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Parks, Van Dyke - Song Cycle CD Cover Art
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Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle CD

 Van Dyke Parks Discography of CDs
4.6 stars (5 Customer Reviews)

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 Our Price: $10.35  CD
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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 of 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
Song Cycle Music


Detailed Song Cycle Music Information



List Price $12.97 (You save $2.62)
Category Rock/Pop Albums, Rock CDs, Pop, Country, Alternative, Folk, Experimental Rock
Label Warner Bros. (Record Label)
Orig Year 1968
All Time Sales Rank   13711  
CD Universe Part number 1243706
Catalog number 25856
Discs 1
Release Date May 18, 1990
Studio/Live Studio
Mono/Stereo Stereo
Producer Leonard Waronker
Engineer Lee Herschberg
Personnel Jim Horn
Jim Gordon
Hal Blaine - percussion
Gayle Levant - harp
Van Dyke Parks - vocals
Ted Nash - woodwinds
Ted Nash - woodwinds
Carl Fortina - accordion
Virginia Majewski - viola
Richard Hyde

List all 25 contributors
Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle Songs


Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle Album Track Listing



Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample1.Vine Street$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample2.Palm Desert$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample3.Widow's Walk$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample4.Laurel Canyon Blvd.$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample5.All Golden, The$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample6.Van Dyke Parks$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample7.Public Domain$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample8.Donovan's Colours$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample9.Attic, The$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample10.Laurel Canyon Blvd.$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample11.By the People$0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample12.Pot Pourri$0.99

Song Cycle Music


Song Cycle Other Versions



Song Cycle Music Review


Customer Song Cycle Reviews 




Average Rating: (4.6 out of 5 stars) 4.5 stars

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) Verified Buyer
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

5 stars 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) Verified Buyer
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

5 stars 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

5 stars 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

3 stars 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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