Jan and Dean I--Creating the Concept of California

Whenever I run into someone's list of "100 things to do before you die," or the "1000 'must read' books of your life" or the "50 places to visit before you are an invalid," I quietly ignore it. I don't like to spend time reading what other people think I should do before death. Yet, not long ago, I ran into a list of 50 things to do before death and found myself reading it. One of the items stuck with me--learn all can about a musical group. Simply that. Don't be content with knowing about a few Credence Clearwater Revival tunes or Beatles' biggies; no, the goal should be to learn everything you can about a group. I mulled the advice for a while, and then I said to myself, "Yes, that is precisely what I want to do." But which group? So many "oldie" and more modern groups clamored for attention. Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz has "claimed" Bob Dylan, and many folks are ga-ga over the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. But the one group that I seemingly kept coming back to was Jan and Dean, the duo emerging out of Southern CA (Jan Berry was born in April 1941; Dean Torrence in March 1940).

I couldn't immediately put my finger on why their music seemed to touch me so, but then the reason dawned on me. They had an early "chapter" (from about 1959-early 1963) of "doo wop" love songs, where girls are "chicks" or "girls" and guys and girls check each other out at school and have groovy times, and then a later chapter (especially 1963-64) of "surfer" or "fast car" music. The earlier music connected them to the broader vocal traditions of the 1950s, while the latter linked them to the Beach Boys and to what I call the "creation of the concept of CA" in the mind of teenagers and others in the mid-1960s. Thus, Jan and Dean appeared at the crossroads connecting to the past and opening to the future. Thus, they appealed to me. And their sound was so harmoniously blended and so real for me that the last time I was driving around LA (March 2008), I had one eye out for a little old lady when I crossed into the City of Pasadena.

"Creating" California

I contend that they and the Beach Boys created the idea of California. What do I mean by that? I mean the sense that a "true cool" CA young person hangs around on the beach most of the day, priming and using his surfboard, being noticed by all those honies (after all there were "two girls for every guy") and, after a hard day in the surf, retires to a party where the talk was about chrome wheels and tacking on the desert roads. The concept of California was one that celebrated the easy life, and Jan and Dean were a tall, slender blond duo you could imagine trading in their microphones for hot wheels just as soon as they finished their songs and peeled the girls off their bodies. In this alone we had a change, since the "sex stars" in vocal music in the 1950s tended to be Italian East Coast guys, shorter and darker, radiating the iridescent sensuality of Southern Europe. Now we had tall, blond and lean, with a relaxed manner and deep voice. California had come.

An indication to me of how I adopted the "California myth" or concept of CA dawned on me as I was combing through my mental files of those days. I recall being so struck by the cover of a Life Magazine sometime in the late 1960s or 1970 (before I left for college in Sept. 1970), that I remember memorizing the language on the cover. An attractive bikini-clad blond was running in the surf toward the camera. The cover of Life said something like: "Katie O'Pace, 19, in the surf at Ventura." As I was reliving this memory, I decided to do an Internet search and, lo and behold, I found a picture of the cover, from the July 11, 1970 Life, which actually said, "Katie O'Pace, 19, in the surf at Ventura." In larger letters on the side it says, "California Girls Spangle the Beach." Why did I emblazon this on my memory? Precisely because I was in love, not simply with Katie, whom I am sure I will never meet, but because of the "idea" behind it. The idea was that beautiful girls were just draped all along the CA beaches waiting for guys like me to join them. And, I was in CA, but I happened to be in Northern CA, where no one hangs out at the poorly-developed beaches.

So, the very month I was planning to make my trip back to the East (Providence, RI), I was afflicted with a severe case of California dreaming. The concept of CA, which Jan and Dean helped to created only seven years previosly, through "Surf City" (# 1 hit in 1963), had seeped so into my consciousness, that I just wanted to be there. But my Puritan upbringing triumphed, and I dutifuly went back East and then Europe to college, seminary, Ph. D. work, other fellowships, before settling in Oregon, where no one prances around in bikinis on the beach. Ah me. Thirty-eight lost years...

Back to Jan and Dean

So, Jan and Dean attended University High School on Texas Street in West LA. The classical architecture of the school has made it a favorite for movie directors, and its location in Brentwood near UCLA and Hollywood meant that it has been attended by child and teen movie stars (Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor) as well as many other celebs. Jan and Dean would practice playing "doo wop" music in Jan's Bel Air garage after football practice. Dean Torrence graduated in 1958 and enlisted in the army for six months, returning to LA around mid-1959. Jan stayed in LA, linked up with "Arnie," whose full name was Arnie Ginsberg, and Jan and Arnie recorded three songs in 1958, with the first (Jenny Lee) reaching the dizzying height of # 8 on the charts. Dean said that he first heard that song while on latrine duty at Ford Ord, and his heart sank. If he only had delayed his entrance into the military even a few weeks, he would have recorded this hit with Jan Berry. But it was not to be. Upon returning from the military in mid-1959, however, Jan and Dean quickly linked up, putting out Baby Talk under the "Dore" label, which reached to # 10 in that year.

Well, there is much more to say about these guys, and their early years, and I will put that off until the next essay. I am so delighted to be studying my favorite band. What is yours?

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