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Podcasts Off-Ramp
Van Dyke Parks on new album, 'Songs Cycled' and South Pasadena's 125th Anniversary
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
Feb 15, 2013
Listen • 8:06
Van Dyke Parks on new album, 'Songs Cycled' and South Pasadena's 125th Anniversary
Parks will celebrate the city of South Pasadena's 125th anniversary with a performance at the city's library. He talks performance, politics, and his new album.
Van Dyke Parks in front of South Pasadena's library
Van Dyke Parks in front of South Pasadena's library
(
Kevin Ferguson/KPCC
)

Parks will celebrate the city of South Pasadena's 125th anniversary with a performance at the city's library. He talks performance, politics, and his new album.

Van Dyke Parks is the lyricist behind the Beach Boys' Smile, the producer and arranger for Phil Ochs, Joanna Newsom and Rufus Wainwright and the creator of albums like Song Cycle and Discover America. For the first time in decades, Parks has a new album--12 tracks first released on 7" singles and are now in one CD, Songs Cycled, to be released this Spring.

But before that--on Wednesday, February 27--Van Dyke Parks will celebrate the city of South Pasadena's 125th anniversary with a performance at the city's library. Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson talked with Parks about the performance, politics, and the new album.