Recollections Of Van Dyke Parks
by Steve Young
July 17, 1997
I first met Van Dyke Parks in 1963. He was living in an upstairs apartment over some kind of business place in a building on Melrose Ave. near La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles. I was 21 years old and had recently arrived to the amazing new world of California from Alabama. I had come to California to record with a folk duo called Richard and Jim. They were from Alabama too. They knew Van Dyke and introduced me.
Van Dyke was immediately interested in my music and guitar playing. He was very curious about it and the roots of it. I remember he seemed to immerse himself in it, as if to absorb something from it, to learn something from it. But I couldn't imagine him learning from me as he seemed so complex and knowledgeable. He was classically trained and seemed to me to be way above my head. I had never met anyone like him before. And, much to my surprise, he was a Southerner. Born in Mississippi. Much of the time I didn't know what he was talking about. He had a swift and complex way of speaking and joking. A mercurial way about him.
Van Dyke was in the Greenwood County Singers with his brother Carson. It was kind of a New Christy Minstrels type thing. He and Carson were very different and I got a sense of the friction and comedy of this. I got a sense that Van Dyke was biding his time and longing for some musical expression more true to himself.
Van Dyke and I were very different too, in fact he was different from anyone. In a land of characters, he was unique. Since then I have traveled the world and met my share of unique individuals and he is still at the top of the list.
After this first meeting, things are a bit more hazy for me. I was a heavy drinker and a complete sort of "bohemian" who lived only for the day. This was the 60's and all kind of drugs were floating around and it seemed everybody was doing them. Not just to get high, but to explore new things. In a way..."to go where no man has gone before." At least there was that air about it. It was somewhat true, at least that was the intention of much of it. I loved just good old booze too. I remember some of the people of the day looked down on alcohol, they just did marijuana and psychedelics. I say all this to explain that things are really blurred together in a way.
Things came and went and changed around and Van Dyke and I became closer friends and involved in some music groups together and I hung out at his apartment a lot. In fact his apartment was a kind of "courtyard". A gathering place for all kinds of talented and crazy people. There was that kind of atmosphere. At times seeming like an "open forum" of people and ideas. I could not tell you the names of most of the people who came through there, but there were many and from all sorts of angles. And Van Dyke was again (I suspect) absorbing ideas and learning and bouncing all kinds of philosophical stuff around as well as having fun in the sense of the camaraderie and wit and adventure of it all. Now Van Dyke is a very kind and gentle soul, but in those days he could use that mercurial wit to cut...like a fencing master with his sword. He was somewhat known and feared for this. I don't think anyone could really keep up with him. But the main reason people cam back and gathered around was the warmth, good humored wit and charm of the man. It was perhaps a bit like a comforting campfire in the wild and uncertain land of creative youth on the edge in the ever shifting new dimension of California in the 60's.
This went on for years. Some of the people that came through that I remember are Mama Cass Elliot and Tim Hardin (who always seemed to cause trouble).
Once we formed a group with Stephen Stills and I remember we did one gig together. We went to Arizona and opened a show for "The Loving' Spoonful." I also remember having a fine hotel room and room service and a grand night or two and then suddenly I was aback in the poverty of my east Hollywood apartment. It was quite a shock. Van Dyke and I had a big laugh about that.
There were different configurations of music groups. Van Dyke was the brains behind all these various groupings. I remember a time when several different record labels wanted to sign us. I guess we had done some sort of demos. I think the main reason they wanted to sign us was Van Dyke. It would seem that almost all the labels wanted to "capture" him, but he just wouldn't be captured.
Now, we were in real poverty and these people were offering advances which seemed big to me. I remember one time they gave me a check and if I cashed that check, it was like signing and agreeing to the terms the record companies lawyers had drawn up without benefit of our own lawyer. Van Dyke talked me out of it. I had wanted to cash the check and worry about the contract later, or somehow try to beat the record company.
It started to seem to me that Van Dyke would never sign a contract and I got disgusted and angry and decided to go back to the south. I went back to Alabama. I found the going there very rough. By now California had gotten into my blood and I didn't like being back in the south but I was stuck there like it or not. I had not spoken to Van Dyke since leaving California. One day an airline ticket to L.A. arrived in the mail. It was from Van Dyke. I think there was a short note that said something about how he had made some money and just thought I should have this ticket in case I wanted it. Maybe he encouraged me to return. I don't remember, but it was a generous thing for him to do in those times and circumstances. So, I did go back and we renewed our friendship, and tried some other things. Did some demos and other projects. We remained in contact through the '60s and up to the early '70s. I then moved to the San Francisco area and later to Nashville. I spent many years in Nashville and during that time I would hear from Van Dyke once in a while. But, of course, long periods of time would pass without us communicating. We were each on our separate journeys in different worlds, so to speak, and there was no reason to think we would ever be that connected again.
Though I didn't have much contact with Van Dyke I never forgot about him. He is not someone you forget. I never really liked Nashville and in the back of my mind I could never take it seriously because I was always sort of comparing it to the wild, exotic, and grand scale of California. Van Dyke was (and is) a big part of my California experience. Even though it was long ago, (1963) When I first arrived in California, it is still a fresh event in my consciousness. Perhaps it will be forever green, and I think my friendship with Van Dyke will also be forever green too,...and in a very real way, "forever young."
I remember once, sometime in the 80's. Van Dyke came to visit his brother Carson who had moved to Nashville. Though it had been many years since I had seen him it was just like old times in a way. Perhaps seeing Van Dyke again was one of the events that begin to put the thought in my mind of returning to California (or at least somewhere other than Nashville). I'm not really sure but by 1989 I just couldn't take Nashville and more. I decided to move back to Los Angeles. Everybody thought I was crazy (including me). Many people had left Los Angeles to come to Nashville and were singing it praises. I was probably the only one going the opposite way.
Through Van Dyke I found a little cabin like house on Melrose Hill Court, a quaint little street in no mans land in East Hollywood and 2 blocks from where Van Dyke his wife Sally, and children Richard and Elizabeth lived. So, we really renewed our friendship in a more active way and perhaps deeper way. And I got to develop a delightful relationship with his family as well. I was invited often for dinner and Thanksgivings and so on.
A lot of time had passed and yet the more things change the more they stay the same. Van Dyke had grown into a more earthed and domestic version of himself. I think during this time I came to appreciate his friendship in a way that I could not do when I was young. He was amazed that I was back in California and living around the corner from him. Now I realize he is even more unique than I thought. He is a rare man of real integrity, courage and honesty. He may look like a little frail guy but he is a very tough and strong individual.
One night I went over to the Parks household and there was a taxi in front of the house. The driver was sitting there with the meter running. It turned out that some fellows from Japan were traveling through and had a lay over at the LA airport and had wanted to see Van Dyke so they hired a cab and went to his house! When I got there Van Dyke took me aside and asked if I could help figure out what it was they wanted. I am fascinated by the east and eastern thought and thought maybe I could understand it but all I could come up with was that they wanted to show their respect.
Not so long ago Van Dyke played on an album I was doing for about nothing cause he knew the budget was low. He did a demo for me and even backed me up on accordion at a terrible coffee house gig in Hollywood. J.C. Crowley played on the gig too. Those whipper snapper kids in the audience that night had no idea of who they were seeing!!!
And so time flows on but the friendship remains, and I still go visit Van Dyke and Sally (and the kids if they're there) from time to time and its always an adventure because Van Dyke is ever the circus master directly engaged in life,... cooking,... directing kids,... writing music,... planting,... philosophizing,... being a loyal friend,... loving his immediate family a larger extended family and somehow surviving, thriving, and doing all the things he does.
Like a Zen master I know of he likes to feed people and is a good cook.
I see him as one who understands kindness as a sort of wealth,... or sort of power. It takes courage to be like that today. Very rare in this current version of the world.
Very rare indeed!