Jan & Dean

[Mark A. Moore]

Carnival of Sound is coming out officially this fall . . . with the "pristine quality" you're hoping for . . . and those familiar with the crappy acetate bootlegs are in for a real treat.

It's enlightening to compare what Jan Berry was working on in '67-'68, at the same time Brian Wilson was working on Smile and other material.

I'll post the specifics here when I get the OK.

M.

Is there any more word on this release? 

In the pipeline and on track . . . Still finalizing the liner notes . . . and photos/images have been submitted.

No other specifics yet.

M.

Is this a vinyl only release, or will there be a CD version?

Both CD and Vinyl.

M.

[Mark A. Moore]

Hello All,

With the pending official release of Jan & Dean's Carnival of Sound by Rhino Handmade (in early 2010) . . . a 1 CD / 1 LP set, with plenty of bonus tracks and extensive liner notes . . . we've upgraded to a new Jan & Dean forum at the following address:

http://jananddean-janberry.com/boards/index.php

We're now hosting the new board on our own Website, instead of using an external server.

So please register and create a user account on the new forum . . . (and don't forget to add your favorite Jan & Dean avatar).

The old board will still be around for a while . . . but everyone should begin posting at the new site, as of December 31, 2009.

This Jan & Dean forum change has been a long time in coming . . . and the release of Carnival of Sound is a good time to make it happen.

Mark M.

[mrski]

With respect to Dean being in the Mike camp in the '80s...IIRC Dean was one of the moving forces in prying Brian away from Eugene Landy in the late '80s.  Which, if you think about it, is pretty badass of him, considering he wasn't even in the family or the group.  Mark or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.

It would sure be interesting to hear some more on this...

[Bedroom Tapes]

Hello, are there any comprehensive books or a documentary about Jan & Dean out there?

[jeffh]

Over five years between posts.. Wow! I wonder if that's a record.

[Pretty Funky]

With respect to Dean being in the Mike camp in the '80s...IIRC Dean was one of the moving forces in prying Brian away from Eugene Landy in the late '80s.  Which, if you think about it, is pretty badass of him, considering he wasn't even in the family or the group.  Mark or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.

It would sure be interesting to hear some more on this...

Yes, 5 years is up there but the quoted post is relevant in light of the Brian bio and the kudos Melinda gets. I wonder if Ray Lawlor or anyone else can provide some confirmation?

[joshferrell]

Hello, are there any comprehensive books or a documentary about Jan & Dean out there?

I wish they would do a documentary about them with footage etc I would buy it, maybe a Jan Berry "songwriter/Producer" series like the "songwriter" series about Brian... also they need to release "Deadman's curve-The Jan and Dean story" on dvd/buray

[Rocker]

As long as we have no documentary, try this:

http://jananddean-janberry.com/main/

COMING IN 2015 . . .

A NEW BOOK

 

CRAZY HOURS: In the Studio and On the Run with JAN & DEAN (tentative title)

By Mark A. Moore

Publisher: McFarland & Co.

 

An in-depth reference work presenting day-by-day entries covering recording sessions, single and album releases, concerts and appearances, film and television, behind-the-scenes business and legal matters, chart positions, and other entries for historical context, 1958-1968.

 

Additional data will include studio invoice details, copyright registration dates for all songs written/recorded by Jan & Dean, and BMI registration dates for all songs written by Jan Berry.

 

Recording session details will include studio locations, authorizations, recording times, Wrecking Crew personnel, session details, tape box data, and much more.

[Pretty Funky]

I never read the book but had a glance through in store when it first came out. Looked pretty good.

When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams
by Bob Greene

http://www.amazon.com/When-Get-Surf-City-Friendship-ebook/dp/B0017SYMBC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430693995&sr=1-1&keywords=bob+greene+when+we+get+to+surf+city

[Moon Dawg]

I never read the book but had a glance through in store when it first came out. Looked pretty good.

When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams
by Bob Greene

http://www.amazon.com/When-Get-Surf-City-Friendship-ebook/dp/B0017SYMBC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430693995&sr=1-1&keywords=bob+greene+when+we+get+to+surf+city

 Pretty good book on second phase Jan & Dean and life on the road. Contains next to nothing on the pre-surf years.

Re R&R HoF snub: I demand an explanation from Jann Wenner...

[jeffh]

Actually it is a book by columnist Bob Greene and his experiences touring with Jan & Dean a few weeks a summer, over a time frame of a decade. It's not meant to be a history of them. A very fun read.

He also wrote " Be True To Your School", which is a revisiting of his junior year in high school in 1964. He had to keep a journal back then for an English class, detailing day to day activities. As luck would have it, he kept it and it was the basis of the book. This was also a very good book, especially if you were a teenager at that time. I was.

I recommend both of these books.

[pinkpapaver]

yup I need to add some jan and dean to my collection.  It's mad, coz I felt drawn to this kind of music in my early teens but didn't investigate further.  I spose there was no internet out there and there was Morrissey and the smiths.  No wonder I was miserable for so long in my life.  glad I've been reunited with this great stuff.  Jan and dean looked like good fun.

[bonnevillemariner]

I've been meaning to get into Jan & Dean some more lately, so I might as well take advantage of the revival of this thread to ask a few questions.  Growing up, I heard a lot of J&D on road trips with my friend and his dad when I was very young.  This was before any real exposure to the Beach Boys.  When I discovered the Beach Boys, I first thing I noticed was that I recognized Brian's voice from some of J&D's recordings.  I also remember thinking that, as much as I had come to love the J&D's songs I heard, I wished it was the Beach Boys singing them.  From then on, J&D to me were like a rough draft of the Beach Boys.  I compared them (maybe I shouldn't have), and they could never hold a candle to BB arrangements, Brian's falsetto and the sibling harmony.

I've tried to rediscover J&D several times in the last decade or so, but have been underwhelmed.  I bought "Ride the Wild Surf" a few years ago on iTunes, but couldn't get past that awkward delay/sync issue on the word "surf" in the chorus.  Plucking around on Spotify last year resulted in a lot of "meh."  So, J&D fans, help me out.  Please give me a playlist of songs I should listen to in order to internalize and appreciate these guys. 

[Rocker]

I've been meaning to get into Jan & Dean some more lately, so I might as well take advantage of the revival of this thread to ask a few questions.  Growing up, I heard a lot of J&D on road trips with my friend and his dad when I was very young.  This was before any real exposure to the Beach Boys.  When I discovered the Beach Boys, I first thing I noticed was that I recognized Brian's voice from some of J&D's recordings.  I also remember thinking that, as much as I had come to love the J&D's songs I heard, I wished it was the Beach Boys singing them.  From then on, J&D to me were like a rough draft of the Beach Boys.  I compared them (maybe I shouldn't have), and they could never hold a candle to BB arrangements, Brian's falsetto and the sibling harmony.

I've tried to rediscover J&D several times in the last decade or so, but have been underwhelmed.  I bought "Ride the Wild Surf" a few years ago on iTunes, but couldn't get past that awkward delay/sync issue on the word "surf" in the chorus.  Plucking around on Spotify last year resulted in a lot of "meh."  So, J&D fans, help me out.  Please give me a playlist of songs I should listen to in order to internalize and appreciate these guys. 

For a start make sure you get this one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Liberty-Singles-Dean/dp/B001AVUAIK




These are Jan's original mono mixes and not the terrible stereo releases that flood the market or the re-recordings by Dean that you mostly find.

[bonnevillemariner]

I primarily use Spotify, and it's hit and miss.  I am seeing a lot of the crappy stereo mixes as well as the re-records (why???).  The first J&D track I clicked on (because of Brian's involvement) was "Don't You Just Know It."  Next up was the re-recorded "Dead Man's Curve."  Based on those two tracks, I swore off J&D for about a year.

[Rocker]

I primarily use Spotify, and it's hit and miss.  I am seeing a lot of the crappy stereo mixes as well as the re-records (why???).  The first J&D track I clicked on (because of Brian's involvement) was "Don't You Just Know It."  Next up was the re-recorded "Dead Man's Curve."  Based on those two tracks, I swore off J&D for about a year.

I don't have a clue about spotify and that stuff but can't you search for certain albums?

[Mikie]

I like this one:

All The Hits: From Surf City to Drag City ('96)  (w/ excellent stereo versions)

And also essential:

Anthology ('71)

Gotta Take That One Last Ride ('74)

And I love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpLz-Bl4jBM

[Kurosawa]

I've been meaning to get into Jan & Dean some more lately, so I might as well take advantage of the revival of this thread to ask a few questions.  Growing up, I heard a lot of J&D on road trips with my friend and his dad when I was very young.  This was before any real exposure to the Beach Boys.  When I discovered the Beach Boys, I first thing I noticed was that I recognized Brian's voice from some of J&D's recordings.  I also remember thinking that, as much as I had come to love the J&D's songs I heard, I wished it was the Beach Boys singing them.  From then on, J&D to me were like a rough draft of the Beach Boys.  I compared them (maybe I shouldn't have), and they could never hold a candle to BB arrangements, Brian's falsetto and the sibling harmony.

I've tried to rediscover J&D several times in the last decade or so, but have been underwhelmed.  I bought "Ride the Wild Surf" a few years ago on iTunes, but couldn't get past that awkward delay/sync issue on the word "surf" in the chorus.  Plucking around on Spotify last year resulted in a lot of "meh."  So, J&D fans, help me out.  Please give me a playlist of songs I should listen to in order to internalize and appreciate these guys. 

Jan & Dean are very, very different from the Beach Boys even though they seem very similar. The vocal blend is nowhere near as good, of course, since they are a duo, although they often used other singers as well, but Jan himself pretty much does Mike Love's act but is funnier and more charismatic.  Unfortunately as a singer he wasn't as good as Mike-although there is no shame in that, as Mike is a great singer. The biggest thing about J&D is Jan's production, which is almost as good as Brian's. If you listen to tunes he wrote with Brian like "New Girl In School" and "Deadman's Curve" you will hear productions that are just as good as Brian's best. The other thing about J&D is their music is crazy, much crazier than the Beach Boys. They were huge on humor and it came through in their albums. I think their best albums are The Little Old Lady From Pasadena, which is basically a concept album with car songs involving senior citizens. How crazy is that? Great album, lots of catchy and funny songs like "Horace, the Swingin' School Bus Driver", "One Piece Topless Bathing Suit" and of course "The Anaheim, Azusa And Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review And Timing Association". I also think Deadman's Curve/The New Girl In School is a good album, and of course the craziest J&D album is the "Jan and Dean Meet Batman" album which is really wild and is the American counterpart to "The Who Sell Out".

[bonnevillemariner]

The vocal blend is nowhere near as good...

You're not kidding.  The vocal blend frankly sucks (with the exception of tunes where Brian is involved).  I can't really take J&D seriously as a vocal act for that reason.  Don't get me wrong-- I like the vocal blend, mainly because it has that youthful, "two everyday dudes from SoCal too busy having fun to worry about polished vocals" vibe.  But yeah, quality vox and harmonies they are not.

I've always wondered why J&D didn't seem to care about the vocal qualities of their records, but a light bulb lit up for me recently when somebody on another thread pointed out that J&D were primarily satirists.  This made me think of some of my favorite TV satire, MAD! (the short cartoon series), whose send-ups of popular culture are brilliant.  They don't worry about great-quality graphics, per se, because their primary job is to lampoon.  Is that the case with J&D?  It's not true satire, because they weren't trying to ridicule SoCal/surf culture, but perhaps vocal blend wasn't as important to them as decent arrangement and cultural caricature.  Am I way off here?

[Steve Latshaw]

<<I've always wondered why J&D didn't seem to care about the vocal qualities of their records, but a light bulb lit up for me recently when somebody on another thread pointed out that J&D were primarily satirists.  This made me think of some of my favorite TV satire, MAD! (the short cartoon series), whose send-ups of popular culture are brilliant.  They don't worry about great-quality graphics, per se, because their primary job is to lampoon.  Is that the case with J&D?  It's not true satire, because they weren't trying to ridicule SoCal/surf culture, but perhaps vocal blend wasn't as important to them as decent arrangement and cultural caricature.  Am I way off here?>>

The reason they were such effective satirists is because they made great records.  In terms of "vocal blend" I'm not sure what this means.  The Beach Boys had a genetic vocal blend in the three brothers.  The stack of Mike, Dennis, Carl, Al and Brian has a unique resonance all it's own.  No stack sounds quite like it.

But to say Jan & Dean RECORDS had a poor vocal blends or suggest that Jan & Dean "didn't seem to care about the vocal quality of their records"  is inaccurate.

Jan was a brilliant producer and a perfectionist, more so in many ways than Brian in those days.  Dean once told me he always felt the Beach Boys records (we're talking pre-Pet Sounds) were looser than Jan's productions... but Jan's productions sounded a little too perfect.

Jan & Dean themselves - by their own admission - were only fair vocalists.  Their weaknesses are all too apparent on the LP Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfin', where they were forced (by budgetary considerations) to track all their own backgrounds.  But on later records, as budgets and chart success increased, Jan (who was a brilliant vocal arranger as well - studying Gregorian chants in '66, some of which ended up on J&D Meet Batman) used the cream of LA session vocalists (including The Fantastic Baggys aka Sloan & Barri) for J&D records, sometimes even to the exclusion of Jan & Dean ("Move Out Little Mustang").  The arrangements (and "blend") on songs like Anaheim, Azuza, Freeway Flyer, My Mighty GTO and Little Old Lady From Pasadena are of particular note.  Little Old Lady went through countless vocal overdub sessions before the final master.  I think on that one alone, four different singers (including both Jan & Dean) are singing pieces of the falsetto part).

Jan's vocal arranging, double tracking, triple tracking and quadruple tracking was the 4 track stereo/1960s equivalent of auto-tune today, in terms of vocal perfection.  Thus Dean's comment about those songs (at least the ones in 1964) sounding a bit "too perfect."

[Rocker]

Jan was a brilliant producer and a perfectionist, more so in many ways than Brian in those days.  Dean once told me he always felt the Beach Boys records (we're talking pre-Pet Sounds) were looser than Jan's productions... but Jan's productions sounded a little too perfect.

Was he talking about the vocals, the tracks or the overall record? I always felt (and still do) that Jan's productions sound rougher and ballsier than Brian's whose records were more of a sweeter kind imo.

[Steve Latshaw]

<Was he talking about the vocals, the tracks or the overall record? I always felt (and still do) that Jan's productions sound rougher and ballsier than Brian's whose records were more of a sweeter kind imo.>

All of the above.  Dean admired the looseness and sometimes slight sloppiness of some of Brian's records, more spontaneity. I think Jan spent days just trying to get the high hat to sound a certain way on Ride the Wild Surf.

Jan's best productions, to me... Drag City... Deadman's Curve... Little Old Lady... Anaheim... My Mighty GTO... Ride the Wild Surf... Horace... I Gotta Drive... Freeway Flyer... Three Window Coupe... B Gas Rickshaw... as some examples, always sound to me like finely tuned race cars... huge band, pounding rhythm guitar, double drums, brass, etc.  They have a roar and adrenalin rush to them.

[Rocker]

"I found a girl" to me is one of the best productions he did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X55kBhJyvg8



Something that shall not be forgotten imo is that Jan also did some very nice outside productions and/or writing; even scoring Top 30 hits with those songs, something that Brian unfortunately never achieved with his productions outside of the Beach Boys. Someday I hope we see a "Pet Projects" kind of release of Jan's outside work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3HY2b_zGr8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBoj0xLpJg0

[Ray Lawlor]

With respect to Dean being in the Mike camp in the '80s...IIRC Dean was one of the moving forces in prying Brian away from Eugene Landy in the late '80s.  Which, if you think about it, is pretty badass of him, considering he wasn't even in the family or the group.  Mark or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.

It would sure be interesting to hear some more on this...

Yes, 5 years is up there but the quoted post is relevant in light of the Brian bio and the kudos Melinda gets. I wonder if Ray Lawlor or anyone else can provide some confirmation?

Hi ; someone just pointed out to me that you had asked me this question about Dean Torrence/Landy .  I never heard that one before; ever. Never heard his name mentioned back then or since.  I think that the movie will answer most questions, or as many as you can in two hours ; everyone involved was a stickler for accuracy in portraying the story, both good and bad.

[Jim V.]

I gotta say as far as Jan & Dean go, I don't understand why they didn't do great material like "You Really Know How to Hurt a Guy" and "I Found a Girl" live after they reunited in the '70s. Was this stuff too hard for Jan to sing? I don't think so.

Seems like they just settled for being a half-assed Beach Boys rip-off group, doing stuff like "California Girls" (and in later years "Kokomo") even though they had nothing to do with Jan & Dean. I definitely don't think their live shows after a certain point did anything but kinda ruin their brand. Which is a shame because they did have a nice handful of really good material.