Search - Van Dyke Parks :: Idiosyncratic Path

A compilation album of the first three albums

09/03/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"IF YOU HAVE "SONG CYCLE", "Discover America" & "The Clang of The Yankee Reaper" you don't need this album. There are no surprises as miscellaneous singles that would have been welcomed such as his own version of "Come To The Sunshine" a minor hit for the group Harper's Bizarre, Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" with his own set of lyrics, "music for the 1969 Datsun Commericals" a curious zippy foray into electronic music, and a black gospel piece "While Rolling on The River Jesus Came To Me" (this title may not be quite accurate). All of these tracks were recorded and released between 1966 and 1970.
I bought this sight unseen hoping at least some of the above would be included, So there is a sense of disappointment.
There are great tracks but not a great overview of his career, he had released eight albums by the time Demon released this, and the SONG CYCLE tracks, modelled heavily on Brian Wilson's Smile recordings, do stand out being stylisticly alien to the more Caribbean sounding tracks of the other albums.
It is a good, not great, album to give a friend as an introduction to Van Dyke Parks work."