Surf City with Jan & Dean & Bob

I just finished reading Bob Greene's 2008 book "When We Get to Surf City." It's a rock and roll travelogue featuring a middle aged writer from the midwest who manages to tour with surf guitar legends Jan & Dean for 15 summers in the mid 90's and early 2000s. 

Having lived in Chicago for a few years, I have read a lot of Bob Greene's folksy tales of Americana.  His writing style can get a bit prescious after a while and so most people either love him or hate him.  The book's subtitle is a good hint at Greene's style: "A journey through America in pursuit of Rock & Roll, friendship and dreams."  So if you can get through that opening salvo along with Greene's occasionally heavy handed prose, it's a nice, light read.  Particularly if you're a fan of Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, The Kingsmen, Dick Dale or other early Rock & Roll acts who cross paths with Greene over the summers.

The book is a bit more compelling if you know the backstory of Jan & Dean.  They were two of the rising stars in the late 50's with California good looks and hit songs like "Surf City" (co-written with Brian Wilson), "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena," and the ominously prescient "Deadman's Curve."  At the height of their popularity, Jan Berry suffered a near-fatal car accident putting an end to the Hollywood story.  And yet 30 years later, Jan & Dean were still out touring, with Berry re-learning the words nightly to the songs he had written years earlier.  

Green gives you breezy snapshots of countless gigs at countless county fairs, beach boardwalks and insurance company sales conventions peppered with stops at burger joints and bars across the country.  I sometimes wish there was a bit more depth on the relationship between Jan & Dean, but overall it still works. (The cartoon is from BlogJam, not the book.)

But I still can't help but wonder: how the heck did Bob Greene end up playing guitar and singing with Jan & Dean in front of 60,000 people opening for the Beach Boys?   I guess dreams can come true. 

• Amazon:  When We Get to Surf City, Be True to Your School
• USA Today: Surf City is Home for Jan & Dean, Excerpt
• BlogJam: The Mystique of the Electric Guitar

Comments

[Retro Hound]

Thanks for the review. I hadn't heard of this book but will check it out.