| | Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle CD Van Dyke Parks Discography of CDs
 (5 Customer Reviews)
When this album was released in 1968 it stood apart from everything else--and still does today. This is not because SONG CYCLE was ahead of its time--rather, it belongs to another time and place, a parallel world that draws breath irrespective ... Full Descriptionof calendar, clock, or map. Van Dyke Park's debut carries an apt and simple title. These dozen selections are of a piece, both because of their arrangement and their composition. Parks was already considered a talent to be reckoned with following his collaborative work with Brian Wilson, penning lyrics for The Beach Boys--evocative nuggets of seductive inscrutability. Here again the sounds and the lyrics dart in and around each other like poetic dancers. A song such as "The All Golden" has no clear antecedents. It's musical theater filtered through a hallucinogenic kaleidoscope. The whole work is rich with a sense of place. It feels quintessentially American, but of the sort that celebrates the strong individual voice. This is an album of singular vision and rare beauty.
Live Recording
Personnel includes: Van Dyke Parks (vocals); Ron Elliott (guitar); Nicolai Bolin, Vasil Crienica (balalaika); Misha Goodatieff (violin); Virginia Majewski (viola); Trefoni Rizz, Orville "Red" Rhodes (strings); Gayle Levant (harp); James Horn, Ted Nash (woodwinds); Carl Fortina (accordion); Richard Hyde, Thomas Shepard (brass); George Washington Brown (piano); James Gordon, Hal Blaine (percussion); Jack Glaser, El Supremo (sound effects); Gaile Parks, Durrie Parks (background vocals); Randy Newman, Tommy Tedesco, Ron Elliot, Tom Scott, Steve Young.
Uncut (p.110) - "Pursuing its own sense of pace and geography, SONG CYCLE is a musical travelogue billowing amid a Joycean stream-of-consciousness..."
The Wire (3/99, pp.62-63) - "...SONG CYCLE appeared...in the foaming wake of PET SOUNDS and SGT. PEPPER. Strange times and a very strange album, highly rated by many cognoscenti....A dense and glorious jungle of color, the arrangements on its short songs push the studio to its limits..."
Goldmine - Highly Recommended Hide Description Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle Songs Song Cycle Music Review Average Rating: (4.6 out of 5 stars)   classic
think i've done this already. vdp is a genius and this is a classic. what more can i say? check out my reviews of Tokyo Rose, Discover America, Clang, and Jump.
Submitted by a reviewer (carmel, ca, usa) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
a retro classic
guess you have to remember the 60's and 70's. Parks is a genius. phenomenal arrangements and orchestration. he said it all. time to listen again with what's going on in Iraq.
Submitted by a reviewer (carmel, CA, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No An Artist's Artist
I first heard Song Cycle in '68 and purchased a copy from Warner Brothers for one cent (a promotional gimmick). A work of genius, this album has remained in my personal top ten for 40 years, along with "Pet Sounds", "Sgt. Pepper", "Revolver", and "The Who Sell Out". You should own this masterpiece.
Submitted by Ed (Seekonk, MA, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No When pop music almost became classical
I have loved this album unreservedly for 35 years, so far, ever since 1968 when I heard it at a friend's house. I was 17 years old, the product of a rigorous classical music education. This is the first music I can remember liking that wasn't 100 years old, and no wonder. It is meticulously composed, diabolically clever stuff from start to finish. Anyone whose musical taste is the slightest bit evolved owes it to themselves to give it a spin. If you can't like it after a fair trial, then "you will know why hayseeds go back to the country."
Submitted by a reviewer (Seattle, WA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  Even in retrospect, I just don't know
inexplicably i was one of the few buyers of
This record in it's initial release, just to
have it disappear along this long way.
I thought it was, rather than eclectic, hyper
insular, a solipsistic exercise, and too
damn arty!
But it was fascinating. All over the place,
yet very much of one place and time.
In some ways it was like listening to an autistic Randy Newman.
The headline says it. If you like well arranged oddities from talented people, you might want to try it.
Submitted by spuzola (Middlesex)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
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Purchase Song Cycle CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Black Caesar DVD (1973) Widescreen
Song Cycle album
 $10.55  
| | Van Dyke Parks Jump! CD (1984)
Song Cycle CD music
 $9.95 
This wonderful 1984 album was Van Dyke Park's first release in nine years. He made up for the wait with a timeless set of interlocking songs that draw upon Joel Chandler's 19th Century (but timeless) UNCLE REMUS stories. JUMP! is full of surprising twists, turns, and charms and is as rich as anything Broadway was producing on the musical front. Parks' music rolls out like a parade through Anytown, USA--or, rather, like the emotional impressions and memories of such a parade.
Each song has its own distinct character and leaves an unforgettable impression. In a perfect world, "Opportunity For Two," "Many A Mile To Go," and "Come Along" would be regularly celebrated standards. Parks tried to raise interest in a fully staged version ...
| | Van Dyke Parks Discover America CD (1972)
Song Cycle music CDs
$9.95 
Van Dyke Parks' DISCOVER AMERICA came four years after his audacious debut. Where SONG CYCLE created its own orchestral tapestry of poetic and hallucinogenic Americana, its successor adopted Caribbean styles. Far from leaving the USA behind, however, this record is a series of glimpses into the social, cultural and political headlines from the first half of the twentieth century in America. Herein are celebrations of the Mills Brother, Franklin Roosevelt, Jack Palance, and Bing Crosby.
Parks' interest in Trinidadian steel-drum bands was given full flower (he also produced an album by the Esso Trinidad Steel Band around this same time), and their color serves as a joyful counterpoint to string sections and small combos of guitars, bass, drums, piano and horns. It says a good deal about Parks' skills as an arranger, producer and singer that ...
| | Hell Up In Harlem DVD (1973) Widescreen
Song Cycle songs
$10.55
In this sequel to BLACK CAESAR, Tommy returns to Harlem with a burning desire to regain control of the rackets. Seeking revenge, he rebuilds his organization and takes over again as king-pin. When he tires of the east coast he moves west. He is ...
| | Brian Wilson Smile CD (2004)
Song Cycle album
$16.49
Between 1967 and 2004, the SMILE sessions were pretty much the Dead Sea Scrolls of pop music. Well documented as head Beach Boy Brian Wilson's answer to the Beatles' masterpiece SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (which was itself largely an answer to the Beach Boys' PET SOUNDS), the tracks laid down in '67 for the projected SMILE album were the furthest afield anyone nominally operating under the pop/rock umbrella had ever ventured. Notoriously, intraband conflict (Mike Love, in particular, found the Wilson/Van Dyke Parks-penned conceptual work too far out) kept the record from being released. With several oceans' worth of water under the bridge, Wilson finally decided to finish the aborted project three-and-a-half decades later, adhering closely to the original blueprints. The results are as timelessly breathtaking as the original version must have been to the lucky few who first heard the initial tapes.
With sterling support from his backing band the Wondermints, Wilson meticulously pieced together the conceptual, orchestral puzzle of SMILE into a rewarding, cohesive whole. Even decades down the line, it still sounds miles away from anything else in the world of popular music. A series of extended vignettes tied together with seamlessly arranged melodic latticework, SMILE is a masterpiece that incorporates the influences ...
| | Billy Joe Shaver Everybody's Brother CD (2007)
Song Cycle CD music
$13.65
A Billy Joe Shaver album is always cause for celebration, but on this 2007, Grammy-nominated release, the outlaw country troubadour shines in a whole new way. Produced by John Carter Cash, the album features all country-gospel originals, half of them sung in duet with a laundry list of country greats, including the late ...
| | The Very Best of Freddy Weller CD (2003)
Song Cycle music CDs
$13.89
| | Saetia Retrospective CD (2001)
Song Cycle songs
$12.05
| | Nancy Apple Shoulda Lied About That CD (2003)
Song Cycle album
$14.15
| | Akira Serenade CD (2003) (Import) Japan
$15.85 | | Carnaval Sua Historia Gloria Vol. 33 CD (2004) (Import) Brazil
Song Cycle CD music
$8.19
Revivendo. 2004.
| | Jagged Edge CD (2006)
Song Cycle music CDs
$10.99
| | Calf Branders Good Enuff!? CD (2007)
Song Cycle songs
$12.15
The Calf Branders are all cowboys that brand calves for a living. They got started playing their original music for the tired cowboys and cowgirls after the branding is all done. They perform and write songs about what they do and also about Rodeo, Trucks, being a Country performer in a citified world, and drinking whiskey.The band is made up of 4 members, (all brothers), that play twangy telecaster guitar, standup slap bass, rhythm guitar, and drums. There are 3 lead vocalists in the band, including Lance Romance aka Big Hank, from the rockabilly band, the Hillbilly ...
| | Alan Jackson Super Hits CD (1999)
Song Cycle album
$6.29
Recorded between 1990 & 1996.
| | Jeff Lawrence Southern Songs CD (2004)
Song Cycle CD music
$9.35
jeff lawrence has done it again,stumped us.he releases a heavy metal album shovelhead,two instumental new age cds and a heavy rovk cd.now he releases a great country cd. this cd was written during a period in music ,about 1990 to 1993,where metalheads were out and had to choose ,nirvana, or garth brooks.jeff chose both but found the grunge seen lacking in musical talent so he put together a collection of country songs and moved to nashville for a while to shop them but returned to atlanta not carinf for the politics in nashville.jeff soon landed a every tuesday night gig at the buckboard saloon in marietta ga.,where mark wills opened for travis tritt and daron norwood,sticking jeff in the middle.cletus t judd,garth,chris ledoux and everybody else played this place.travis tritt and mark wills were both offered record deals but jeff they said was ...
| | Betty Marolany CD (2008) (Import) Import
Song Cycle music CDs
$32.85
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