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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2019 12:26:27 GMT -5
Welcome to the Jan & Dean thread, a place to celebrate the music and career of William Jan Berry and Dean Ormsby Torrence - Jan & Dean!
First up is this video from American Bandstand in 1968, where Dick Clark is featuring "Surf City" on an anniversary show. Check out the dancing and the fashions of the day:
Then there is this rare video from 1974, with Dick Clark interviewing Jan & Dean as Jan promotes his new single, "Tinsel Town":
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Post by AGD on Mar 24, 2020 14:23:13 GMT -5
Earlier today, I listened to the Rhino Handmade Carnival Of Sound for, oh, probably the first time since it was released ten years ago. Maybe I'm missing something but, for Jan's "lost masterpiece a la Smile", it's pretty underwhelming.
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Post by Mikie on Mar 24, 2020 15:18:34 GMT -5
It was really hyped in various articles/fanzines like J&D's equivalent to Smile and I bought the Rhino version when it came out about 10 years ago (nice packaging w/16 page book). The CD has 29 songs with bonus tracks from the 1966-68 sessions. I'd heard some of the songs before, but I think I listened to the CD maybe twice then back on the shelf and I haven't listened to it since. It's mostly Jan, recorded after his car wreck, so don't expect great quality material. Dean's "Save For A Rainy Day" isn't exactly up for a Grammy either in my opinion. There's a bootleg version of this album with raw early mixes of the album that were intended for release before Rhino Records doctored it up for the "official" release. Is Carnival of Sound the lost masterpiece Smile was? No. It’s a good listen, and for fans of pop music from the era, you’ll have a good time with the album, but the reality is that it fell on the wrong side of history. Had it been released way back when, Jan Berry would have been clobbered and Warners would have been kicked in the ass for being square.
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Post by AGD on Mar 24, 2020 15:53:35 GMT -5
"Girl You're Blowing My Mind" is great pop (although I prefer a mix I had back in the 80s on a crappy cassette), but most of the rest is average to dire, and the plastering of really bad sitar over everything... desperate. And "Only A Boy" may be one of the worst 60s songs, ever: the lyrics are as cringeworthy as the lead vocal.
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Post by AGD on Mar 24, 2020 16:11:12 GMT -5
To my ears, J&D's primo period was 1963-64, and the singles. Magnificent stuff.
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Post by Mikie on Mar 24, 2020 16:44:33 GMT -5
J & D singles released in '67 and '68 from the Carnival of Sound album that wasn't released: 1. Hawaii/Tijuana
2. Only A Boy/Love & Hate
3. Fan Tan/Love & Hate
4. I Know My Mind/Laurel & Hardy
5. Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind/In The Still of the night (proposed but cancelled)
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Post by Mikie on Mar 24, 2020 16:48:47 GMT -5
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Post by AGD on Mar 24, 2020 18:22:29 GMT -5
It was available as a download on Kindle (relatively) cheaply a few years back. So I did.
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Post by drbeachboy (Dirk) on Mar 24, 2020 19:17:22 GMT -5
Jan & Dean were not a great albums duo. I have all of their albums and while they all have a few really good songs on each of them, to me their best overall album is Drag City.
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Post by Foster Brooks on Mar 25, 2020 11:43:57 GMT -5
I just wanted to mention that they were a terrific singles band.
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Post by AGD on Mar 25, 2020 12:10:25 GMT -5
Absolutely, no argument here.
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Post by jk on Jan 17, 2024 7:50:01 GMT -5
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