After a not so brief hiatus from music making, Van Dyke Parks is back.
Songs Cycled has a July 23 release. But that won’t be his first musical action of the year. He will also be performing in New York City at the Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge Event at Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 19. Philip Glass will also be performing.
Songs Cycled comes 45 years after his first release Song Cycled when he was 24.
Parks’ break lasting 1989 to 2013, came after several solo albums and much work producing and writing songs for other artists. Some of those artists include, Randy Newman and Ry Cooder’s first recordings, and Joanna Newsom.
Parks was a musical prodigy from a young age. He did everything music related..composer, soundtrack writer, lyricist, and more. One of his best known works is writing the lyrics to The Beach Boys’ hit “Smile.”
Track Listing
01. Dreaming of Paris (original)
02. Hold Back Time (re-recording of a 1995 song from the Orange Crate Art album with Brian Wilson)
03. Sassafras (new recording, originally by Billy Edd Wheeler in 1961)
04. Black Gold (November 30, ’02 – a fantasy on the sinking of The Prestige, off the coast of the Bay of Biscay)
05. Aquarium (cover of 1886 Saint-Saëns piece, an analogue recording with the Esso Trinidad Steel Band in 1971 – VDP produced their album)
06. Money Is King (picks up where Wall Street ends, written with Growling Tiger, a.k.a.- Trinidadian Calypso musician Neville Marcano)
07. Wall Stree’ (original)
08. The Parting Hand (1835 hymn from the tradition of unaccompanied choral music known as the Sacred Harp)
09. The All Golden (new recording from VDP’s 1967album Song Cycle)
10. Wedding in Madagascar (traditional a capella folk-song, arranged and adapted by VDP)
11. Missin’ Missippi (original)
12. Amazing Graces (instrumental with the ‘Van Dyke Parks Orchestra’)
Leave a Comment