustain a night's show, much less intensive practice. 

But he makes it clear that his composing days are not over in the least, so it's a sure thing we'll be hearing more from him. Which is good to know.