The Welcome folks to our first episode of 2014. This is Simon and Brian two of Life's Maras, wishing a happy new year to you all and hoping your festive season and

Hogmanay celebrations were as pleasurable as could be.

To usher in the soda jerky New Year we have an interview with one of the music

world's true individualists. He's a songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and multi-instrumentalist

of tremendous distinction with a sumptuous body of work comprised not only

of his own impressive projects but also his many noteworthy contributions to the music of other

artists he's perhaps best known to most of you for his brief but fruitful association with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys,

but that's merely the tip of the iceberg.

Today we welcome the quite delightful Van Dyke Parks.

You're in for a treat people.

Van Dyke is a brilliant talent, not to mention an almost probably thoughtful and eloquent man who

expresses himself like no other artist we've ever encountered, so we're pleased as punch that he's agreed to be on our show.

Personally I'm hoping to absorb some of his verbosity by osmosis.

Judging by that last sentence you won't need much help in that department.

If we may we'd like to offer some background on our

guest before we subject them to our customary grilling. Van Dyke Parks was born

in 1943 in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana. He was by all accounts a gifted child. He took up the clarinet

aged 4 and later on aged 10 while at boarding school in nearby New Jersey became a boy

soprano in the New York Metropolitan Opera.

It was also around this time that he embarked on a career as a child actor

appearing in a number of TV shows and films, notably enjoying some screen time

alongside the luminous Grace Kelly in the film The Swan in

...