Song Cycle (album)

Van Dyke Parks had become known as an in-demand arranger and session pianist in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, working with artists including the Byrds, Tim Buckley, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. At the same time, he had become unsatisfied with contemporary American pop and its increasing submissiveness to the British invasion, going so far as to say that "apart from Pet Sounds I didn't find anything striking coming out of the United States."^[7] Wanting to create "an American experience which would be uniquely disassociable [sic] from the Beatles/British pop viewpoint," he became involved with numerous projects that indulged his interest in Depression-era American pop and folk music, such as co-writing and arranging much of Harpers Bizarre's 1967 album Anything Goes, releasing the singles "Come to the Sunshine" and "Number Nine", and working as Brian Wilson's lyricist and assistant arranger for the Beach Boys' Smile project.^[7]

Parks was subsequently signed as a recording artist by Warner Bros. Records;^[8] the label reportedly expected that he could deliver them commercial success on par with the Beach Boys' at that time.^[9] During this epoch, Parks visited Frank Sinatra, who was dispirited by the rise of rock music and considering retirement. Parks pitched his brother Carson's song "Somethin' Stupid" as a duet for Sinatra and his daughter Nancy. Reportedly on Lee Hazlewood's advice, Sinatra recorded "Somethin' Stupid", which became his first million-selling single. This bought credit for Parks at Warner Bros, and they proceeded to fund what would become Parks' one single from Song Cycle, an instrumental cover of Donovan's 1965 song "Colours". It was credited to "George Washington Brown"—a fictitious pianist from South America—to protect his family from the potential infamy of his "musical criminology".^[10] "Donovan's Colours" received an ecstatic two-page review from Richard Goldstein, which convinced the label of Parks's ability.^[11]

After Parks signed a solo contract with Warner Bros, he formed a creative circle that came to include producer Lenny Waronker and songwriter Randy Newman.^[12] He subsequently abandoned the Smile project, which would never be finished.^[13]

The album's sessions cost more than $35,000 (equivalent to $319,820 in 2023), making it one of the most expensive pop albums ever recorded at the time.^[14] The producers were able to make use of an early eight-track tape recorder, which was used to mix second-generation four-track tape that had been transferred from another four-track recording for overdubs.^[15] According to Parks, most of the album was recorded "before Sgt. Pepper reared its ugly head", and Newman had written the opening track "Vine Street" especially for him.^[16] Many Los Angeles recording facilities were used in order to maximize studio time.^[15] Song Cycle contained experimental production and recording methods, including varispeed and tape delay.^[17] Audio engineer Bruce Botnick was credited with inventing the "Farkle" effect, modification to a Sunset Sound Recorders tape delay unit.^[18] This effect was used most prominently on violins and harps, including the intro to "The All Golden".^[18]

Three-quarter-inch masking tape was creased in eighth-inch folds and wrapped like a fan around the capstan of an Ampex 300 full-track mono tape machine at 30ips. The tape then ran through the recorder and fluttered as the rubber capstan bounced, and, by bringing back the output of the farkle to the mix, Botnick was able to attain the sought-after effect while adding plenty of echo from the famed Sunset Sound chamber and delaying it further via an Ampex 200 three-track at 15ips.^[19]

The album opens with a recording of guitarist Steve Young performing "Black Jack Davy", a 17th-century ballad.^[20]

The album had the provisional title Looney Tunes, as a nod to the series of cartoons produced by Warner Brothers.^[21] According to Parks:

When I played the album for Joe Smith, the president of the label, there was a stunned silence. Joe looked up and said, "Song Cycle"? I said, "Yes," and he said, "So, where are the songs?" And I knew that was the beginning of the end. Warner held the album for a year. Then I met Jac Holzman, and after he listened to it, he went to Warner Brothers and said, "If you folks aren’t going to release this album, I will—how much do you want for it?" So they decided to put it out, grudgingly.^[9]

Released in November 1967,^[22][23] Parks later felt that the album had not turned out as he wanted, noting that "an album with no songs was entirely unintentional", and considered it a learning exercise "made with a mindset about the importance of studio exploration."^[14]

In his column for Esquire, music critic Robert Christgau felt that Song Cycle "does not rock" and had "serious reservations about [Parks'] precious, overwrought lyrics and the reedy way he sings them, but the music on this album is wonderful."^[25] Warner Bros. press sheets advertised Song Cycle as "the most important, creative and advanced pop recording since Sgt. Pepper."^[14] Although it received good reviews upon release, Song Cycle sold slowly, and took at least three years to pay for the original studio sessions.^[26] AllMusic's Jason Ankeny has described the album as

an audacious and occasionally brilliant attempt to mount a fully orchestrated, classically minded work within the context of contemporary pop. As indicated by its title, Song Cycle is a thematically coherent work, one which attempts to embrace the breadth of American popular music; bluegrass, ragtime, show tunes – nothing escapes Parks' radar, and the sheer eclecticism and individualism of his work is remarkable. ...[T]he album is both forward-thinking and backward-minded, a collision of bygone musical styles with the progressive sensibilities of the late '60s; while occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy, it's nevertheless a one-of-a-kind record, the product of true inspiration.^[6]

In response to the album's poor sales, Warner Bros. Records ran full page newspaper and magazine advertisements written by staff publicist Stan Cornyn that said the label had "lost $35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)."^[26] The ad said that those who actually purchased the album had likely worn their copies out by playing it over and over, and suggested that listeners send worn out copies to the label in return for two new copies, including one "to educate a friend with."^[27] Incensed by the tactic, Parks accused Cornyn of trying to kill his career.^[28] Excerpts from positive reviews were reprinted in these ads, which included statements written from the Los Angeles Free Press ("The most important art rock project"), Rolling Stone ("Van Dyke Parks may come to be considered the Gertrude Stein of the new pop music"), and The Hollywood Reporter ("Very esoteric").^[27]

Many musicians cite the album as an influence, including producer and songwriter Jim O'Rourke.^[29] O'Rourke worked with Parks on Joanna Newsom's 2006 album Ys; Newsom herself had sought out Parks as an arranger after listening to Song Cycle.^[30]

Notes

• "Van Dyke Parks" (credited as 'public domain') is actually an interpretation of "Nearer, My God, to Thee", "accompanied by the sound of rushing water".^[24]

• Van Dyke Parks – main performer, vocals

Additional musicians and production staff

• Goodman, Fred (1997). The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce. Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-4562-1.
• Henderson, Richard (2010). Song Cycle. 33⅓. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-2917-9.
• Lake, Kirk (2010). There Will Be Rainbows: A Biography of Rufus Wainwright. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-201871-7. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
• VanderLans, Rudy (1999). Palm Desert. Emigre. ISBN 978-0-9669409-0-9. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
• White, Timothy (1996). The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern Californian Experience. Macmillan. ISBN 0333649370.

• 331⁄3 blog page: "Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle, by Richard Henderson.
• Song Cycle (1978 Warner Bros. reissue) at Discogs