Jan & Dean: Surf City

Welcome to Summer Week.

The great Brian Wilson

     At first I thought I would simply take a vacation and let the Beach Boys handle my heavy lifting for the week. I really thought it was a brilliant idea.  I mean who could better explain the meaning of summer than the guys that practically invented the season?  I'd just ring up Brian Wilson and ask him to handle this for me.  As it happens I don't actually know the guy or have his phone number which I'm sure makes him grateful but kind of complicated things for me.  So instead of taking a vacation like the rest of you I've got to figure this thing out for myself.  Instead of going outside to water the garden or visit the local beach I will be toiling away doing something that I absolutely love and it's pretty much all Brian Wilson's fault!!!
     Before Jimmy Buffet invited us to relax on an island time getaway at Margaritaville a band named Jan and Dean invited us to spend our summer at Surf City. While Margaritaville is a laid back place where everyone hangs in the shade and drinks exotic mixed rum or tequila drinks out of pineapples with little umbrella's Surf City is party central.  As described in the song, Surf City is the place where teenage surfer boys can gather together to competitively ride the surf all day then later have wild sex with enthusiastic beauties all night.  I can't imagine a place I would have rather have spent my summers when I was a horny 17 year old teenage boy.

Surf City Here We Come!!!

     The song became a massive hit for the band hitting number one on the US charts for 2 weeks in July of 1963 and an amazing #3 on the R&B charts.  The R&B charts is where black music of that era lived.  While it was unusual for those talented chart topping artists to cross over to the "main stream", it was even more unusual for white middle class surfer boys to crossover onto the "race music" charts.  Jan and Dean managed the feat in a big way.  The song was penned by Brian Wilson and Jan Berry.  Berry was the Jan half of the Jan and Dean duo as well as their chief writer, arranger , and composer.  Wilson, of course, is the musical genius behind the Beach Boys.

       By July of 1963 both bands had put together a string of hits.  Wilson and J&D struck up a working friendship fueled by the freedom the collaboration offered Wilson and the potential it represented to Jan and Dean.  Wilson had already established his bonafides within in the recording industry but was chafing under the constraints of being a Beach Boy. Wilson's father Murray, considered by many to be a tyrant, constantly pressured the young man to excel beyond any reasonable expectations.  Murray, aside from being a lousy manager, was also a moralist and he didn't like any lyrics with sexual innuendo and he especially loathed defiance of parental authority.  This would eventually boil over between the two men with the recording and subsequent success of The Beach Boys song Fun Fun Fun.  Besides hating the song Murray was also envious of his eldest son's incredible talent & success.  
       Wilson escaped this pressure through his collaboration with other musicians like Jan & Dean.  Rock and roll has always been about fun and sex and when these musicians joined forces it blew away the community pride of Be True To Your School or the sticky sweetness of Surfer Girl. Jan & Dean had some success with the album Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfing which featured the modest Four Seasonesque hit Linda plus decent covers of the Four Seasons Walk Like a Man, the Cascades Rhythm of the Rain (which might someday require a blog entry all it's own), The Goffin/King song The Best Friend I Ever Had, plus covers of the Beach Boys Surfin', and Surfin' Safari.
      Surf City begins with the call out "Two girls for every boy!" If you overlook the obvious sexism of the lyric you have to admit it's a pretty strong hook. The song itself is a typical sounding Beach Boys or Jan and Dean offering from that era.  On one end is a tenor/baritone singing lead and making the calls for the choir response.  At the other end is a soaring falsetto defining the background and chorus.  In between is the back-up/chorus voices singing the mid range choir type responses in either 2 or 3 part harmony.
      Berry sings leads but during the chorus it sounds like his voice might be doubled by Mike Love (The BB's lead singer).  Dean Torrence's falsetto is a bit flat and wavering throughout the song and can be easily identified on the opening tag line and during the verse backup vocals.  Brian Wilson provides the wordless soaring falsetto over the chorus.  Also during the chorus you can pick out Love's baritone as well as other Beach Boys accompanying Torrence, Berry, & Wilson with the repeated line "surf city" throughout the chorus.

The Wrecking Crew

      Underneath the Wilson/Berry choral gymnastics is the instrument arrangement played mainly by the Los Angeles session masters The Wrecking Crew.  This group of musicians backed up dozens of artists on thousands of songs the same way the Funk Brothers dominated the Motown sound.  Their finest work came during the making of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds album still three years in the future.  In the meantime the musicians assembled for the Surf City sessions included Billy Strange, Glen Campbell, Bill Pittman, and Hal Blaine who is still considered one of the greatest drummers in rock history.
       The song is one of best example of the California early 60's surf music fad conjuring up images of teenage freedom, cars, beaches and sex.  In general, back then, sex was hinted at a little more obliquely than the obvious references in Surf City.  For example Surf City was preceded at #1 by a nice R&B song sung by The Essex called Easier Said Than Done.  Anita Humes the Essex lead singer says her friends are urging her to "do anything for him" and she pleads that it's easier said than done.  Following Surf City at #1 was the doo wop shuffle So Much in Love by The Tymes. The couple featured in that song are getting ready to get married so they can fulfill their dreams of love (re: sex).  By contrast Surf City claims "There's two swingin' honey's for every guy and all you've got to do is just wink your eye"

Dead Mans Curve

       Surf City may only exist in the fevered imagination of teenage boys but the song was a magnificent example, warts and all, of the music offered during the surf rock era.  Sadly for the music world Jan Berry was seriously injured in a car wreck not far from Dead Mans Curve in Beverly Hills.  While driving the Stingray he sung about in that song he hit a parked car and spent the next several months in a coma.  He finally woke up a few months later and then spent years relearning how to walk, talk, and lead as normal a life as possible.  Dean Torrence went on to be an award winning graphic artist.  He won a Grammy for the album cover for the band Pollution's 1971 debut.

Jan & Dean
Future Rock & Roll Hall of Famers

       In the late 70's Jan & Dean went back out on the road as a performing duo until Berry's death following a seizure in 2004.  He is remembered by his contemporaries as an innovative and groud breaking record producer on par with Phil Spector and Brian Wilson. Jan Berry has been cited as an influence by both Spector and Wilson as well as Pete Townsend, Kieth Richards, and Lee Hazelwood who produced Nancy Sinatra & Duane Eddy as well as being credited with inventing the music genre Cowboy Psychedelia.   Dean Torrence has commented that he believes Jan & Dean should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  When you consider the number of big hits they had and the influence their music is still having on today's artists it's difficult not to agree with him.