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Zusatztext Song Cycle is an animated mash-up of parlor pop, calypso folk, movie scores, and anything else that struck Parks’s fancy, and Richard Henderson admits its manic nature makes the collection a hard sell for the uninitiated. But he makes a persuasive case, not only detailing Song Cycle’s creation (it was rumored to be the most expensive pop album of its time—which made it the biggest commercial failure of its time) but arguing for it as an unheralded artifact of the psychedelic era. Informationen zum Autor Richard Henderson Klappentext Posing more riddles than the average sphinx, with its decipherable answers pointing somewhere dark, Song Cycle was anything but passive. I had already witnessed hippie bands playing with their backs to the hall, so the thought of late '60s musicians being interested in their audience struck me as a concept bordering on revolutionary. The debut album from songwriter and pianist Van Dyke Parks, Song Cycle first appeared in 1968 on Warner Brothers Records. Its twelve songs led listeners through Joycean wordplay and sound collages to reveal messages of dissent and personal loss, at odds with Parks' buoyant, riotously eclectic music. Monumentally ambitious and equally expensive, Song Cycle resembled a film - possibly Citizen Kane - more than the pop music of its day; like Kane, Parks' masterwork was adored by critics yet all but ignored by paying customers. In his efforts to plumb the mysteries of this quixotic record and its subsequent fate, Richard Henderson interviews several of the key figures involved with Song Cycle, notably Parks himself and producer Lenny Waronker. Vorwort An intelligent take on a classic left-field album from the late 1960s, including original interviews with all the key players including Van Dyke Parks. Zusammenfassung Despite Warner Brothers Records' conviction that it had mid-wifed the American equivalent of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "Song Cycle" wasn't rock music, and it didn't sell like rock music. This title offers an intelligent take on a classic left-field album. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction 1. I Came Unto West Hollywood 2. Dreams Are Stillborn in Hollywood 3. Let's Assume That We Form a Company 4. Song Cycle 5. Enveloped 6. To Market To Buy 7. Constant Commentary By the Wayside 8. What Is Up the Canyon Will Eventually Come Down 9. Time Is Not the Main Thought 10. That Brought Us Coots to Hoot Bibliography...
