Van
Dyke Parks doesn't give interviews; he speaks in pull-quotes and
aphorisms. If Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker had spent their formative
years among rock & roll royalty, as Parks did as an arranger,
songwriter and singer, they might have viewed that world with the same
big-hearted verbosity that Parks brings to bear in conversation.
His career is rivaled by few: as an arranger and producer, he
shepherded the careers of Randy Newman, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt in
their infancies. As a lyricist, he is most famous for the long-buried
(and recently released)
Smile sessions for the Beach Boys,
taking the group's sunny pop songs into beautifully bizarre visions of
Americana. His own albums, particularly
Song Cycle and
Discover America, set his high tenor voice against and ever-evolving tapestry of classical tropes and West Coast pop confections.
He is touring in support of a series of new 7-inch singles that are
distributed through his Bananastan label and which feature artwork from
Art Spiegelman and Klaus Voorman, among others. The Mississippi native
is based in Pasadena, but his Southern gentleman's lilt came across the
wire as we discussed his upcoming tour of the United States (which stops
at the Luminary Center for the Arts on Thursday), the first-ever
undertaking for an artist entering his seventh decade. "70 is the new
69," as he quipped.
Christian Schaeffer: We're excited to have you come to town. Have you been to St. Louis before?
Van Dyke Parks: Christian, I want to tell you
something. My mother noted that she and my father were impressed that I
put my retirement before my career. I've been in California for 40
years, hermetically sealed. I've paid for three college tuitions with
this somewhat anonymous profession. This tour is a great adventure for
us and I'm just absolutely amazed.
What will your performance look like at this week's show?
I bring what I think is the irreducible minimum - a percussionist and
a bassist. And I sit at the piano and I sing. And sometimes I don't
sing. It's really a great blessing for me; it's a novelty for me. This
is George Plimpton time - this is a whole new role for me. It's exciting
and terrifying and consoling. My peers did this years ago - Randy
Newman, Ry Cooder, the Beach Boys - anyone who is still alive has been
doing it for a living. David Crosby's been doing it for years - I can
remember well when he offered me a position in a rock & roll band.
I really think that I'm at the peak of my powers as a tunesmith.
Things are slower but surer. I have managed to clarify my aims. I love
this song form - it is the most politically potent form. It is something
that lives in the heart. It's not serious music I do, but I take it
seriously. But that doesn't mean that I don't strive for durability.
As I look at it, I'll be singing a lifespan of work. I've ended up
with a motto - the older I get, the better I was. I'm amazed at the
craft I put into the song. Every day the hand is a little father from
the head. When I think of Mick Jagger, when I can recover from the
nausea, I marvel that he is still doing these geriatric gyrations he did
as a youth. With this tour, I'm getting a chance to discover America,
as it were. You know I'd go there. [Laughs]. My agent put a career in
these terms. Who is Van Dyke Parks? Get me Van Dyke Parks. Get me a
young Van Dyke Parks.
You've chosen to release your first new music in fifteen years
via 7-inch records; what about that medium is a good fit for these
songs?
Each of them, I pray, is a work of art, an objet d'art. It's a
tactile experience with the vinyl. It's something that escapes the jewel
box. I'm doing a tour with a 45 record, each of them graced with a
great artist. I'm in the endgame of life and I'm doing what I think is
right.
I've loved Mozart all my life--I know what a genius is. I sang lead
in a Mozart opera when I was nine. My music is not genius, but it is
utility. I think that the single is the perfect medium for me. I thought
that an LP would be an immodest thing to do. I love the visual icon of
the record itself.
 |
| Art Spiegelman |
What other plans do you have for your Bananastan label?
My next record is by the New Orleans piano player Tom McDermott, who
was actually born in St. Louis. He's a true keyboard genius, and I know
keyboard geniuses - I know Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, I knew James
Booker. I got him out of jail once. I never thought Elton John was that
great of a pianist, but then again, I didn't vote for Nixon.
You're at an odd juncture in your career - your early work has
been drawing more respect and attention, but you're clearly not resting
on your laurels. What comes next for you?
I really appreciate your kindness - we're here for our powers of
empathy. That's nice of you to say. It's quite a wrestle. Ted Turner
used a phrase for his book --
It Only Looks Easy. I love that
convention. The late, lamented Vic Chesnutt could not afford to stay
alive in this country. In the second verse of a song ["Isadora Duncan"]
he noted, "There is no shelter in the arts." I wanted to kiss him and
comfort him when he said that. It is so true that it is a struggle to
find relevance, to be a prism for the human experience. To create that, I
can't believe how demanding it is. It takes work to present the song to
another person without a stain of apology. I try to make the songs or
the pieces of music beautiful to the casual or vulgar observer. The side
[of my single] called "Amazing Graces" is just variations on that great
tune. There are no words.
About a month before he died, Ray Charles' manager called and asked
for my string reel. Ray Charles was interested in the way I arranged
strings. I cannot tell you how that evens life up in the most
spectacular way for me. I have such respect for the late Ray Charles. My
wife and I were in the kitchen and I started to weep. So stuff like
that, it's a cottage industry and it's here to serve. And I mentioned
before, that trying to do the right thing.
When did your own aspirations to be a lyricist and, later, a front man take over?
Due caution is always there. The fact that I survived the '60s shows
that I can be happy with the decisions I made. I really put a lot of
stock in this Beta Male role - the idea of being a team player is
attractive to me. Arranging is total, it's the most thrilling aspect of
music. I have to notate every sound that I hear. That is really an
illumination, but it's drudgery. It only looks easy! (Laughs)
I don't care about the recognition. It's not recognition -- you have
to keep doing what you think is right. I believe that there's nothing
more satisfying that trying to bring out the best in someone else.
That's what is at the heart of what music is all about. In the process
of being an arranger, I found my briar patch -- where I wanted to laugh
or cry. I found a great medium. So that's incredible, beautiful. It
still finds a way to surface, having suffered the disregard of the
academic world from where I come from. Ask Mike Love if I have any
street credibility. (Laughs) So I got street cred. Yet something
fascinated me beyond street cred. That was the guys who would take
street cred into the parlor.
Look at the cover by Art Spiegelman and you see a man lighting a
cigar with a $100 bill, and the other half of the face is torn away.
Obviously I took a vow of poverty - that's what my religion taught me to
do. I did not come into music for fame or profit. I already knew the
joy it was to be a musician and a collaborator. The greatest joy that
society can offer is a collaborative hymn. This is the America that I
refuse to leave behind.
