While Weezer plays for students on the South Oval Friday on night, the Wexner Center will host one of pop music’s most influential names.

Van Dyke Parks’ name might have never been prominent on the Billboard charts, but he draws respect from many who have been.

Parks most notably was commissioned by Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson to write the lyrics for the now-legendary “lost” album “Smile.” He also produced Randy Newman’s debut album, arranged most of the orchestration on Joanna Newsom’s acclaimed 2006 album “Ys” and has worked with producer Danger Mouse. As a representative at Warner Brothers Records, he would help pioneer the idea of videos accompanying music.

Parks’ work as a collaborator has garnered more attention than his solo projects, even though his album “Song Cycle” drew references as album of the year from critics in 1968. Despite the rave reviews, “Song Cycle” was a commercial disappointment. Parks said that being known mainly as a collaborator has never bothered him.

“That’s to say it isn’t my work. ‘Smile’ isn’t like anything else that Brian Wilson did,” he said. “That’s the same for any project that’s contaminated by my presence.”

And, regardless of whether the listening public knows his name, he’s been around.

“I’ve had a wonderful time. I wrote lyrics for Ringo Starr, I was in a movie with Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan as a trio, I’ve headlined Europe’s largest music festival,” Parks said, listing things he has done in the last year alone. “And that’s enough. I don’t need to be clapped at. I just need to do my work.”

Parks said his work is not built around writing music just as entertainment but to gather attention to issues he finds important. Parks said topics that interest him include, most notably, oil consumption and his objection to war and fundamentalism.

“A song can be a political force,” he said. “Sure, my lyrics are ambitious. I try to hit on things. But in the most companionable way.”

Parks says he aims primarily at young people with his messages. When asked if he was concerned that the bulk of his work is orchestral in nature, a style that is widely avoided in modern popular music, Parks said he aimed for creativity and an enduring value in his work, not popularity.  

“I don’t think anything creative can be achieved when a principal concern is how people will take it. I just do what I do without concern for these people,” he said. “I want my music to have a longer shelf life than a jar of yogurt.”

Parks is deadly earnest when discussing the philosophy behind his music, but he lets his snark show when discussing his upcoming tour, which will stop in Cleveland and Cincinnati before coming to the Wexner Center.

“Going on the road is something I can just about afford to do, having gotten three kids through college,” Parks said of his decision to go on tour. “It’s my party, and you’re welcome.”

It’s hard to believe but Parks has never in all his years gone on a solo tour. He has performed individual shows and accompanied many other acts, but never a tour under his own name.

“It’s a total adventure for me,” he said. “I just pray that everyone’s going to love it.”

The tour is by no means a last hurrah, however, as he is quick to point out.

“I work hard on the piano,” Parks said of his primary instrument. “It’s frighteningly challenging for me because I’m 67 years old and I’m playing things that I played when I was a brunette, baby!”

Providing accompaniment to Parks will be Clare and the Reasons, a group Parks said he loves to play with.

“They are absolutely mystical and magical,” Parks gushed. “A dream escape for anyone who wants a night of seductive music, rated G.”

Clare and the Reasons will be opening the set as well but Parks doesn’t like the notion of being at the top of the billing.

“You use the word ‘headline.’ That’s a little lofty,” he said. “I’m just one of the gang.”

His humor came back strong when he found out he’d be competing with Weezer on Friday for an audience.

“You could lie and tell everyone that I’m going to die in November,” he suggested to The Lantern. “Headline the article ‘This man is going to die.’ It’s not really a lie.”

The humorous nature of the conversation continued into Parks’ use of the British phrase “Trousers forward” to sign off in e-mails. The expression reminded him of another idiom, this one from the Liverpool Taxi Drivers Association.

“Boldly going forward because we can’t find reverse,” Parks recited. After a moment, he added: “That’s basically my personal philosophy.”