Orange Crate Art

Amazon.com
Here is a view of the Golden State through rose-colored glasses that's as effervescent and intoxicating as pink champagne. Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks trade the roles they occupied nearly three decades ago when they collaborated on songs for the Beach Boys' great lost album, Smile. Orange Crate Art was conceived and overseen by Parks, who brought his old boss Wilson aboard chiefly to give voice to Parks's wistful song cycle. Given that much of the album is set in California, who better than favorite son Wilson to sing these songs? But while Wilson's voice initially evokes images of hot rods and surfboards, here he sings of locomotives and steamboats. Parks's California is a state of mind where time is ephemeral. We're brought to a bucolic yesteryear unmarred by violence and poverty. Orange Crate Art is set in "a world apart." A "hobo heart" is carefree rather than desperate. Time is something to be held back. "Everybody must come home" to a town that shuts down by 8 in the evening because "everybody's got things to do." When all is said and done, there's nothing left but doze off to Parks's pop symphonic arrangement of George Gershwin's "Lullaby." --Steven Stolder

Orange Crate Art,Brian Wilson,Van Dyke Parks,Warner Bros / Wea,Pop,Popular Music,Rock,Rock/Pop

Average customer rating:

A beautifully happy record...
The Songs Remain The Same
Brian and Van Dyke WOW!
The bottom line here is the music
An Overlooked Gem!

Orange Crate Art
Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Baroque Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000002MN2
Release Date: 1995-11-14

Tracks:

Orange Crate Art
Sail Away
My Hobo Heart
Wings Of A Dove
Palm Tree And Moon
Summer In Monterey
San Francisco
Hold Back Time
My Jeanie
Movies Is Magic
This Town Goes Down At Sunset
Lullaby

Amazon.com

Here is a view of the Golden State through rose-colored glasses that's as effervescent and intoxicating as pink champagne. Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks trade the roles they occupied nearly three decades ago when they collaborated on songs for the Beach Boys' great lost album, Smile. Orange Crate Art was conceived and overseen by Parks, who brought his old boss Wilson aboard chiefly to give voice to Parks's wistful song cycle. Given that much of the album is set in California, who better than favorite son Wilson to sing these songs? But while Wilson's voice initially evokes images of hot rods and surfboards, here he sings of locomotives and steamboats. Parks's California is a state of mind where time is ephemeral. We're brought to a bucolic yesteryear unmarred by violence and poverty. Orange Crate Art is set in "a world apart." A "hobo heart" is carefree rather than desperate. Time is something to be held back. "Everybody must come home" to a town that shuts down by 8 in the evening because "everybody's got things to do." When all is said and done, there's nothing left but doze off to Parks's pop symphonic arrangement of George Gershwin's "Lullaby." --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

A beautifully happy record..........2006-11-30

I bought this album right when it came out in 1995 after experiencing a rather disastrous 1994, in many ways. I couldn't get it out of my CD player for months. My kids, who were 5 & 2 at the time, memorized the lyrics and loved the album as much as I did. It just made me feel good. I emailed Van Dyke Parks several years later to express my bewilderment that the album wasn't held in higher regard and was surprised to get a personal response. He said that he too had used this music to get through hard times and said that just maybe that was the highest and best use of music after all. A simply wonderful album.

The Songs Remain The Same.......2005-09-14

Is this a reunion of sorts, from fragments of their late 60s achievements? For Van Dyke Parkes, the move is the most cohesive and satisfying since his earliest solo outings:'Song Cycle' through to 'Yankee Reaper'. Not being a Wilson watcher, I haven't a clue what Brian was up to in the interim, though his absorbing bio-pic,'Not Made For Times Like These', would suggest not a lot, musically. So affiocandos of these talents would welcome, even rejoice in this bouyant, healthy-sounding collection. There's no earth-shattering additions to their respective palettes. One might conclude that while there's a familiar choir-boy ring to these reflective, often, banal lyrics interests, those are the very grooves that won them popular respect. Highlights include the title track, opening the set,'Wings of a Dove','Sail Away'(with intents light years removed from fellow Californian, Randy Newman's song) and 'Movies Is Magic' which really sums up the album. It's all escapist stuff. The prettiest of melodies, sumptuous strings and keyboards. The topic remains Californian Dreaming and its Hollywood mouthpiece. Absolutely no dark precipices here. Surf's up, the sodas are sweet and the song remains the same.

Brian and Van Dyke WOW!.......2005-07-29

Love them both. Brian does a great job putting layer upon layer of vocals on this album.

The bottom line here is the music.......2005-07-12

Some music can encapsulate the stress and strain of being alive and thus provide a catalyst for tears. In this case the catalyst for tears is provided but the tears are tears of joy.

Van Dyke Parks provides the idiosyncratic, heartfelt, positive songs about a California long gone and Brian Wilson provides the sincere vocals. How Van Dyke actually got Brian to sing these melodic but harmonically complex songs is amazing in itself considering Brian's voice has been ravaged by time. That curiosity alone is worth the purchase of this masterpiece.

The CD booklet art is beautiful and perfectly paints the picture of these vibrantly orchestrated songs. Songs that were obviously written for the love of writing songs. I doubt Van Dyke Parks and his crew ever considered whether this CD would be a hit. Who cares? This is art. And it is realized in a most honest way here.

An Americana oddity well worth having in any CD collection.

An Overlooked Gem!.......2005-03-13

With all the recent praise heaped on Smile, Orange Crate Art still remains largely under-recognized and under-appreciated. Sure, Smile was supposed to be this grand Copelandesque landscape of America, from Plymouth Rock to The Grand Cooley Dam. But for my money Brian and Van Dyke Parks did it so much better with Orange Crate Art. Having written, what everyone unanimously agrees to be the most California of all anthems, Fun Fun Fun, I Get Around and California Girls, Brian turns his attention to a California not of Hot Rods and Surf, but of sun drenched valleys rich with citrus and vine. Here Wilson and Parks celebrate and pay homage to the likes of Jack London and John Steinbeck. And if all this were not enough, we're treated to My Hobo Heart, a latter day Van Dyke Parks / Michael Hazelwood masterpiece. There's also the lovely Palm Tree & Moon, a dreamy little ode to a moonlit beach, territory not unfamiliar to Brian. And Summer In Monteray is so unabashedly nostalgic it would even make Clint Eastwood Blush. If you haven't become familiar with this so very underated collection yet, you really can't call yourself a Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks fan until you give this one a fair shot. You might even find yourself humming Sail Away or Hold Back Time while in the shower. I know I did.

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