Van Dyke Parks: DISCOVER AMERICA

Summary

Joker Men Podcast Summary: Van Dyke Parks - Discover America

Episode Title: Van Dyke Parks: DISCOVER AMERICA
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Host: Jokermen (Evan and Ian)
Podcast Description: Jokermen Podcast serves as a spirit guide to the world of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, delving into every song and record with insightful discussions.

---

Introduction

In this episode of the Jokermen Podcast, hosts Evan and Ian dive deep into Van Dyke Parks' 1972 album, Discover America. As dedicated fans, they explore the nuances of the album, its significance in Parks' discography, and its unique embrace of calypso music. The conversation not only dissects the musical elements but also delves into Parks' personal experiences and the cultural impact of his work.

Van Dyke Parks' Final Concert

Evan recounts attending what was purported to be Van Dyke Parks' final concert at Zebulon, a notable venue in Studio City known for hosting legacy acts. The event was a star-studded affair, featuring appearances by Brian Wilson, Eric Idle of Monty Python, John C. Reilly, and Rufus Wainwright, who performed a song from Discover America titled "Black Gold."

Notable Quote:

Evan (04:29): "...Brian Wilson, Eric Idle of Monty Python... Rufus Wainwright was there and he came up and did a song."

The atmosphere was described as intimate and endearing, showcasing Parks' genuine connection with his audience and his dedication to ecological justice through his music.

Background on "Discover America"

Discover America marked a significant departure from Parks' previous work, embracing calypso music—a genre rooted in Trinidad and Tobago's rich cultural tapestry. Despite its artistic merit, the album faced commercial challenges, yet it garnered respect for its innovative approach and heartfelt homage to calypso traditions.

Notable Quote:

Ian (05:02): "Discover America. But yeah, what. Ask me more questions about it because it'll jog my memory."

The Essence of Calypso Music

Calypso music, characterized by its joyous tone and topical themes ranging from politics to local gossip, serves as the backbone of Discover America. Parks approaches the genre with the finesse of a musicologist, ensuring authenticity and respect for its origins.

Notable Quotes:

Evan (26:56): "Calypso music... it's a type of music that long before rap music and different from folk music... it's about topical things."

Ian (27:06): "I see what you mean by that... Van Dyke Park is like a musicologist."

Parks' dedication is evident in his travels to Trinidad and Tobago, his collaborations with local artists, and his commitment to fair compensation and credit for contributors.

Detailed Song Analysis

1. "Bing Crosby"

The album opens with a cover of Roaring Lion's calypso song about Bing Crosby, blending homage with playful critique. Parks' rendition maintains the song's spirit while infusing his unique style.

Notable Quotes:

Van Dyke Parks (19:40): "Sparrow's gonna sing a song all about Jack Palance..."

Evan (32:34): "It's a calypso song about why you should listen to steel band music."

2. "Steel Band Music"

An original composition by Parks, this track celebrates the steel drum and its cultural significance, interwoven with subtle Beach Boys-esque guitar licks—a nod to his musical influences.

Notable Quotes:

Evan (35:09): "I do think that calypso music is worth just noting a little bit about what it is."

Ian (34:35): "That's right... it's riffing on the character of the Great Gazoo."

3. "Sweet Trinidad"

A heartfelt ode to Trinidad, this song employs dense arrangements with horns and percussion, creating a vibrant soundscape that transports listeners to the Caribbean.

Notable Quote:

Ian (73:35): "...it's like a postcard. Like it actually has like. Like this thing is like, come Tobago for holiday."

4. "Riverboat" and Others

Additional tracks like "Riverboat" and "Ode to Tobago" continue the album's exploration of American and Caribbean themes, blending traditional calypso with Parks' signature experimental style.

Comparisons and Influences

Evan draws parallels between Van Dyke Parks and contemporary artists like Kanye West and Vampire Weekend, highlighting Parks' ability to weave diverse influences into a cohesive musical tapestry.

Notable Quotes:

Evan (17:08): "It's really amazing. It reminded me more of one other artist than any other."

Ian (54:00): "The playful quality of a lot of..."

Both hosts appreciate how Parks balances homage with innovation, ensuring that the album stands as both a cultural document and a personal artistic statement.

Cultural Impact and Reception

Despite initial commercial struggles, Discover America has been reassessed over time, with positive reviews acknowledging its artistic depth and cultural significance. Parks' respectful and scholarly approach to calypso has cemented the album's place in music history.

Notable Quote:

Ian (86:30): "Fantastic record, fantastic vibe, fantastic spirit. Great work from Van Dyke Parks."

Conclusion and Reflections

Evan and Ian conclude by praising the album's spirit and Parks' dedication to musical exploration. They emphasize the importance of cultural appreciation and the role of music in bridging diverse traditions.

Notable Quotes:

Evan (87:51): "Music is to be shared for the world."

Ian (88:22): "Well, yeah."

The episode wraps up with a final appreciation of Parks' work, celebrating Discover America as a testament to his enduring legacy and passion for music.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Evan (04:04): "He's been woke, but he's actually woke in a way that's like, in the same way Bernie Sanders is woke."

• Ian (26:16): "Calypso is a poor man. A Calypsonian is the person to turn."

• Van Dyke Parks (19:25): "So let's get started with a performance by a man that Mayor Ed Koch named a day after in New York city."

• Evan (84:12): "There's a joy to this music... it's always like that."

• Ian (86:30): "Fantastic record, fantastic vibe, fantastic spirit. Great work from Van Dyke Parks."

---

Final Thoughts

This episode of the Jokermen Podcast offers an insightful and engaging analysis of Van Dyke Parks' Discover America. Through thoughtful discussion and personal anecdotes, Evan and Ian illuminate the album's artistic value and cultural significance, making the episode a must-listen for fans and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Van Dyke Parks]

Come to the sun, you shine. Hang your ups and down Here comes to the sunshine. To the sunshine. You know I know you know that I love under the sunshine.

[Evan]

Welcome back to Joker Men podcast about Van Dyke Parks.

[Ian]

That's right. That's the podcast about Van Dyke park. The premier podcast about Van Dyke Parks.

[Evan]

For everyone who's like, oh, it should be called Joker Van. We've already done plenty of episodes here and there about Van Morrison, so can't do that.

[Ian]

Joker Dyke. How about that?

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Dykemen.

[Evan]

Dyke Men.

[Ian]

Sure. Yes. It's our second ever sojourn into the wonderful world of Van Dyke Parks. Here we are in 1972 with his second album, Discover America. Quite a follow up to the song cycle record that we talked about over the course of several hours a couple months ago. At this point, gonna be fun to talk about that. But before we do, more important than any record of Van Dyke Parks, you, Evan, have just seen as of this recording a couple days ago, the supposed Van Dyke Park's final ever going away, bye bye sayonara concert.

[Evan]

Yeah, it was supposedly the last time, the last time that he was going to do this. He's apparently said that before, but he.

[Ian]

Has said it before, like four other times. But maybe, you know, eventually one of them is going to come true. So maybe it's going to be this one.

[Evan]

I think the last time he played was a long time ago now.

[Ian]

Yeah, no, I think you're right.

[Evan]

There was one at Zebulon and then before that it was like 2015 was the last time.

[Ian]

Van Dyke Parks at Zebulon. There's no ridiculous sentence.

[Evan]

It's not ridiculous. People are so like people, including you apparently very skewed perception of what Zebulon is because I've seen so many great, like legacy act.

[Ian]

I know, listen, they book great stuff there, but they also literally booked us, you know, doing our first ever live show that was like a, like a technological Disney disaster in the middle of it. So like, it's. It's just funny to me that like, we and Van Dyke Parks and Jonathan Richmond have all played the same stage.

[Evan]

Many people have also played the stage of the, the Gaslight, the, the, the, the Fillmore. Other histories. I've played the fucking Fillmore.

[Ian]

Wow. All right. Did. Is that where Ott played when you guys toured with him?

[Evan]

Foxygen.

[Ian]

You toured with Fox. You guys did a Foxygen tour too?

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Wow. Okay. I must have forgotten about that.

[Evan]

The Star Power Tour.

[Ian]

Sure. Oh, the. And Star Power Tour.

[Evan]

Right, right, right.

[Ian]

Can't forget about The.

[Evan]

And anyway, yeah, I saw him at the now defunct. Like it was also the last show ever at the write off room, which was, I think it originally.

[Ian]

It's in Studio City. Is that right? Valley Village.

[Evan]

Yeah, it was right on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You know, near like the pink Cadillac, like car wash thing. Yes, yeah, yeah, that big sculpture. Yeah. Very nice to see a small and intimate room where I walked in and it's. It's Van Dyke Parks. He's just standing there in the middle of the room giving out business cards.

[Ian]

In what appeared to be an incredible fit, like an oxford cloth button down under just a beautiful pair of overalls.

[Evan]

I don't even think it was a button down. I think it was like a more formal shirt than that. But yeah, he's in blue overalls, cuffed at the bottom. And what kind of shoes? I don't know. Brown.

[Ian]

I think I'm imagining like. Like clogs of some sort.

[Evan]

No, no, I think they were just probably dress shoes.

[Ian]

Derbies, Oxfords.

[Evan]

He was drinking one of those kava or. Yeah, either kava or like kratom drinks.

[Ian]

Cool.

[Evan]

And yeah, handing out these little business cards that. Anyway, you know who else was there? You don't. Brian Wilson, Eric Idle of Monty Python.

[Ian]

Wow, okay.

[Evan]

Was sitting there.

[Ian]

Sure, why not?

[Evan]

And John C. Reilly was in the middle of the crowd.

[Ian]

Great.

[Evan]

And Rufus Wainwright was there and he came up and did a song.

[Ian]

Wow. Star Studded Affair.

[Evan]

It was. It was remarkable. And I wish that I had captured video of the moment when he did a particular song, but yeah, it was a. A mix of stuff from all over his. His career and actually a lot of stuff, relatively a lot of stuff from this record.

[Ian]

Great.

[Evan]

Discover America. But yeah, what. Ask me more questions about it because it'll jog my memory.

[Ian]

Well, I mean, what was. What was the setup up there? Was it. Was it just him behind a piano solo? Did he have a band? Did he have an orchestra?

[Evan]

A small. Like a mini orchestra of a band? Like a guy on cello, guitar player, bass player, percussion, slash drum setup. And also Inara George, daughter of Lowell George, was there singing songs with them, coming up and going down from the stage. Did one song of her own. A couple of moments where I just. I mean, I was just standing there kind of like, oh my gosh, this is just great. Like he was being his usual self, like where he was saying all these kind of clever and interesting things and he was talking a lot about the context of songs sometimes and definitely making a point to discuss things from perspective of sort of the social justice, but more of a, you know, his version.

[Ian]

Of Van Dyke Parks has gone woke.

[Evan]

He's been woke, but he's actually woke in a way that's like, in the same way Bernie Sanders is woke. You know, you look at his record of being who he is, you're like, that guy's been that guy for 60 years, 70 years. And so Van Dyke Parks is very much that way too, where it doesn't read as like bandwagon y buzzwords. He's very much about that in a charming way.

[Ian]

He's always struck me as a very intelligent and, you know, thoughtful, you know, any sort of quotes I've ever seen him deliver about music or politics or whatever. He always seems like, you know, very, very clear headed, cogent thinker.

[Evan]

So doesn't surprise me, extremely incisive. For example, he did a song that was, I guess, adapted from the stories of. That would become Song of, you know, the stories from like Song of the South. And he's like, you know, this is actually, these stories were eventually made and popularized by that and that, that version of them with Uncle Remus and stuff. He's like, I was very careful not to include any sort of magical, avuncular character like that. And, and I'm going back to. He said that these stories, Mark Twain apparently said that they are in their original form the Rosetta Stone of American culture, that they represent like the purest American folklore that we have. And so then he did a song that was based on like the Brer rabbit and the fox thing. And he did the Rufus Wainwright one was like a song about some horrible ecological disaster where all these fishing villages were decimated by like 15 miles of poison sludge. And he had Rufus Wainwright come up and do this sort of folk ballad called Black Gold about that and give a very impassioned little preamble about how he felt that that has never seen justice or the people responsible never have. And that he said he believes that if we just put ecological concerns at the top of the priorities and everything else would fall into place. And he's, he's just all about ecological justice.

[Ian]

Take good care of your feet.

[Evan]

Yes, ecology, Yeah. I was pleasantly surprised that, you know, he didn't like go too deep into any kind of Trump stuff. He did do a song though, that is on this record we're going to talk about. And he talked about it in terms of being a song that celebrates democracy. And I'll have you guess which song he sang from Discover America after he said that hint it's the one with the president.

[Ian]

Yeah. I would guess it's FDR in Trinidad, not G Man Hoover. That doesn't strike me as a celebration of democracy.

[Evan]

No. And also worth noting off the bat, before you even get into that record, that's not an original song.

[Ian]

Almost none of them are original songs.

[Evan]

No, almost none of them. And he closed with. With another not original, the Lowell George composition of Sailing Shoes, which also appears on that album. But the real gold, like, the stuff that everyone wants to know is, like, what did he play of, you know, song cycle and stuff? He played vine street and it was beautiful. It was great. And he played the all golden, that's for sure.

[Ian]

Oh, wow.

[Evan]

Slightly mellowed versions, you know, like, in a way that suited the band. It was, like, very good adaptation of it. So it didn't feel like a diminished version, just sort of like a intentionally simmering version. And the highlight, of course, is, for me anyway, was when he. In a. In a shift away from sort of the verbose preambles, there was a moment where I should have known and just pulled out, whipped out my phone, like, I should have known better to catch the beginning. But he just said, I remember this song. And then after a pause, he started singing Heroes and Villains.

[Ian]

Oh, incredible.

[Evan]

And it was amazing.

[Ian]

That sounds beautiful.

[Evan]

It was so good. And, yeah, the crowd was very appreciative. And it just was like a very sweet and endearing atmosphere. Like. Yeah, it was a great show.

[Ian]

Sounds like it. Three stars.

[Evan]

Yeah, definitely.

[Ian]

Easy. Well, salute to you, Mr. Parks. Hope that isn't actually your final farewell show and that I'm able to see one at some point, but if not, at least one of the Jokermen was able to bear witness.

[Evan]

Yeah, I'm so glad that I was able just to go drive 15 minutes and see Van Dyke Parks the best. And that day for me was crazy because I. I, like, went to. What did I do? I went to Michelle's in Hollywood, the old. Oh, Italian restaurant.

[Ian]

Absolutely.

[Evan]

And then I saw not very good.

[Ian]

Food, but atmosphere is fantastic.

[Evan]

I like the. Yes, the atmosphere makes up for the food. And the food, it's not like it'll make you sick.

[Ian]

It's just fine. You're there. You're not there for that.

[Evan]

I love it. And so I went there. Then I went to see Rebel Without a Cause at the Egyptian 35 and then went to Musso and Frank and had liver and onions.

[Ian]

Went to Michelle's and Musso's in the same day.

[Evan]

Well, I just had, like, a drink at Michelli's before the movie. Like a little salad. And then after that, after Musos. Just went home and rested for a minute before heading out to see Van Dyke Parks.

[Ian]

Yeah. Sounds the classic. Classic Los Angeles day. Yeah, classic Hollywood day, really. At least until you went out to Studio City.

[Evan]

Don't know how I ever gonna top that one, but it was great. Needed it. Much needed. In this time of general woe and despair in Los Angeles.

[Ian]

Sure. Well, yeah, Beautiful things are still happening there, despite everything else that is happening and continues to happen. This has been the Van Dyke Parks concert report.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Once a night, Cotillion Square, the fight. And she was right in the rain of the bullets and eventually brought her down. She's still dancing in the night.

[Evan]

So I want to ask you something, Ian. What do you know about Klipso music?

[Ian]

Virtually nothing. I know this album, and I know that YouTube video that you sent me a couple days ago, and that's about it.

[Evan]

Well, you've heard some. Some of this stuff anyway. I think. I know I have. On Theme Time Radio Hour.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Evan]

With Bob Dylan. I think that's honestly been the. That was really the first time I was introduced to a lot of classic calypso music ever was Bob Dylan, literally. Bob Dylan.

[Ian]

Noted calypso musician. Bob Dylan.

[Evan]

Well, what's amazing is in that little documentary from 2004, Calypso Dreams. Very good. There is a moment where one of the Calypsonians, which is what a calypso musician is called, he says Bob Dylan maybe qualifies as a Calypsoan because he can turn a lyric. That's what he says.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Unquote.

[Ian]

He can turn a lyric.

[Evan]

I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, but, yeah, calypso music. What are your impressions? Because this record is essentially. It's a calypso record.

[Ian]

That it is. It is indeed a complete departure from song cycle, which, to my memory at least, has zero Calypso on it. Certainly not much of it, if there is any to be found. But, yeah, here's Van Dyke Parks back again, half a decade after the commercial disaster than was that previous record. And he's back and better than ever, folks. I think it's. I mean, it's inspired, certainly. We'll talk about it as it comes, you know, as we get into the nitty gritty here. But I do have to say that this is just like such a. And this was a record, I think, as I talked about, a little bit like on the Carl and the Passions episode. Like, I'm starting to have to actually put in some legwork and do some serious listening to these records that I'm not quite as familiar with. Coming into each episode, this has been just a complete delight. Pleasurable listening experience from start to finish for me. Similar to the way that I felt about the American Spring record, which I know you were not quite as much a fan of. Hopefully you have found this album to be as much of a delight as I have.

[Evan]

Yeah, I thought you would like this one.

[Ian]

So good.

[Evan]

And I think it's great. Yeah. And I think the reasons I like it are. I mean, the reasons I like it are because it has a lot of things that I didn't. Wasn't getting from the American Spring record. Not to like, put them against each other.

[Ian]

They're very different records. I only brought up the comparison because I have been delighted by both of them as different as they have been.

[Evan]

I will say though, that this record has a wealth of stuff that almost no other record has. And the way that it makes you realize what Van Dyke Parks is able to do is. Is really amazing. It. Honestly, this record reminded me more of one other artist than any other. And I don't think you're going to guess who laid on me. This record made me realize how similar Van Dyke Parks is. And I'll. I'll be like, clear from the outset here. Similar, I think, in certain creative methods and innovative practices and uses of music. I think he's kind of like Kanye west boy.

[Ian]

All right, well, I can't wait to see how you walk this tightrope.

[Evan]

I mean, it's not really that hard to walk, like, think about. You don't even have to think about it, just shows it to you. Like the way he starts this record. Very similar to the way that the first record song cycle starts, where it's this kind of excerpt, a sample of a song.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Evan]

In the same way that Kanye does, or did used to anyway. The old Kanye, I think he's like wildly ahead of his time with that approach, having these kind of props, set piece uses of existing songs that are there to kind of set a tone rather than be a whole piece of music. That's totally something that I feel like, you know, just when I'm thinking, like, who else does that? Sure, I think a lot of other people have. But when I'm thinking about dramatic effect, I think about like, well, at his best, Kanye, I think, was doing that in a major way. And this record starts that way. And then it kind of makes you go back and think about how song cycle did that too.

[Ian]

Exactly. Yeah. Starting your record off with someone who isn't you singing a song that you didn't write, which is. I see what you mean by that. You know, the mania and anti Semitism of Kanye West. Hopefully not as present in Van Dyke Parks background, but at least you know, I get what you're.

[Evan]

I'm thinking about like Jesus and Life of Pablo, like, and it's earlier stuff too. There's. Yeah, that. That thing of like, at its best being like, oh, that. That little bit of audio from other music being wielded and used as like a. A part of a bigger diorama or this tapestry like that. That's something that Van Dyke Parks is doing, like with. He does it so naturally, you almost don't even think about it. But doing it in a light and elegant way here. I think I love the first song and I actually love the original song, Jack Palance, which I've heard on Theme Time Radio Hour.

[Van Dyke Parks]

So let's get started with a performance by a man that Mayor Ed Koch named a day after in New York city. That's right. May 18, 1985, was Mighty Sparrow Day. I remember what I did that day.

[Ian]

Do you?

[Van Dyke Parks]

Sparrow's gonna sing a song all about Jack Palance. I'd say it's more about the Carl girls in his local bar looking like Jack Palance, but Jack is still mentioned, so it's fair game for us to play it today. I'll tell you a little more about Jack Palance in a couple minutes, but first, let's hear the sound.

[Ian]

There you have it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's important that he do something like that because obviously, I mean, this is calypso music. This is music of the Caribbean. This is traditionally black music. And you may be listener out there, you may be shocked to learn Van Dyke Park's not a black man. And we don't need to. We are not the ones to have the conversation about whatever sort of race relations, appropriation, appreciation, whatever about this record. I think we're just gonna sort of take it at face value. Is like he is appreciating this music, has a deep appreciation for it, and is, you know, is working in sort of a loving, appreciative, supportive fashion for all this music.

[Evan]

He made clear, and he said at his show that he went to Trinidad and Tobago and he studied the music and he met the people and he made sure that everybody whose songs are featured on this record are. We're compensated and paid and credited. And I. I do think that that Conversation is just like. To nip it in the bud. It's like he's a musicologist. Like, in that. The true sense. I think he's actually somebody who studies. Studied this music. And it's not even just admiration. I think he understands the history of it, the relevance of it in that way. And it's almost an educational outlet when he presents it or uses it here.

[Ian]

Absolutely. No, I completely agree. And in that way, it seems similar to me to sort of what Bob has done with a lot of his records. Where I have a deeper appreciation for Hoagie Carmichael or Blind Lemon at this point. Based on the songs that Bob has played on the folk covers record. The Good As I've Been to youo Records, the Triplicate Records and so on. I kind of think of this record in a similar kind of way. It's just music that the artist, Bob, or in this case Van Dyke. Is very passionate about. Very familiar with loves and wants to reproduce and put his own spin on it. And then beyond that, kind of bring it to a totally different audience. Like, you know, I would not be here sitting, listening to calypso music of my own accord, necessarily. But here I am, you know, deeply enjoying having done so. The same way that I wouldn't necessarily be sitting, you know, on my computer listening to There's a Flaw in My Flu. You know, of all the songs I could ever listen to. But thank God that I did. And thank God that Bob Dylan brought it to me. You don't get this very often, I think, with many artists. But folks of this stature and certainly of this intelligence, frankly, interest in music the way that Bob and Van Dyke clearly are. They are able to embark upon these projects. And make their listeners like us, make our. Our listening lives much fuller.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Well, I looking for you not experience drinking in the night club with me bosom friend who come down to spend the weekend When I look back who you think I see but one of my family Good heavens. A shout mama Jacob, what the France you're doing in the nightclub? Same time the rock and roll start to play she hold on to a Yankee and break away, I tell you but if you see the woman, brother she more than 60 and I'm sure without any doubt she could be me granny still she walking about at night with she face like Jack Palance Go to France, step aside and give this sparrow a chance, you know I looking for youth night experience.

[Evan]

It's funny that you mention that, considering what the next. What the first proper song on the record is.

[Ian]

Bing Crosby.

[Evan]

It's a calypso song about Bing Crosby. I do want to make clear that calypso music and the title of the record, it's called Discover America, which is, I think, yeah, obviously it becomes clear north and South. South America, yeah, America.

[Ian]

Like, yeah, as in the Americas, you know, the whole new world, basically the.

[Evan]

West Indies, everything that's ever been called America.

[Ian]

And that point, I think, is driven home with the COVID which is these fantastic cover to me, great cover, this beautiful bright orange and Discover America written in this beautiful kind of cursive word mark. But most of it are These buses, these beautiful 70s buses, one of which is destined for Hollywood and one of which is destined for Trinidad. And that's just such a perfect visual illustration of what is happening on this record. Taking the Hollywood aesthete Van Dyke Parks and submerging him in this world of calypso music.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Of all the world's famous singers I have ever seen on the movie screen. Of all the world's famous singers I have ever seen on a movie screen. Lawrence Tibet and Nelson, Eddie, Donald Snow and Morton Downey. Kenny Baker and Brune Valley. But the crooning prodigy is Bing Crosby.

[Evan]

I do think that calypso music is worth just noting a little bit about what it is. The best shot I have at explaining it, what it is as I understand it, it's amazing because it's a type of music that long before rap music and different from folk music, it has things that on paper you would go, oh, that's what those genres do. And the blues, of course, it has things that the blues does, but what it does is broader and also has like one distinct thing of the tone is a joyous tone. But it can be about anything and it can be about topical things. Often it is like a topical thing, including politics, including local gossip, including Bing Crosby. The way that they describe it at the beginning of that little documentary, Calypso Dreams, there's a few people giving these great descriptions of what they think of it as.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Every song that they make in America is about love. But we sing from politics to sport to science to whatever education it is recorded in Calypso.

[Evan]

I consider the Kaisonian as the old African storyteller. You know, that guy will go from village to village just spreading the word.

[Ian]

And the old African storyteller is just the man that's supposed to go around.

[Evan]

And keep the good works and the deeds of your heroes alive.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Calypso is a poor man.

[Ian]

Newspaper. A Calypsonian is the person to turn.

[Evan]

Tell the people Spokesman, so to speak.

[Van Dyke Parks]

He is to let the people know what time is it, what's going on behind their back.

[Evan]

That a good calypso is timely and.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Timeless, meaning that it comes right in.

[Evan]

The nick of time. I see the Calypsonian as a concerned villager, a person who would like to see his village improve. If there's one genre that could replace the Internet, I feel like it could be like, calypso music, because the tone is this kind of uniformly flippant, but also incisive and very sharp and funny thing. At its best, it's all those things at once, which I think the Internet at its best is those things.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Evan]

So I think it makes perfect sense that Van Dyke Parks was like, oh, my God, this is. This is a fascinating culture and art form, and it's again, describing it so similar to the ends that you could say song cycle is after in certain ways.

[Ian]

Yeah, I think that all makes perfect sense. And I guess it is worth just registering here, like, what exactly is Van Dyke Parks doing playing calypso music all of a sudden? When, if you listen to song cycle, and obviously we're aware of his songwriting efforts, you might not really understand how this guy would be interested in this kind of music. So, just very briefly, just on a biographical kind of note, he had always been interested in calypso music, or so he claimed throughout his life. And then at one point, he saw the Esso Trinidad Steel Band, a Trinidadian calypso band, performing with Liberace in Las Vegas. And about this band, Van Dyke said, I saw them as enslaved in their relationship to Liberace. I thought it was a vulgarity. I wanted to save them from their trivialization. And so I think that happens late 60s, after he's kind of crashed out of the Brian Wilson big songwriting world and is kind of trying to find purpose in his life. And so he sort of makes it his project to bring calypso music to the world, popularize it. And so he starts producing records for the Esso Trinidad Steel Band. And then this record that he makes himself is the kind of next step of that. So, you know, like we were talking about a few minutes ago, I think this is this, as perplexing as this might appear on its surface when you understand just a few kind of basic elements of what's going on beneath the surface, to me, it makes perfect sense.

[Evan]

Yeah. Some of the. Didn't he also do a record by the Mighty Sparrow? He produced a Mighty Sparrow record.

[Ian]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

But the Jack Palance song at the beginning of the. That is the Mighty Sparrow.

[Evan]

That's Mighty Sparrow.

[Ian]

But then. Yeah, you know, the first proper song on the record, Bing Crosby. It's a song about Bing Crosby. Sounds nothing like a Bing Crosby song, but it's about Bing Crosby. I love it.

[Evan]

Yeah. I think that it's a very canny. Like it's an intentional and of course, typical of Van Dyke Parks. It's kind of like a wry wink to the fact that he could never really do. He can't. He's not attempting to do like a. Put on any kind of calypso Ian voice or anything.

[Ian]

He's just. And thank God for that. He's not pulling a Joni Mitchell and Don Juan. Don Juan ing himself on this record at any point.

[Evan]

This is the Hollywood bus on the COVID It's straight up a song about. Yeah. One of the least Calypsonian musicians who are famous.

[Ian]

This song to me is a direct continuum. I mean, I remember we talked about a lot of this on the song cycle episode. His kind of like obsession with fascination with Hollywood, the pictures, putting on a show, you know, kind of old school golden age of American entertainment, you know. This song sounds radically different than the songs from there. But like just the subject matter of this song. Of all the world's famous singers I have ever seen on the movie screen. Lawrence Tibbett and Nelson Eddy, Donald Nobis and Morton Downey, Kenny Baker and Rudy Valli. But the crooning prodigy is Bing Crosby. Like, that's just like. That's Van Dyke Park's brain right there.

[Evan]

It absolutely is Van Dyke Park's brain. However, this is a cover of a Calypso song from 1937 by Roaring Lion.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Bing has a way of singing with his very heart and soul which captivates the world.

[Evan]

His millions of listeners never fail to.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Rejoice at his golden voice. They love to hear his ladder dealer so sweetly and with such harmony, thrilling the world with his melody to this.

[Evan]

Connection was just right there for the picking. It's what we call synergy.

[Ian]

That's great.

[Evan]

Yeah, I love it. I. I saw again the. One of my favorite movies, the Disney film Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The 1947, I think.

[Ian]

Great ride. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

[Evan]

Yes, great ride. Great, great cartoon. And anyone who's seen it, maybe you haven't seen it in a while, but the segment about Ichabod Crane, the Sleepy Hollow adaptation is narrated by Bing Crosby and sung by Bing Crosby.

[Ian]

There you go.

[Evan]

And that was something that I was a formative text for me. This. That movie. And so actually, all of this does ring true for me. Like, Bing Crosby was someone. I was like, wow, I love this. That music from that as a child. And that stuff definitely would later influence, I think, my tendency to be very sympathetic toward, like, those Bob Dylan standards records. And, of course, to something like this. Bob Dylan could have seen that when he was 8 years old or whatever. Also Van Dyke porks, just like I did. Yet another fascinating example of the way that music kind of filters through generations and time and space. We all love Bing Crosby.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Unanimously. Three cheers for Mr. Bing Crosby.

[Ian]

Steel band music.

[Evan]

This is a song about why you should listen to steel band music.

[Ian]

Yep. Basically, it's a. This is one of the few songs on the record that is an actual original Van Dyke Parks composition, as I understand it, at least.

[Evan]

Yeah. Meanwhile on the other bus.

[Ian]

That's right. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, the defining sound of this song, as you might assume it to be, is the steel drum, which sounds great. It's got this fun little, like, kind of. Did you notice that little, like, surf guitar lick that shows up there kind of in the middle of it?

[Evan]

Yes. And I actually feel like that's a Beach Boys joke of.

[Ian]

I think that's exactly what it is. Yeah, exactly.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Steel is very musical. You get that rhythm in every beat. The steel. The greater the oil drum will make you jump up and make it up. As it fades up, gradually, the music.

[Evan]

Remains in your memory, which, again, I'm not gonna make too fine a point about it, but kind of like a Kanye type move to be, like, suddenly doing another style of music for, like, two seconds and then back to the song.

[Ian]

Well, and I think it's doubly clever or particularly clever, resonant because, you know, obviously calypso music, you know, Caribbean culture in general, is stereotypically, we could say, you know, kind of associated with these sort of tropical images, beaches, palm trees, you know, crystal clear blue waters, yada yada. And the Beach Boys image, obviously associated with that same type of stuff in some way, but kind of a world away there in suburban South Bay, Los Angeles suburbs. And so who knows to what extent Man Parks is conscious of all this when he's putting the song together, I wouldn't be surprised if he's very conscious of it. But whether or not he's intentional about it, it's. To me, it's a very playful kind of juxtaposition of these two cultures and places that kind of, on the surface, are very similar to one another. At least they have a lot of the same kind of signifiers attached to them. But beyond that, from another angle, could not be more radically different, both in terms of the people in these cultures, the types of music they're produced. It's fun. Food for thought, I would say.

[Evan]

Yeah. I think that he's doing kind of his due diligence, like, just saying, isn't this a great type of music we have here? Yeah, Again, this is an introduction to that. And between these two songs, Bing Crosby and steel band music, you get the two poles or the two sides of the coin of the record.

[Ian]

Yeah. He's both within this culture and this music. And then at the same time, obviously, without it, you know, be, you know, outside of it, as an outsider, someone who, you know, obviously knows a lot about this shit and has a deep appreciation for it, but just by virtue of the fact, like, you know, like, where he was born, what color his skin is, what his life, upbringing was like, you know, he's. He's marked beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt as someone who isn't of this culture necessarily. And so a song like this. Yeah, kind of plays with that, I think.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Them.

[Evan]

But then we're off to the races. Yeah. The Four Mills Brothers. Another song about a group of musicians, the Mills Brothers.

[Ian]

This is a song by the Lion. Roaring lion might also be referred to as.

[Evan]

Again, that just goes to show that there's a natural thing here, a natural link. There was a calypso song called Bing Crosby.

[Ian]

Yeah. Might as well be a Van Dyke Parks original. But that's what makes this so funny and interesting, is that it isn't. And yet it seems like it might as, you know, seems like it should be.

[Evan]

Yeah. That is also what we have here. It's like you're realizing that calypso music can be about and is about other music, too. Like, I'm not kidding when I say that it's kind of like an Internet of music. Like, it's podcasts. It's like there's songs that are just about other songs kind of.

[Ian]

It is kind of like a Remembering Guys type of thing. Oh, it is certainly this song and Bing Crosby, because in this song, we. We get Morton Downey again, we get Cab Calloway, we get Bela Lugosi, and we get Mae West. So it's like, you know, stars of the screen days of old just parading through this song. And again, that cover, I think, is so perfectly illustrative of what you're going to get on this record. Just song after song after song.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Among the singers on the Moving screen the Negroes are the best ever heard or seen among the singers on the moving screen the Negroes are the best ever heard or seen. Port and down he went to a singing school but the four Mills Brothers are sweet and cool Nobody cares for me.

[Evan]

Calypso music is remembering guys. I mean, it's not like that was ancient history necessarily at the time at all. It's just an appreciative gesture.

[Ian]

It would honestly be like us remembering Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt from like the 80s and 90s.

[Evan]

It's like us remembering Bob Dylan records from the 80s and 90s.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Evan]

It's why we do the podcast is, you know, the same thing. It's just like, who's going to even know what way is up if nobody knows what just happened and what. Who was. Who was the great in their little category of art or culture? If you have no heroes in mind, then music really does just become content.

[Ian]

It was a great song for Mills Brothers. A lot of these songs, you know, kind of, to me, resist a lot of deep analysis, you know, beyond just saying, like, this is so much fun and I love to listen to it. This song also is like 90 seconds long. So there literally just is not that much there to get to, you know, to gnaw off the bone. But I kind of like that about this record especially. Cause I mean, remember song cycle that was like a two hour episode that we did across. Like we split it into two different pieces and like we spent so fucking long talking about some of those songs. And there's so much to try to get at and unpack the specific word choices and stuff that Van Dyke is making. Because remember, this is Van Dyke Park. This is Columnated Ruins. Domino Van dyke Parks.

[Evan]

Hey, Mr. Columnated Ruins over here.

[Ian]

That's right. And so it's so interesting and exciting to me that someone who with his own written work is notorious for just these almost inscrutable messages, just like taking. Taking his foot off the gas and being like, I'm down to just chill for a little bit and make a nice record full of nice songs that don't have any of that shit in it. We love that shit, obviously, but like, it's so cool to see him let his hair down a little bit in this case.

[Evan]

Yeah, Well, I would speculate the reason. Part of the reason that is the way it is is because calypso music by its nature can be so many different things. That rather than the approach he had in the past with song cycle, where a song is trying to be so many is so many things at once. There's just an endless expanse, an endless well of calypso music for any occasion, for any subject. So he can just pick and choose whatever he wants. And he doesn't have to make one song that includes this vast landscape. Like a fucking. Like a Bruegel painting, like he did on Song Cycle. It's instead various sections. It's like one painting where you're just kind of looking at, you know, a couple inches of it at a time. And there's all the kinds of things happening in it. And that is something you kind of get from this. This record. And I think that's kind of. Its approach is a tour. Discover America. It's literally like the tram ride or the train at Disneyland. You're seeing these different tableaus as part of the way you're discovering this genre.

[Ian]

Yeah. Underappreciated Disneyland. Ride the Train.

[Evan]

Ride the train. It's the best one. Yeah.

[Ian]

One of the best ones. Absolutely. Anyone out there, if you haven't been on the train to Disneyland, take the train when you go through a little dinosaur tunnel. I love that.

[Evan]

Exactly.

[Ian]

So cool.

[Evan]

Your attention, please. The Disneyland Limited now arriving from a.

[Ian]

Trip around Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. All passengers.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Bo.

[Evan]

We didn't mention that. There's the introduction. The 26 second introduction track, which is track two. Sure. Which. I don't know what he's really going on about, but it is kind of like the tram ride. Like the crackly voice bus guy. Like, saying, to your left. There's this. And, like, giving witticisms about what you're seeing.

[Van Dyke Parks]

For all of the natives of Parnassus.

[Ian]

Pennsylvania, bear in mind that the hill.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Above Parnassus was known as Mount Olympus. But if there were any gods whoever.

[Evan]

Lived there, I knew them.

[Ian]

Not before daylight savings time reared its ugly head just as it was getting light. It's a little unclear who it is because I've read some stuff that says this is Van Dyke park speaking. And I've read other stuff that says this is not Van Dyke park speaking. But we don't know who it is. You know, whoever it is, whether it's Van Dyke or not, you know, he's talking about Parnassus. Parnassus, Pennsylvania. Some sort of hill above this. Nowheresville in Pennsylvania. It makes me think of the brutalist.

[Evan]

Yeah. What did you think of the brutal? Did he see that?

[Ian]

Yeah, I saw it a couple weeks ago.

[Evan]

What'd you think of the Brutalist?

[Ian]

Fun to see in a theater, you know, it's nice to see. I saw the 70 millimeter print up here. And so, like, you know, that's nice at first act. Like good, good performances, like Guy Pierce, like Adrien Brody. But it just falls off. Off a cliff in the back half.

[Evan]

Yeah. I just don't think that movie has really much to say.

[Ian]

I think it does. Well, yeah. I mean, I think. I think that Brady Courbet does have a lot.

[Evan]

Corbett. It's not Courbet.

[Ian]

I thought it was Corbett. I've been saying that. Go around on Twitter, Corbett.

[Evan]

It's. Maybe it wasn't worse than Corbett. It was. It's like Philip Guston. Like, people be like Guston, like Ralph Lauren. It's one of those, as far as I'm aware.

[Ian]

But I think he does have a lot to say, or thinks he has a lot to say. But I don't think he just. I think he's like talking with marbles for the most part in that movie. And whatever he wants to say, he's saying maybe 40% of it.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

All of the melodrama at the end, just the most preposterous. People living at that time in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, just would not have behaved that way. It's, you know, ridiculous conclusion.

[Evan]

I don't know. I just feel like it's. It's kind of the opposite of Van Dyke Parks in a way. Like, where to bring it back in some way. You know, if it is like one of these things where sometimes art is using stuff from history and really specific and loaded moments in time and references to try to say something. And I think like, the Brutalist is like. Represents kind of the opposite approach of Van Dyke Parks, who, you know, Brady Corbett's not Jewish, but this movie is like all about the Holocaust and Judaism and. But it also sort of isn't. It sort of uses it as an ingredient. Whereas I think Van Dyke Parks approaches cultures he's not a part of with an awareness that it's not like a simple thing that you can just use as a piece of a larger point. Like you said earlier about the Liberace thing. He's not trivializing Calypso here as an interesting thing in service of his personal artistry. I could go on about the Brutalist.

[Ian]

But yeah, you know, let's not.

[Evan]

But the four Mills Brothers. That one has this kind of distinctly not Calypsonian sound. It sounds more like movie music from, like the 30s or something. It's got this like, you know, fiddle. Anyway, an interesting arrangement.

[Ian]

And then you get that also in Be Careful, which is one of the other Van Dyke Parks originals on this record. One of three, really. Almost one of two. Because the third original, Sweet Trinidad, is like barely even a song. I think if there's any song on this record that could fit into song cycle, it would be like this one. You know, it's still like, I mean, the steel drum right away that comes in, sets it apart and makes it clear that this could not have been that. But like there is a world in which you could like sort of delete that track and the rest of this song could, could make sense on a song cycle type record. But it has that steel drum. So that marks it inevitably as a piece from this period in his career.

[Evan]

Sure does. It's a song about how his dad, the singer, the narrator's dad, Father, Father. Told him to be careful of women.

[Ian]

That's right. Behind every great man there's a woman. That's true. But she has a hand in every downfall too. Look out, fellas. Every lady is a woman by nature's act. But every woman is not a lady.

[Van Dyke Parks]

And that's at the age of nine. My father said to me, Son, you're growing fine. I'm very proud to see soon a man you'll be. With all the zest for life. But your greatest test will be to choose. Be careful, son, be careful. All that glitters isn't gold. Be careful some be careful moving around to the young and the old. You must watch them twice. That is my advice. You'll find they're nice going far but they're.

[Ian]

Amen, brother.

[Evan]

I think it's knowingly quaint and outdated. I think like it's, it's, it's a song that I think is quite aware that it's like old timey values are a bit dusty.

[Ian]

I mean, to me, like this was a period of time also when Van Dyke was hanging with Randy, you know, he was working like as a day job at Warner, you know, Warner Bros. Records, like running like a proto music video department and like making music videos for people like Randy. At this moment in time, this song strikes me as a Randy Newman type concept.

[Evan]

Oh, absolutely.

[Ian]

Where like, you know, you can read the words on the page and take them at face value or you can think about the oaf doofus father who is the one saying these words. And I think that is, that's what Van Dyke is really going for here. But it's kind of left up to the viewer or the listener rather to, to make that distinction themselves.

[Evan]

Yeah. And I like that it's here because it it's good to see that, you know this record. And Van Dyke Parks is not overly cautious about, like, he's. He's still willing to be a little bit sly and playful, mischievous, which is absolutely in keeping with the tone and style of calypso music.

[Ian]

Indeed. It's a great one. Another great one. Jon Jones, probably my favorite on the record.

[Evan]

It's great.

[Ian]

I love this.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Jon. You son of a girl. You call yourself a man and still you try to kill my son of a gun.

[Evan]

Okay, I'll make another comparison. Another record or a group that I thought of as being a comparison to Van Dyke Parks. And I might have said this in the past, but Vampire Weekend, especially the last Vampire Weekend record, I was thinking a lot about it when I was listening to this one.

[Ian]

Yeah, I think the playful quality of a lot of. I mean, hyper literate playful quality of the music. And also the ability to kind of like, you know, braid a lot of different influences into one cohesive piece of twine, so to speak. You know, twine, Rope, fine rope.

[Evan]

A weave. Weaving. It's. Yeah, he's able to do a trick in various ways. He does this, where he puts a song in kind of thematic quotation marks. He's like. Just by the production and certain touches and certain performances and approaches from the musicians, like, you can tell that there's a certain tone or lack of seriousness sometimes or just a lighter touch to things that. That tell you something about how he feels about the music or the subject matter. And he doesn't even have to sing in a certain way. There's a lot going on already that kind of dictates the feelings that he's juggling. Jon Jones just sounds great, though. It's also just like fantastic. Catchy. And it's got that. The production is really good. It's almost got like a dub reggae feel.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

I mean, it's not just calypso music. You're right about that. You know, there are. There's like. Like big band Americana shit on this record that we're gonna get to at certain points. And then. Yeah, this is more. This is just like straight reggae.

[Evan]

But then it's Van Dyke park. So it doesn't feel like.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Which is. Again, yeah. Vampire Weekend comes to mind because it's like, okay, you're doing like ska. You're doing like whole thing unto itself. Like a way of sort of teaching you to listen to it as you go. Speaking of teaching you to listen to FDR in Trinidad. Yeah, he was teaching the audience about this song. Sure. It's a song just about FDR being in Trinidad and a calypso song about appreciating this good president momentous occasion. A president who seemed to care about the suffering of suffering humanity, if you can imagine that. I don't believe that had happened before. A U. S. President visiting Trinidad. Is that right?

[Ian]

Yeah. Well, I mean, assume that it hadn't. And if it had, it was probably, you know, someone like Teddy Roosevelt who was there to just like, you know, be racist. It. It's, you know, it's. It's. This is a very funny song to me because it is just like, you know, you know, some of those posters, like movie posters that are from, like, Ghana, you know, where. Like, where it's just like this, like, like completely deformed version of Han Solo.

[Evan]

But then there's a skeleton with a bloody sword.

[Ian]

Exactly. Or I've seen Chinatown ones that are like this also. They're just fucking hilarious to me. And they look just completely bastardized in one way, but they also have their own kind of innate beauty. It's like its own folk art. Yeah, exactly. I kind of feel some of the songs, and I think FDR in Trinidad is a perfect example of that. This is the. The song equivalent of one of those movie posters.

[Evan]

Yeah, totally. Except it's actually the. Maybe it becomes that when he performs it as Van Dyke Parks. I'm not. I'm not sure. I mean, because before that, it's just straight up a calypso song, like any other calypso song about something going on locally. You know, FDR is in Trinidad, but that's a song about it.

[Ian]

And that's it. Yeah, it's just like, here he is, there he is. We love him. He's great. There is.

[Evan]

I mean, there are.

[Ian]

There isn't really like a subtext to it.

[Evan]

Well, it is that he's. There's a line about that. He's. He cares about the suffering humanity that he's like. He's seen as a respectful character.

[Ian]

Sure.

[Evan]

So again, one of those hero type songs. We didn't really talk about what Jon Jones is about, but Jon Jones, he's son of a gun revolutionary.

[Ian]

He's a revolutionary war general or figure of some sort. I forget. Exactly. You know, something like that.

[Evan]

Something like that.

[Ian]

John Jones, you son of a. He's a son of a gun. That's what's important about Jon Jones.

[Evan]

I wish I knew this song a little bit better before I saw it played live, because I would have been like, oh, my God, he's playing FDR in Trinidad now I'd be like, wow, Hell yeah. But his performance on this Van Dykes is really good. He's so impassioned. He just like really goes for it. Next we got Sweet Trinidad. Under 1 minute, 56 seconds. A beautiful little bauble about sweet Trinidad.

[Ian]

This is the third and final, I believe, original Van Dyke Parks composition on this record after steel band music. And be careful. So, like, I guess not like be careful, but like steel band music. It is a Trinidadian influenced song, literally about Trinidad in this case.

[Evan]

Yeah. And I love that little kind of scuzzy guitar in there.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

He's again, another good example of like, his little signature touches to. To show that it, like this is me doing something based on this music here. He. He is really good at that. Of just like. Like knowing what little thing to tweak to kind of give the sense of narration.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Well, I've traveled the USA from north to south I didn't need a single girl to shout about they worked very hard but they paid me good and.

[Ian]

Put on a little weighty dang Yankee.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Boo From Miami to New York to Los Angeles Wherever I play the people Mighty please Yankee Hollow really feels to me Never forget sweet La Trinity and I remember sweet Trinidad Sweet, sweet Trinidad Darling Keep your home fires burning Use.

[Ian]

Class that ain't sweet Great background vocals on this one, too. I don't know. I haven't really been able to suss out the credits on this record so much so I don't know exactly who.

[Evan]

I think there's a lot of big credits. I think Clyde King is on this record.

[Ian]

Wow. Okay. I mean, that would be. That would make sense, you know, to some extent, I would say. But whether or not it's great, that has almost got like a Dirty Projectors type of feel to me at certain points, like BT Orca, you know, kind of like syncopated backing vocals that are like half a beat off, but, like, you know, it all kind of comes together still. It's great stuff.

[Evan]

Yeah. And that ending of this song of Sweet Trinidad. Very Vampire Weekend.

[Ian]

Yeah, it's great.

[Evan]

Acapella. This song is the single banger, I think. It's so good.

[Ian]

Oh, fantastic. This is the other one. It's Jon Jones and Acapella for me are the big. The big ones for me. So good.

[Evan]

Yeah. Little baby would love this.

[Ian]

Alan Toussaint plays for a baby and.

[Evan]

They would love it.

[Van Dyke Parks]

There's music in the streets there's music everywhere A little old soul beat there's dancing everywhere I would tell the whole world, tell him if I could, to add a little song into each life. It's finger snapping. Good. More. Pardon me, but you could use it. You're going to make a little music. You got. So now, don't you lose it. We're going to make a little music. Everything's gone up now. People just a singing acapella. Everything's gone up.

[Ian]

People just are singing acapella. It's fantastic.

[Evan]

You're gonna need a little music. Great song. And then Sailing Shoes. This is a Lowell George song. Lowell George, of course, from Little Feet Feet Shoes. You ever think about that?

[Ian]

There's a lady in a turban By a cocaine tree she does that dance so rhythmically. She's laughing and singing and having a time and boy, that cocaine tree looks fine.

[Evan]

That'S a good bop. As is the next one, Riverboat. Is this also Alan Toussaint? Toussaint?

[Ian]

It might be.

[Evan]

Probably Riverboat.

[Ian]

Riverboat. Let's see. Yes, it is.

[Evan]

He's from New Orleans, so this has. I think that this is an attempt to tie it back to that, too, you know, another American songwriter, another American style that also has its connection to the. To the other music that he's already introduced. Like, he's tying it up, I think, with. With that by having the. A little bit of New Orleans also in the mix.

[Ian]

Yeah, sure. I mean, this song. This song is clearly a little bit more of, like a rock song. It's not a. It's not rock music necessarily, but, like, it has more standard, predictable type of verse, chorus, verse type of thing, and just kind of the beat and the melody to it is a little more in line.

[Evan]

It's groovy.

[Ian]

Yeah. But I think played in this context with these instruments, these players at this moment in time, like, it kind of all. It all becomes Van Dyke Park's music. And less so, like, this genre. This genre. This genre, you know, big wheels to.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Keep on turning at the fire Just to keep on burning Big ball just to keep on rocking Opportunity just keep on knocking Time dies trying to fly by.

[Evan]

Yeah. There's a version of this song by Lee Dorsey. All right. Which is also. I don't know what year that came out, but good, good stuff. Probably the early 60s. Ode to Tobago. Is this an original?

[Ian]

Nope. This is Lord Kitchener.

[Evan]

Oh, Lord Kitchener. Yeah. That's another great thing about Calypsonians. I mean, I just love that they're called Calypsonians. That's pretty good, that they all have cool names like Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener. And what's the other one? Lord Melody. And I think there's one named the Mighty Terror.

[Ian]

Well, and Lord Kitchener, I don't know you're aware or if the listeners are aware, but there actually was a Lord Kitchener. Horatio Kitchener was a British lord, you know, army guy who was responsible for some of the just most grotesque horrors of like 19th century, early 20th century British Empire shit. He was involved in like the Boer War down in South Africa. Just like, you know, grotesque brutality, like, you know, proto Holocaust type shit.

[Evan]

And so grab his name, throw it on there.

[Ian]

Well, I mean, that's what's funny about this, is that this Aldwin Roberts, you know, kitsch to his friends, you know, one of the great Calypsonians, just takes his name and is like, now I'm Lord Kitchener. I'm just this cool guy who makes cool music from Trinidad and Tobago. I'm not one of history's great villains, but I'm gonna take his name and put out these great songs under it.

[Evan]

Yeah, there's. It's worth noting that the other connection between Calypso and our usual. Our old subject, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan, he became famous for playing harmonica with Terry Belfonte, the King of Calypso.

[Ian]

I don't know if he became famous, but his first.

[Evan]

No kidding.

[Ian]

Yeah. Literally his first paid role was playing harmonica on a Belafonte record.

[Evan]

And also that whole issue is interesting. Actual Calypso. Calypso were like, what the fuck? When that record came out or when he started building himself or being billed as the King of Calypso because he had learned that music. I don't know if it was directly from who. I think Lord Melody, one of those guys was like, the songs that he was doing that Belafonte was doing were from directly from these guys who, like, in Calypso culture, there's like these basically like battles where they are competing to out Calypso each other. And it's competitive and intense. Like there's. There's actually like, of course, a genre that's so much about like local hero stuff, is very, very much about like these dueling personalities. So then he comes in there and some hotshot, as he explains it, as Belafonte explains it, he didn't really come up with this idea of being King of Calypso, but some record exec was like, okay, or you're the king of Calypso now. And. And he was very gracious later and saying, I don't think of myself that way. And I just wanted to share this music which he did. And he actually did make calypso music way more known in America. In North America, anyway. So that's another interesting little tidbit.

[Ian]

Makes sense. One of the most beautiful songs on the record, I would say. Ode to Tobago, musically speaking, you know, just a beautiful romance to this sound. A very dense arrangement, horns and weird percussion and backing vocals and Van Dyke's vocals. Lead vocals are like kind of like some sort of process on them, some sort of treatment to them where it almost sounds like he's singing from underwater. Like a xylophone or a vibraphone even. It's just. It's beautiful kind of soundscape. Horn, clarinets maybe.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

So much going on.

[Evan]

There's a jazzy sounds like sipping a cocktail under a palm tree.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Come follow me down to a tiny lamp Things to see, friends to meet, you would understand. Garland, get up, let us pack.

[Ian]

Come.

[Van Dyke Parks]

But the journey is a non stop. It's a date, sweetheart, don't be late Come. Let me go, let me go. Found my brother.

[Evan]

It's like a postcard. Like it actually has like. Like this thing is like, come Tobago for holiday.

[Ian]

There you go. It's an ode to Tobago.

[Evan]

Ingenious use of Tobago there. You don't have to say come to Tobago, come to Bago. The next song I think is the most. The next two, I think are pretty interesting inclusions. Like especially the next one is maybe the. The most.

[Ian]

Your own comes first.

[Evan]

Yeah, it's like a three.

[Ian]

Another Lord Kitchener number here.

[Evan]

This is where you can see the. The way that calypso music is, you know, about anything. It's often about political and social tensions or issues. And this one is about. Yeah, it's kind of like not unlike songs that Bob Dylan or Randy Newman would do. Definitely. Like folk songs that Bob Dylan or like Woody Guthrie would do that are kind of about these social turmoil. But it's got this ironic edge to it. Yeah, like this is a song about like. Well, we're not going to be the. The idiots. So we're gonna stop being friendly. Just take care of our own. Just like all the other places are doing. So we're not gonna be the laughingstock. But I interpreted it anyway as being kind of a more subtle commentary on that kind of mentality being unfortunate.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Hey, these songs are really lifting. If I talk again it could drive me mad. I try to talk to the people of Trinidad if I talk again it could set me mad. I'm tired of talking to the people of Trinidad. All kinds of people coming, doing well, you're the Trinidadian Sony catching hell how many times do you warm up it all? Your own comes first all over the world if you think I lie I invite you please just take a trip through the West Indies make your first stop at Green it Out Tell them that you come to live for labor if you're missing say you're from Trinidad Nick, you're from Grenada down to fights are bad but you can't blame them on a hole my friends that's the policy of the world so Grenadians for Jamaicans yeah, Jamaicans for Jamaicans Even boy take the same route well, are you really looking for blows? If you think you're going anchor in Barbados the Beijing's gonna tell you you're bloomin fast don't you know Bajan's first.

[Evan]

And outsiders last A lot of these songs are about. A lot of calypso songs are about the influence of a Yankees on Caribbean life and traditional life. There's like a song like Father, the mother and the daughter all working for the Yankee dollar. These songs that are kind of like very jovial sounding, but definitely about like this sort of crumbling of traditional ways of life. And I think this song is in that vein. And then of course, Van Dyke is keen on that and adding his own commentary by way of covering.

[Ian]

He likes to have fun. He's like that. What's that? The little green guy in Flintstones.

[Evan]

Kazuki.

[Ian]

Know what I'm talking about? Yes. He's kind of got. He's giving Kazoo. Mandy Parks is giving Kazoo.

[Evan]

Is actually. Is he from the. He's like the one who joins the Flintstones and Jetsons universes? He exists in both.

[Ian]

That's right. Yeah. Isn't he like an alien?

[Evan]

He's an alien.

[Ian]

A time traveler or something like that.

[Evan]

He just kind of pops into various times and realities.

[Ian]

The Great Gazoo.

[Evan]

Is it Gazoo?

[Ian]

It's Gazoo, yes.

[Evan]

I'm having the mancala effect about that. I thought it was Kazoo.

[Ian]

The Great Ghazoo is a tiny green floating scientist who was exiled to Earth from his home planet for inventing a doomsday device.

[Evan]

Tiny green floating floating scientist Gazoo was.

[Ian]

Discovered by Fred and Barney Rubble when his. Fred Flintstone and Barney rebel. When his flying saucer crashed. Gazoo recognizes Fred and Barney's world as prehistoric Earth, you know, and so on.

[Evan]

Well, yeah. Van Dyke Parks is a tiny, white floating musicologist. And he pops in to this scenario, the Great. And covers Lord Kitchener.

[Ian]

Perfect.

[Evan]

Then we have G Man, Hoover, Rat, A Tat. Tat Yeah.

[Ian]

This is great. I love this G Man Hoover. This is like Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner to me.

[Evan]

Yeah, yeah, it's. This is maybe like a. It's a contrast to those other songs to, like, the FDR one. The way that calypso music can just, like, it can do a song that sort of praising a local hero. This one's kind of razzing someone.

[Ian]

Yeah, yeah. It's certainly not praising J. Edgar Hoover.

[Evan]

It's just riffing on it.

[Ian]

Founder of the FBI. Yeah, it's riffing, exactly. It's also not razzing so much to me. It's kind of just like, this guy is crazy. I'm gonna write a song about this.

[Evan]

Yeah. It's like all this stuff around this guy, all just crazy. So. Yeah. Worth writing a song about.

[Van Dyke Parks]

Go rap. Criminals come but they have one way to go Gangsters are dumb for by now they ought to know Stick with care or they gang you over there but bring them to the electric chair A, B, C, D, E, F, G, G man, G man Hoover.

[Ian]

G man, G man. This is an earworm to me. You know, I'm just. I've been stalking around just like, whispering, G man, G man.

[Evan]

Oh, man, that would scare me if I came up to you in a dark alley doing that rat tat. Very razzle dazzle. Like Michigan J Frog.

[Ian]

Like, I can picture another green cartoon, small cartoon character.

[Evan]

Yeah. Who, like, defies time and space.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Evan]

Michigan J Frog, of course, as everyone knows, is indestructible and kind of like a curse that you encounter him. He also makes everyone think that you're insane because he'll never sing for anyone else but you.

[Ian]

But anyway, all the antique cartoon heads are eating on this episode. Between the. It was Mr. Toad was the first one. Then we had the Great Gazoo. Now we have Michigan J Frog. Let's get some Felix the Cat in here. Some Betty Boop. Maybe Popeye Bluto.

[Evan]

You know, I bet there's songs about all of those people.

[Ian]

Actually, literally, this all makes sense because Van Dyke Parks did the music for the Altman. Popeye.

[Evan]

No, that's Nilsen.

[Ian]

Oh, Nilsen did it. That's right.

[Evan]

But one degree removed. I mean, yes, pals. Not even. They both played the same song by Randy Newman.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Evan]

Anyway, yeah, I just love this stuff. Like, I love calypso music. It's endlessly entertaining because it's songs meant to just be entertainment unto themselves. Like, these are a type of song that. They only exist because it's fun to do them because it's like just riffing on stuff that happens and having opinions. There's something that they say in that documentary which is like you go into a. A tent where there's 20 Calypsonians and you say, do a song about the President and you'll get 20 different songs with 20 different opinions on the President. And that's the great thing about this, this genre.

[Ian]

That's right. It's just. There's a. There's a joy to this music, I think, you know. And you know, there's a lot of joy to a lot of musics, but this one in particular I think just is so playful and like light hearted, you know, in a sense. But at the same time, like, it's not. It's not frivolous either. You know, there's a way for it to be light hearted and joyous and at the same time artistic and intellectual and interesting. You know, it's a very unique kind of flavor that I have not been familiar with up until this point. But I think that really speaks to the power of a record like this is now I am. It's great.

[Evan]

It can be frivolous too though, which is what is so fun. It's like one song will be frivolous and the other one will have some kind of pointed opinion buried in there too about whatever it's talking about. Then the next one will be a reverse. It's everything.

[Ian]

Yeah, it's a little bit like folk music to me in many ways. Or like, you know, think of a record like Self Portrait, you know, where it's got some of the most beautiful songs Bob Dylan has ever recorded or written. You know, Wigwam or Copper Kettle or All the Tired Horses. Not all of those are original Bob Dylan compositions. But there's also like four songs about Little Sadie, you know, and like kind of the combination of all that or the way it all kind of congeals together and like they are like oil and vinegar. They are separate, but at the same time they're on the same plate, you know. That to me is. Is. Is what's so great about it.

[Evan]

Yeah, there's a. An abundance mindset to it. It's just like the world is just there to be made into calypso songs. And the, the thing that does make it different from folk music broadly or the blues or any of these other big musical or even today, like the comparison you could make to rap or hip hop stuff where it's like, well, yeah, there is stuff within those genres that is humorous, but also saying something potent about whatever it's about, or it's just frivolous or like. Yeah, it can be all those things in those genres. But calypso music always seems to have that kind of light touch that's part of what it is. It's always like that. In the same way the blues has certain things that are kind of always essentially blues that are there. And it's cathartic in the way that it. That it is about how things are tough. The. The way that calypso music works is kind of like. Like laughing at everything. It's like. It's music that starts from the point of, like, you have to laugh. And these days that feels very right. We come to the last song on the record.

[Ian]

We get a little John Philip Sousa in here at the end.

[Evan]

Perfect ending.

[Ian]

59 seconds of stars and Stripes Forever on the steel drum. It's great. Come on. Perfect.

[Evan]

Yeah. Three stars for three stars. Discover America.

[Ian]

For Discover America, I agree. Fantastic record, fantastic vibe, fantastic spirit. Great work from Van Dyke Parks. And I will just say, in doing a little bit of the reading that I have done on this record does seem to have been very favorably received at the time, Even though, again, this one did not sell a whole lot, shockingly. But over time, I think one of the comments that was being made about the record back then and has been made about it up until more recently, there's a Pitchfork review, generally positive review of this record from pitchfork from about 10 years ago. But it's like some sort of outsider, ironic, art rock commentary type piece. And I think I understand why someone would think that, certainly just looking at it on a surface level. But to me, I don't really detect any sort of irony, conceptuality to any of this, really. And maybe it's just my read onto things versus someone else's read onto things. But on a very basic level, this literally just seems like Van Dyke Parks knows this music. He loves this music. He wants to play this music. He wants to bring this music to people, you know, out in the world. And, like, it does not need to be more complicated than that. Calypso is not just a Caribbean thing.

[Van Dyke Parks]

You know, it is a Caribbean music, but it's not ours to own.

[Ian]

Music is to be shared for the world.

[Evan]

Ra.