Eccentric Van Dyke Parks finally reaches S.F.

[2 articles]

Eccentric Van Dyke Parks finally reaches S.F.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/05/PKL91BPKO9.DTL

Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent
Sunday, February 7, 2010

Van Dyke Parks wrote Beach Boys songs with Brian Wilson, once turned
down an offer to join the Byrds, scored orchestral arrangements for
U2 and dozens of others, and had a recurring role as a child actor in
"The Honeymooners," in addition to a handful of acclaimed,
semi-obscure solo recordings over the past 40 years, but he is not
known as a solo performer or bandleader.

"You're suspect in the fame game if you have a decidedly beta
characteristic, and I do," Parks says on the phone from his Los
Angeles home. "I am a beta male. Hetero. I'm a breeder, but I'm still
beta, a noncompete kind of guy. I love to be part of the process, and
that's totally true musically. I'm very comfortable in group
situations. I don't feel diminished at all. I feel very effective
that way - encouraging others and bringing out the best in them.
There's so much that I appreciate about my own nonclassifiable work.
I enjoy it. I look at everything I've done in my life as a songwriter
and I say, 'What was I thinking?' I know that. I know it's not
comfortable to find individuality alive in the arts. It's hard to package."

Specialized in individuality

Parks, 67, has always specialized in individuality. Born in
Mississippi and educated in prep schools, Parks has a genteel manner,
authentic erudition and magnolia blossoms on his tongue. He is a rock
'n' roll version of Mark Twain, often wearing white. Parks, one of
the great behind-the-scenes figures in the Southern California music
scene since he quit playing folk music in pop's Paleolithic era, is
also making his San Francisco performing debut next week at the
Swedish American Hall on a brief joint tour with Clare and the
Reasons, a band led by Clare Muldaur, daughter of an old friend,
musician Geoff Muldaur, his first real tour since he played keyboards
with Ry Cooder more than 25 years ago.

Not a professional

"I don't have the professional equipment," he says. "I maybe should
have a manager or something like that. To be in show business, I hear
you have to have a manager. So I'm not a professional in a way. Nor
has it been my priority because, to me, applause is vapid. I'm so
inured to the insult, but never to what it can mean. I've learned so
much from the criticism I've gotten. My favorite is from back in
1968, some cute little reporter called me the Edsel of pop music.
Isn't that great? Applause to me is like that - it's no real litmus
as to what you're doing. Sometimes it doesn't even leave a paper
trail. It's gone. It evaporates. That never had allure to me."

Actually, Parks has been turning up performing in public in a few
places recently. He played the Passionkirche in Berlin in November -
incidental to his work as a member of the board of directors of the
Neues Museum, where they keep Nefertiti's head - and another
subsequent show in Frankfurt, which led to him being offered a slot
of the annual Roskilde Festival in Denmark, where he will appear
before a gigantic crowd ("I'll be like a red ant on a watermelon," he says).

"I said, 'Do you think I could have an orchestra?" Parks says. "He
said, 'Well, up to 80 players wouldn't be a problem.' I said, 'Well,
I'll have to look at my calendar. What are your dates?' He said 'July
1,2, 3 and 4.' I said, 'I'll take the Fourth, and I want the bunting.
If you throw in an hour of darkness, I'll bring some fireworks and
you can have some Sousa.' He says, 'We only have one hour of
darkness.' I said, 'I'll take it.' So from zero to hero, right?"

By the way, Parks plans to open his Roskilde performance with a
specially commissioned piece of Uruguayan tango.

Panamanian project

"I'm working on a Panamanian project, 'Panamania,' with a 27-year-old
Guatemalan chirper to help her discover the beauty of these South
American rhythms, take tango back to its birth in Uruguay, which is
precedent to Argentina. It's just amazing - the guy said yes. The
first 40 minutes is going to be a Panamanian romp. I'll throw in a
couple of calypso things to give moment to the English language,
orchestrating the whole thing."

It's a good time for Parks. He co-wrote the new Ringo Starr single,
"Walk With You," and also recently wrote songs with Manhattan
Transfer. He appeared in a trio with Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder on
Howard Zinn's "The People Speak" in December on the History Channel.
"I haven't seen Bob Dylan to speak with since 1963, when I was with
him in Phil Ochs' apartment arguing about electricity and folk
music," he says. "Asked him if he remembered, and he did indeed."

He will travel to Canada to perform with folk singer Suzie
Ungerleider, who goes by the stage name Oh Susanna, whom he recorded
with last year on a tribute album to '30s blues singers, the
Mississippi Sheiks.

"It's a one-time-only thing," he says. "I'm going to run out of
campaign promises and a reason for being after I appear. The idea of
not appearing for so long has been very healthy."

A lot of his recent work has been with young musicians such as Joanna
Newsom, on whose 2006 album, "Ys," Parks did the elaborate orchestral
arrangements, or Inara George, daughter of Lowell George of Little
Feat, on their collaboration last year, "An Invitation." He
contributed orchestrations on recent albums by producer Danger Mouse
with British psychedelic trio the Shortwave Set and the fifth album
by Silverchair, "Young Modern," a title taken from Parks' nickname
for the band's lead vocalist, Daniel Johns.

'A chamber sensibility'

"I'm working with people younger than my children," says Parks, whose
son, a UC Berkeley journalism grad student and documentary filmmaker,
and daughter, a former San Francisco middle school teacher, both live
in the area.

Parks speaks highly of the music made by Clare and the Reasons.

"I'm delighted with what they do," he says. "They have a chamber
sensibility. God forbid they would be branded as what they call a
cabaret. Don't do that to them, I say. They do music that is so
cross-pollinated. ... They create an image of a dream escape, kind
of, I would say, noir is the word, and a certain theatricality. I
like people who pursue theatricality in their acts, whether it's a
Pink Martini or Incredible String Band. Where the group does
something, has an attitude in the work. ... She does that. I thought
this would not hurt me at all. Road shows are athletic. I've done
them before. I played with Ry Cooder around the world. I enjoyed it very much."

Solo if necessary

He doesn't, however, know exactly what he will be doing, whether he
will be playing solo or with accompaniment, or even whether he is
opening or closing the show. He says he can play solo, if necessary.

"I'm flexible - sometimes I have to," he says. "But I don't work
blue. In this case, I hope I will get the assistance of her group
members. I played, no kidding, the Royal Festival Hall in London. I
was so scared. I have only one phobia - playing to an empty seat. It
has a funereal aspect. I don't mind if somebody gets up while I'm
playing and leaves the room. That I can understand. But to arrive
there and have an empty seat is a certain sign of failure."

Hoping for a bass

"I am hoping really that I get a bass," he says, "at least a bass
with me, to liberate me a little bit to allow me to do other things
on the keyboard. The merciful thing is that it won't be that long. It
will be over soon, just like a good flu shot, and I think that it
will guard against depression and ennui." {sbox}
--

Van Dyke Parks: With Clare and the Reasons and opening act Josh
Mease, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Swedish American Hall,
2170 Market St., San Francisco. $25. (415) 861-5106, www.cafedunord.com.

--------

A gate so golden

http://www.sfbg.com/2010/02/11/gate-so-golden

Genius and patience in the music of Van Dyke Parks

02.11.10
Michelle Broder Van Dyke

Van Dyke Parks -- who'll be perfoming Fri/12 at Swedish American Hall
-- boasts an outstanding resume as an arranger, producer, lyricist,
and studio musician for the likes of the Byrds, the Everly Brothers,
Randy Newman, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Rufus Wainwright, Frank Black,
the Doobie Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Joanna Newsom, Ringo Starr,
Saint Etienne ... the list goes on. Under the heading "additional
experience," Parks could include actor: he was a minor child star,
appearing in the Grace Kelly vehicle The Swan 1956), and in 1990, he
showed up on David Lynch's Twin Peaks. He's also written film scores.

Considering this array of accomplishments, it's surprising that Parks
is still primarily renowned as a musical whiz within niche circles.
Perhaps this is a consequence of his intricate and somewhat
inaccessible solo albums, commercial failures to roughly the same the
degree that they are creative successes. Whatever the case, he has a
keen awareness of his legacy. "I prefer not being celebrated because
I think that it brings only dangerous results," he says, when the
topic is broached during a recent phone interview. "It brings a
self-importance. The best thing I can say is that I've created some
works that I think have a shelf-life that is longer than a jar of yogurt."

Born in Mississippi, Parks gravitated toward music early in life. He
was deemed a child prodigy, and his interests led him to Carnegie
Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) in Pennsylvania. But California is his
"adopted reality," the place where he's lived for more than 40 years.
He began to fill up his now extensive resume as a studio musician,
arranger and, songwriter in Los Angeles. In 1966, Brian Wilson
commissioned him to write lyrics for the now-legendary SMiLE
(Nonesuch). In 1968, at the age of 24, Parks released his first solo
record, Song Cycle (Warner Bros.).

This year, Parks is finally adding "touring" to the "additional
qualifications" section of his resume. For the first time, he's going
on the road with his material, from Song Cycle to Orange Crate Art
(Warner Bros.), which was released in 1995.

When I called Parks to interview him, one of the first things we
touched on was the similarity between our names. For me, multiple
names make for a confusing mouthful. VDP explained that he was named
for his paternal grandmother's "beloved" cousin, who was killed over
the English Channel by the Nazis the same week he was born. He also
said he's never sobered up ­ I think this was a joke ­ because he
can't take his name to AA meetings. Hearing this, I realized that the
complications of having a two-part first name might be more
inconvenient than a three-part last name. After VDP initiated
questions about our names, he continued as an interviewer and asked
me my musical tastes and my age, at which point we established that
we have 43 years between us.

"My goal is just to try and create things that will stand the test of
time, Parks said. "That's always been my goal. I have a great work
ethic, and I put my heart into everything I do hoping it'll be my
life-defining moment." At the moment, Parks is finishing a new album
that he hopes to put out at the end of the summer. It's been more
than 15 years since he has released any of his own material. "I
believe my work is better than it's ever been," he asserts. "And in a
town [L.A.] that celebrates and worships youth at the expense of any
other consideration, I think I'm going to be able to prove that my
best work is ahead of me ­ and that's what gets me up every day."

Parks' manner of speaking has a similarity with the music he creates,
nonchalantly integrating influences from far and wide. Explaining
himself, he blends in metaphors and proverbs: "I'm a black ant on a
watermelon." "It's like going from zero to hero." "There may be snow
on the roof, but a fire rages within." When making music, he moves
through and fuses musical genres from every direction, finding new
points of entry and exit. In 32 minutes, Song Cycle spans almost
every American musical genre, from bluegrass to jazz to show tunes.
It's an idiosyncratic soundtrack of America's musical history.

Parks' solo work has the feel of a soundtrack, or even a Disney
score, with its oddball yet familiar style of joining orchestration
and instrumentation (i.e. strings with banjo and harmonica, or French
horn with mandolin). The literate and witty lyrics ­ "Palm Desert"
turns L.A. into Never-Never Land; "San Francisco" is a lovers'
paradise "with a gate so golden" ­ conjure vivid imagery like a film
projected onto the inside of one's skull.

Perhaps VDP is a culture-sponge. As he says about his musical tastes,
"I like it all. I eat everything that's good." But his gift is more
complex than a talent for simply absorbing sounds and spitting them
out again. He has a tendency to find connections in unlikely places
and among unusual things. One man's genius is another man's idiot, or
however it goes. But Parks doesn't care what either of those guys
think ­ he just wants to make songs.

"A song is the lightest piece of cultural goods," he says. "You don't
need to pick it up in your hands. You can take it out in your head.
It encourages you to do something, hopefully the right thing. It's
why we shall overcome. It's what gives peace a chance. The song moves
people to political or social action like nothing else because it has
melody. And melody creates feelings, and the words, of course,
address the thoughts. And no kidding, I want to keep writing and
being surrounded with song forever. I want to bop till I drop."

As the saying goes, genius is patience.
--

VAN DYKE PARKS

Feb. 12, 6:30 p.m., $22/25
With Clare and the Reasons and Josh Mease
Swedish American Hall
2174 Market, SF
www.swedishamericanhall.com

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