Jan & Dean Command Performance - Live In Person (Vinyl, Liberty Records, 1965) ***
Genre: Pop
Places I remember: Real Groovy Records; Spellbound Wax Co.
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Drag City
Gear costume: Surfin' Hearse
Active compensatory factors: I love surf guitar bands, the Beach Boys, and Jan & Dean.
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Drag City
Gear costume: Surfin' Hearse
I guess it's that California mythic lifestyle all of those bands conjure up, but I also love the pacific west coast drives and locations along the way between LA and San Francisco.
Jan and Dean are of course Jan Berry (who passed away in 2004) and Dean Torrence, clean cut mates with the Wilsons and purveyors of hot rod hits and surfing safari songs.
Drag City, the album, is a lot of fun! It's an album containing big hits (Drag City, Dead Man's Curve and their version of Little Deuce Coup) and some excellent filler - Surfin' Hearse is a hoot!
Everywhere you turn there are fun vocals and harmonies. They manage to convert their novelty toons like Schlock Rod with conviction as well (although two versions is a trick too far even for them).
Their live album from 1965 is an interesting artifact. Given the year, we are into girls screaming mindlessly pretty much continually, so there is that.
Still, the boys' genuine warmth manages to rise above the clamour. Their version of The Beatles I Should Have Known Better gets an extra loud set of screams.
All the hits are here and the band (led by Hal Blaine) does well, augmented as it is by some horns.
Where do they all belong? Always keen to get more Jan & Dean albums.
Where do they all belong? Always keen to get more Jan & Dean albums.
No comments:
Post a Comment