“I’ve spent over five decades reinventing the song form in an Odyssean tunesmith’s journey, with songs that are a spinal tap of Americana and that illustrate the potentials of the form as a cultural and socio-political force. This book reveals my trajectory and I’m very grateful for it. Beyond words at last.”
—Van Dyke Parks

“Dale Carter does fans of American music, literature, and history the immense favor of bringing the sometimes inscrutable but always intriguing Van Dyke Parks out of the formidable shadow of Brian Wilson’s legendary SMILE pop symphony and into the full sunshine of his own inimitable talents. At once a revered arranger, cantankerous raconteur, and a living, breathing encyclopedia of all-things Americana, Parks has had a career like none other in pop music, but his own eclectic discography, from Song Cycle (1968) to Songs Cycled (2013), is overshadowed by his contributions to others’ careers. The Songs of Van Dyke Parks makes the case that from L.A. psychedelia to Caribbean cabaret, Southern folk, and Tin Pan Alley paeans, Parks has always been a paradoxical figure: at once an archivist of American sounds and myths and a true original.”
—Kirk Curnutt, author of Popular Music and American Literary Culture