Mark --
Over the holiday I snagged a sealed copy of Command Performance/Batman CD at a record shop for $25. Good price? What do you think of the quality of the music/sound/mastering? Also, per Ian's recommend, I got a copy of the Pop Symphony twofer also on One Way Records (much cheaper, $8 on eBay) that should be in soon. After all of the J&D talk, I decided to sample some for myself. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Jeff,
For the most part, I like the One Way re-issues . . . They're pretty good renderings of the original stereo versions.
• COMMAND PERFORMANCE was "live" (finished in the studio). Most of the vocals are thin (unlike the studio versions), but you get a bit of the J&D humor onstage (especially in "Dead Man's Curve"). The cover of "Louie, Louie" kicks butt . . . with a radical vocal by Dean, great two-part harmony, and a solid brass arrangement by Jan.
The announcer is Roger Christian . . . and J&D take the stage to Jan's arrangement of "The Brave Bull."
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• JAN & DEAN MEET BATMAN is a cult classic. Over-the-top comedy, with intricate sketches . . . descended from Stan Freberg and Dickie Goodman, but a precursor of the Firesign Theatre, Richard Pryor, and Lilly Tomlin, etc. The comedy sketches involved "Captain Jan, and Dean the Boy Blunder" . . . while the musical numbers referenced the Batman and Robin characters.
The instrumentals on this album are very strong . . . including Neal Hefti's "Batman Theme". And "Mr. Freeze" has a"spy" feel to it, with a brass arrangement that really matches the motifs from the 1966 TV show.
"Robin the Boy Wonder" is solid . . . and "Flight of the Batmobile" sounds like something out of a musical stage production.
Basically, Jan & Dean savage the TV show . . . even copping the use of alliteration.
But the most ingenious thing about this album is the series of "Bat Cues" and backing music themes that play between and under the spoken comedy sketches. I have the original music scores for these (arranged by Jan Berry and George Tipton) . . . and it's really intricate stuff, with a very exotic, moody, and Gothic feel to it. A hell of a lot of amazing work to be mostly buried in the sketches.
The "Batman" single and "Anaheim, Azusa ..." (the latter from the
Little Old Lady LP) feature Jan's most complex vocal arrangements. For a musical breakdown of these two pieces, read my analytical essay —
Jan Berry 101: A Study in Composition, with Bach, Old Ladies, and Bats — (
ESQ version in PDF).
The narrator on the
Batman LP is Roger Christian.
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• POP SYMPHONY is a masterpiece. This was Jan's pet project of 1965 (arranged by Jan and George Tipton) . . . and it goes beyond a mere "strings" album. "Little Old Lady" and "Drag City" are full-blown works for symphony orchestra . . . and the latter features some fantastic concert snare drum work from Hal Blaine. If you didn't know the names of these two songs, you would not recognize them in their symphonic incarnations.
The two-part mandolin leads on "New Girl In School" are smile-inducing.
Jan had previously started to incorporate orchestral / symphonic elements into his 1964 productions "Anaheim, Azusa ..." and "When It's Over." In 1965, he also used orchestral arrangements for "You Really Know How to Hurt A Guy" and "It's A Shame to Say Goodbye" (aside from the
Pop Symphony versions).
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• DRAG CITY is the first important Jan & Dean album in terms of very strong original album cuts (aside from the singles). Stellar album cuts here include: "Drag Strip Girl," "Surfin' Hearse," "Popsicle Truck," "Surf Route 101," and "Hot Stocker."
The original version of "Dead Man's Curve" on this LP is sub-standard (a rush job), and is
not the hit single version. Jan's lead vocal is bad, and it lacks the incredible 11-part brass and woodwind arrangement that Jan wrote for the hit-single version in 1964.
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Full Track Lists & Credits for These Albums:Command PerformanceJan & Dean Meet BatmanPop Symphony No.1Drag CityM.