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Credit: J-Ham2000
Van Dyke Parks on the songwriter more deserving of the “genius” tag than Brian Wilson
George Martin, the producer, famously dubbed ‘The Fifth Beatle’, shunned the Fab Four when he vouched: “If there is one person I have to select as a living genius of pop music, I would choose Brian Wilson”. It’s extraordinary praise from a man who knew more about pop music and the ways of the craft than just about anyone else.
However, his Beach Boys counterpart was Van Dyke Parks, and the legendary musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer had a slightly different opinion on the venerated Wilson. And this slight divergence on the part of the puppet masters behind counterculture’s opposing forces is almost an interwoven tale akin to a rock ‘n’ roll fable.
Aside from the music innovation that Wilson pioneered, the famed “Brian Wilson is a genius” tag came from the man who helped launch The Beatles. Derek Taylor had been a press officer for the Fab Four, and he helped to whip up Beatlemania. This directly impacted Parks himself, as he once said, “I lived under a billboard that said, ‘The Beatles is coming’, and I got the sense that it was a plague, and that it was going to have cultural implication throughout the world”.
This was a plague that Parks wanted to be part of and uphold the American side of things. Thus, he shunned the old folk stylings he knew, learnt the piano, and started rubbing shoulders with the Beach Boys. Therein, he would revere his collaborator, Wilson, as a great, stating: “[Brian Wilson] was the force. Real convincing. He made music that could be enjoyed beyond its time”. Adding: “Brian Wilson was not imitative, he was inventive; for people who don’t write songs, it’s hard to understand how inventive he really was”.
However, genius is a strong word and having worked with the likes of Randy Newman, Joanna Newsom, Ry Cooder and more; Parks has been able to purvey the majesty of several masters. He concludes that Wilson may be magical, but “genius” is merely the product of an ad campaign. The songwriter he thinks warrants such lauded praise is, in fact, Harry Nilsson.
Speaking with Pitchfork, Parks recently recalled: “In 1977, I was interested in the retro-sensibility of Harry Nilsson. My life basically gravitated toward that guy, who was truly a genius– the smartest guy I ever met in the music business. He turned my head around because he could be retro without shame. He followed his own nose without any sense of apology, reserving even the right to be wrong because he knew that it was necessary to keep that right to reach any height. We worked hard when we were around Harry”.
Parks would help Nilsson craft the album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, and he was walloped by the casual ingenuity of the man who could craft colourful masterpieces on a whim and extoll them in style just as easily. As he happily recalled: “I spent a weekend with Harry and John Lennon, who was a great man. I mean that as a fella; he was a nice person. I have a great satisfaction that I did not offend John Lennon. I was so happy that I got invited into their company and spent a foolish weekend together”.
Foolishness is something that actually both made Nilsson’s style soar and occasionally hindered it. He seemingly found the craft so easy that his songs are brimming with the beauty of an artist skipping along the song sheet and encapsulating the comedy of life. However, there are also moments when focus wanders, and the star is left disillusioned. Nevertheless, Nilsson remains a star befitting of Parks’ lauded praise beyond the clutches of a marketing campaign.
