The Smiley Smile Message Board

New comp from Collectors' Choice Music . . .

In MONO . . . a good step in the right direction for Jan & Dean re-issues.

Here's the link:

http://www.ccmusic.com/item.cfm?itemid=CCM09492

(http://www.ccmusic.com/cvrs/big/CCM09492.jpg)

Mark M.

That's definitely on my to-get list. Even though most of Jan & Dean's music was made between '63 and '66 and vocally they didn't even come close to what the Beach Boys were doin' they were still fuckin' awesome.  It's so hard to come across any of their original albums though, I've looked near and far and have come up pretty dry. 

Hey Mark,

I have a J&D related question you might be able to help me answer. I have been wondering lately what studio albums feature the Fantastic Baggys on backing vocals. Everyone knows they are Little Old Lady and while listening to Folk & Roll I assumed they were on that LP (especially considering the 3 PF Sloan songs), and I know they are credited on Command Performance. What else were they on?

The Baggys sang on the Dead Man's Curve/New Girl In School, Ride the Wild Surf, and Little Old Lady from Pasadena albums (1964). Those LPS feature some of Jan & Dean's best album cuts.

M.

M.

Thanks! I'm going to have to pick those albums up....what do you think the chances are of Collector's Choice releasing some sort of Carnival of Sound release? Shot in the dark, I know....I just think people need to know about COS, its too great to have been living in the shadows for so long.

Also, do you have any thoughts on the book When We Get to Surf City? Just found out about it...

The masters for Carnival of Sound are owned by Warner Bros. ,  so I would expect that to be a Rhino Handmade release (unless they decide to farm it out).

I read Bob Greene's "Surf City" book in one sitting . . . and for what it is, I found it enjoyable. And I've told Bob as much.

But what is it? . . . It's a memoir of a high-profile columnist and writer (himself tainted by personal scandal) who played weekend and summer gigs with Jan & Dean, beginning in 1992.

The book does contain a certain amount of pro-Dean Torrence propaganda .  . . but I was also pleased to see Bob strike a measure of balance, acknowledging Jan & Dean's personal conflicts . . . which helps temper the "Dean as a long-sufffering daddy to a brain-damaged Jan" rhetoric.

See, the problem is . . . neither Bob Greene, nor his longer-serving "bandmates" in the J&D touring pantheon, knew Jan Berry before his accident. And Bob acknowledges this fact in the book, in a way that's meaningful.

These are people -- to a man, aside from Dean Torrence -- who only knew Jan as a cripple . . . often to be made fun of . . . or to be praised condescendingly for his perseverance. Like : "Awwwww . . . the poor guy. Good for him." For the most part, these people have no idea who Jan Berry was before his accident.

So as usual, this gives us the company-signed songwriter and producer . . . (that would be Jan) . . . as seen through that lens, while also being filtered through the spin of Dean Torrence (himself bitter about his past relationship with Jan). And Dean was these peoples' boss in the touring operation . . . and so that's where all of their loyalties and biases fall . . . to the guy who signed their paychecks.

In their live shows  . . . they now play maybe four Jan & Dean songs . . . and the rest are Beach Boys songs, and tunes by other artists.

I don't see any malice here, on the part of the band members . . . I just think it's a severe lack of knowledge and insight on the part of people who were hired to play for Jan & Dean since 1978. And they wouldn't know any better . . . because Dean is the guy who could speak normally, putting his own spin on things, and who was paying the band.

Plus, Jan frustrated the hell out of everyone . . . so it was a volatile mix, at all times.

M.

Thanks for the insight, that actually helps make a lot more sense of the later J&D era...the only person I've talked to about Jan Berry is Phil Sloan and he spoke very highly of him. Something to the effect of 'Jan was an extremely talented and hardworking producer/songwriter/singer and was a pleasure to work with. When you listen to the records he was cutting, you can tell how much hard work, passion and soul went into them' but I am just paraphrasing. Jan, in my mind, was an arrangement master and seemed like a very smart guy. After all, he was going to UCLA while making music and that takes a lot of talent and discipline. His arrangements started getting more and more intricate imo after he started the UCLA classes...up until the accident that is. But I still think songs like Mother Earth, Fun City, etc... are pretty fantastic in their own right, they just are different from J&D in their prime. Didn't know they didn't play many J&D songs live anymore, I thought something was fishy though when they came to town billed as ''Jan & Dean: featuring Dean Torrence & the Surf City All Stars" or whatever...I didn't really understand how it could be Jan & Dean ft. Dean, haha, anyways I'm rambling. Thanks for your views, as always.

~B

Thanks for the info on this release, I've placed my order!

Great ! Let's hope we'll get the original mono-albums too in the not too distance future