Van Dyke Parks 'Song Cycle' Edsel Records ED 207 A1/B1 UK reissue 1986

	£		25
	$		33

Van Dyke Parks 'Song Cycle' Edsel Records ED 207  UK reissue Vinyl, LP, reissued in 1986.
The vinyl appears to have been lightly played and is in great shape. It played through beautifully on my stereo - no stick or skip. The sleeve is also in lovely condition, with minimal signs of wear - no rips or writing. The spine is intact and legible. Matrix / Runout  Side One : ED-207-A-1 PORKY PRIME CUT. Matrix / Runout  Side Two : ED-207-B-1
'Song Cycle' is the debut album by the American recording artist Van Dyke Parks, first released in November 1967 by Warner Bros. Records. Named after the 19th-century classical format, it is an autobiographical concept album centred on Hollywood and southern California in an orchestral pop style, combining elements of Tin Pan Alley song-writing, bluegrass, ragtime, and musique concrète. Its lyrics follow his usual style of free-associative wordplay while traversing subjects ranging from war and artistic struggle to societal disparity.
Granted unprecedented creative control and funding for an unproven artist, Parks wrote 'Song Cycle' during a label-sponsored retreat to Palm Desert, California following collaborations with Brian Wilson (Smile), Harpers Bizarre, and the Mojo Men. Recorded over seven months at Hollywood studios such as Sunset Sound Recorders, the sessions were produced by Lenny Waronker, engineered by Lee Herschberg and Doug Botnick, and mixed by Bruce Botnick. Over 50 session musicians contributed, including members of the Wrecking Crew. The production involved prominent use of stereo panning techniques, Leslie-processed vocals, studio manipulation, sampling, unconventional instruments, and layered textures. Provisionally titled Looney Tunes, Parks characterized his approach as embodying a "cartoon consciousness".
'Song Cycle' was one of the most expensive albums ever produced, costing approximately $80,000 (equivalent to $770,000 in 2025). On its release, it elicited positive reviews from critics amid confusion from retailers, radio programmers, and the label's marketing staff. To address poor sales, the company, without consulting Parks, launched an unconventional ad campaign declaring the album a commercial flop. Parks and Waronker subsequently produced Randy Newman's 1968 self-titled debut. After recouping from the production costs of 'Song Cycle', Warner issued Parks' follow-up 'Discover America' in 1972.
In his 2010-published '33⅓' book covering the album, Richard Henderson writes that the album's legacy has been largely eclipsed by that of the Beach Boys' unfinished 'Smile' album, leading many "to conclude that Song Cycle was little more than ... a pale simulation of the glory that might have been SMiLE." Beach Boys biographer Peter Ames Carlin viewed the album as a challenging listening experience: "I found it inscrutable and—how can I put this?—an experience that was something other than fun. ... I like eccentric art. But Song Cycle threw me off time after time." Barney Hoskyns decreed that 'Song Cycle' marked the zenith of "baroque and kaleidoscopic" pop music in the 1960s, advancing "the experimentation of Smile into a completely new sphere of intellectual brilliance". In 2017, 'Song Cycle' was ranked 93 on Pitchfork's list of the finest albums of the 1960s.
AllMusic reviewer Jason Ankeny described 'Song Cycle' as an ambitious fusion of orchestral and classical influences within a pop framework. He afforded attention to its thematic cohesion and incorporation of diverse American musical styles—including bluegrass, ragtime, and show tunes—and characterized the "one-of-a-kind" album as a collision of historical genres with 1960s progressive sensibilities, though "occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy". Pitchfork contributor Mike Powell, writing in a 2012 editorial, felt the album's "fussy" arrangements were its most striking quality, coupled with its "defiantly pre-rock" musical heritage: "40s lounge, big-budget film scores, early American folksong, music for bright drinks with umbrellas in them."
Reviewing its 2012 Bella Union reissue, Pitchfork's Jayson Greene challenged the prevailing view that 'Song Cycle' is "impenetrable", arguing that its accessibility depends on listeners' expectations: approaching it as a conventional singer-songwriter record would be disorienting, whereas embracing its surreal, historical pastiche—comparable to "a midnight stroll through a Civil War memorabilia museum" animated into song—reveals its idiosyncratic appeal. He recognized Parks' "peculiar" vocal delivery as "dripping with ill will", framing him as a "wise-guy pipsqueak" critiquing the grandeur he orchestrates. The lyrics' themes of artistic struggle and societal disparity, paired with Parks' ambivalence toward beauty and refinement, imbue the work with a "melancholy depth", according to Greene, who viewed this tension as central to the album's appeal.
The album's release preceded self-titled solo debuts by Newman and Ry Cooder, both co-produced by Parks and Waronker. According to Henderson, although Parks' orchestral approach contrasted with contemporaries like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, these works—alongside Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks' - collectively influenced the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s. Brian Eno identified 'Song Cycle' as an example of a commercially failing album that appealed exclusively to other musicians, echoing a similar well-circulated remark he had made about The Velvet Underground & Nico having inspired all its record buyers to form their own bands. Henderson adds that 'Song Cycle' galvanized "many others" to consider the studio as a compositional tool alongside "the potential of a record's production to suggest scenery and location" to an effect similar to Eno's work.