Parks has been critical of the flower power movement , which occurred toward the end of the decade , saying " Rock became a corporate classification , just like the blues . They took off its sexual organs . Some people got paid a lot of money to bottle the rebellion of the '60s , and that 's when it started to mean zero to me . " He added , " To me , 1969 really suggested the death knell of the counter-culture revolution . The terrible event of Charles Manson showed the cultism of the period ; I was always wary of crowds . I did n't go to Woodstock . I did n't want to be in a mudflat waiting to get into a portable toilet . I thought it was a terrible idea . So I stayed at my office at Warner Bros. … I do n't even know what happened around then , for many reasons . One is I was working so hard and was too busy to really get totally turned around by what other people were doing . " The aftermath of his work on '' Smile '' and '' Song Cycle '' left Parks wanting to focus more behind-the-scenes and with lesser-known artists , such as Randy Newman and Ry Cooder , and expressed discontent with being " typecast " by his songs . The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill was also life-altering for Parks and changed his " very reason for being " . Sometime after , he met the Esso Trinidad Steel Band , a Trinidadian calypso band who had been performing with Liberace in Las Vegas . According to Parks , " I saw them as enslaved in their relationship to Liberace ; I thought it was a vulgarity . I wanted to save them from their trivialization . " What had begun as Parks 's desire to popularize calypso at that point became his focal point , and he would work with the steel band the next several years . Speaking about his life then , Parks stated , " My favorite group was the Esso Trinidad Steel Band , whom I worked with . I loved calypso all my life . I knew every Trinidadian in Hermosa Beach back then , there were probably about 20 families . Now there 's a huge population . " During the late 1960s , Parks became one of the first owners of a prototype Moog synthesizer and recorded a number of experimental advertising jingles for various companies such as Datsun and the Ice Capades . Parks plays the Moog on the Biff Rose song " Ai n't No Great Day " , from Rose 's second LP , '' Children of Light '' . Parks was also instrumental in the genesis of the 1970 album '' In a Wild Sanctuary '' , by the electronic outfit Beaver & Krause . While having lunch with the duo , Parks suggested that they record an ecological concept album through the use of field recordings and synthesizers . Parks and Randy Newman helped the duo get signed to the Warner Bros. label
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
Van Dyke Parks