Jan & Dean: Official Message Board for Jan Berry

Surf City in Dutch:

"The Fouryo's Surf City"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GivCLXRitjA

And in German:
"Club Gerry Friedrich - Holiday City"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGrTtvyj0GQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp7U1DKMGE4

I couldn't say it any better.
Happy Xmas all!

This is a really important piece by Marsh - he was evidently one of the first - if not the first - to refer spefically to "punk music". But the key think to remember here is that he wrote this in 1971 - before what people generally think of as punk music (Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash) were around. When Marsh used the term in 1971, he was thinking of the harder garage sounds of the mid to late 60s - The Standells, MC5 etc. Most casual listeners today would not identify J&D as punk; indeed, Jan's soaring arrangements appear the very opposite of the punk ethos of simplicity.
 
But I do think that a strong case can be made. The bands Marsh thinks J&D influenced were a key starting point for the punk movement; and a number of key punks acts have an obvious debt to surf: bands like the Ramones, who continually cited and covered J&D (as Marky Ramone said: "The Ramones obviously loved the Beach Boys, but Johnny and I liked Jan & Dean better."); but also the likes of Blondie. The we have the post punk/garage bands like The Barracudas, who are perhaps the most J&D-esque band ever.

I've been thining of writing an article on the influence/legacy of J&D, which can be seen in a string of different genres. I get the feeling that because surf music hasn't been "cool" for quite a while (generally among people whose entire knowledge of the genre is Surfin USA)  bands and even more so music journalists (whose "taste" and "expertsie" is often determined by what they are meant to like) don't want to recognise it, or simply don't know J&D's music well enough. But its there, in punk, in power pop, and in Indie. 90s Britpop has traces of it - something many of the main bands might not even be aware of - but the classic cover of the Lightening Seeds' "Like You Do" is quick reference to surf in general, but laced with surreal humour that is so reminiscent of J&D: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Likeudo_front.jpg

Marsh's article is a key piece of evidence here, but we mustn't forget when it was written "punk music" meant something different, or at least carried different connotations. The more I learn about the ethos of punk, the more I see of J&D in it.
 

The movie is about Brian's Pet Sounds and Smile era, his mental illness, the mess with Dr. Eugene Landy, and Brian's relationship with his wife Melinda. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Exactly - this is after the time Jan and Brian were working together. Although it would be cool if they showed Dean recording Vegatables....

It does look a very interesting movie.

http://www.amazon.com/Bel-Air-Bandits/dp/B000FVYXH0/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1421507404&sr=1-2

Any background on this LP? Is is just another release of various rerecording?

Great song. I read somewhere (the Passmore book?) that it was recorded to be a single, but dropped in favour of something else. Not sure who wrote it, but its a classic. Love it!

Yeah, Hippy Birday Dean!

Probably no-one on here (except you) is a historian. Now that's not a bad thing to be at all

You'd be surprised!

Not trying to be a peace-maker, 'cos I quite enjoy the passionate posts - but I don't necessarily see there being a conflict between the "dry historical facts" and the fun. Okay, like Mark I am (well, was til the University contract ended - just try getting work as a historian during a recession!) a historian, and I do think the facts matter. As a fan, I want to understand the development of the music, because it affects how I listen to/appreciate it. I enjoy the music more when I see that part of the genius is that J&D could combine the fun with groundbreaking techniques and subversive lyrics. As an (aspiring) songwriter I have great fun - as I reckon Jan did - trying to combine what appears to be innocent fun with something more complex.

Surfin Again - you refer to "what the music is all about" - I know you've been working with surf music a long time and have contributed to my own collection, and you're an expert in your own right. To be honest, a lot of serious academic research is just like record collecting - you spend hours, years even, going through archives, or weeks on an archaeological dig, just to find that "something" - and you never know what you're looking for until you find it. Just like those great days in the 80s and early 90s, trawling through the record stores of Soho and Camden, hoping to find that gem which no one else even knows about. A great part of the fun is the extra stuff you find - on a dig or in a record shop - not what you were looking for but something that is even better. A number of the academic articles I have written, just like some of the best records in my collection, are things I came across by accident. To be honest, record collectors and historians are remarkably similar; both are obsessive, usually about something that other people don't quite get.

Will many people care? Well, 90% of the work produced by university historians is read by fewer people than post on this messegeboard. People quite literally spend 3 or 4 years writing a book that less than 20 people will read. That's the reality of serious research. If we judge it only by the number of people who buy the books then we would only value the biographies of reality TV "stars". Will it change Rock and Roll history, and give J&D their rightful place in that history? Probably not - but we should not forget that it was an article in a magazine which inspired the movie which in turn was the basis for the J&D revival in Phase 2.