Showing posts with label Jan and Dean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan and Dean. Show all posts

Coming Up: Dean Torrence - "The Teammates: Twenty Years Of Making Music 1965-1985"


Order now from Amazon.

Details:

Dean Torrence’s The Teammates: Twenty Years Of Making Music 1965-1985 is a curated collection that traverses the decades of the various musical teams Torrence has captained. Whether it was in the producer’s chair, behind the microphone or putting together musical entities, Dean has done it all. This collection includes many of Dean’s rare collaborations with the likes of Mike Love, Jan Berry, Bruce Johnston, Harry Nilsson, and Leon Russell.

Teaming with The Beach Boys/Jan & Dean historian David Beard (also editor/publisher of Endless Summer Quarterly), Torrence raided his vaults and discovered previously unreleased recordings from 1965–1985. Beginning with the ultra-rare single of “Summertime, Summertime” by Our Gang (never available on CD and taken from the original 2-track master), this collection is a treasure trove of rarities and previously unheard music. There are alternate recordings by Jan & Dean, never before heard music from 1973 by Terry Melcher, Bruce Johnston & Torrence, and a slew of rare tracks by Mike (Love of The Beach Boys) & Dean from the early ’80s that has never been made available on CD or digitally until now!

Omnivore Recordings is proud to continue its association with Dean Torrence on this exciting and rare compilation of historical music from one of the early progenitors of rock ’n’ roll. The Teammates: Twenty Years Of Making Music 1965-1985 also offers extensive liner notes by Torrence, a track-by-track conversation with David Beard on the album’s contents and a forward by longtime Jan & Dean associate, and entertainment executive Winston Simone.

Track list:

  1. BUY OUR ALBUM – The Legendary Masked Surfers
  2. SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME – Our Gang
  3. THE THEME FROM LEON’S GARAGE – Our Gang
  4. LOUISIANA MAN – Jan & Dean
  5. SNOWFLAKES ON LAUGHING GRAVY’S WHISKERS – The Laughing Gravy
  6. VEGETABLES (Alternate Mix) – The Laughing Gravy
  7. MOVING DAY – Locksley Hall
  8. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY – Hogfat Cantina Singers & Bel Air Bandits
  9. JUST KEEP IT UP – Terry Melcher, Bruce Johnston, Dean Torrence
  10. LOVE LACE – Terry Melcher, Bruce Johnston, Dean Torrence
  11. A TEENAGER IN LOVE – Dean Torrence
  12. I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU – Dean Torrence
  13. GET A JOB – Dean Torrence
  14. ONE SUMMER NIGHT – Dean Torrence
  15. DEAD MAN’S CURVE (Dr. Landy Version) – Dean Torrence
  16. BE TRUE TO YOUR BUD (BUDWEISER FIGHT SONG) – Mike & Dean
  17. LIGHTNIN’ STRIKES – Mike & Dean
  18. HER BOYFRIEND’S BACK – Mike & Dean
  19. ALLEY OOP – Mike & Dean
  20. JINGLE BELL ROCK – Mike & Dean
  21. RIDE THE WILD SURF – Flo & Eddie with Dean Torrence
  22. ORDER OUR ALBUM – The Legendary Masked Surfers
  23. FUN, FUN, FUN (Commercial) – Mike & Dean


Picture Sleeve Gallery: Jan and Dean

A selection of singles by one of my fave surf acts. If you haven't heard their Fillet of Soul, one of the most bonkers LPs of all time, you need to check it out. 

Review: Jan and Dean's "Filet of Soul Redux: The Rejected Master Recordings"



Jan Barry and Dean Torrence don't get mentioned alongside pop's pioneering geniuses such as the Beatles or the duo's friend, Brian Wilson. But in late 1965 they recorded one of the most bonkers albums never released.

"Never" because Filet of Soul (a riff on Rubber Soul. Get it?) was rejected by the Jan and Dean's label. Twice. Only now has Omnivore Records released it in its originally intended form.

Filet was planned as a live album, a quick and easy way for Jan and Dean to fulfill their contract with Liberty Records and move onto bigger, better things.

By 1965, they'd grown restless with the music business and had begun to see themselves more as a  comedy duo. They had grand plans, including filming a star-filled comedy feature ("Easy Come, Easy Go") with themselves at the center and a TV series with "Bewitched" producer William Asher.

With all of this on the horizon, putting out another pop record for the kids seemed like a nuisance, but it had to be done.

So,  the pair booked a band, scheduled a show and dutifully ran through a roster of songs including their own songs and covers of hits, including three Beatles tunes.

The performances, backed by a crack band of L.A. "Wrecking Crew"members, weren't bad. But Jan and Dean weren't thrilled with the outcome and decided to tweak the songs in the studio.

"As we edited, we realized that we would much rather hear every band member be introduced than another lame song," Torrence recalls in his liner notes to this new edition. "We would rather hear a really corny joke twice than hear other lame song. We would rather hear five or six false starts of a lame song, and then never finish that same song, than hear another lame song."

So, the pair opted to take a decidedly different approach to assembling an album. Or disassembling one.

"We headed to the sound library just down the hall," Torrence recalls. "We each grabbed a stack of sound effects records and headed back to the studio."

Sitting at the mixing disk, the pair added sound effects liberally and randomly to the live tracks: artillery fire, glass breaking, babies crying, manic laughing, sneezing and screams. These were dropped in, completely at random, between and during the musical numbers.

Songs included on the album are only partially performed, but we hear Jan and Dean telling, or trying to tell, lots of jokes and, yes, introducing the band (to the accompaniment of more sound effects).

The resulting collage is like a funnier, more tuneful version of "Revolution #9." It's also a commentary on the teen-focused music industry of the time. Jan and Dean manage to be hilarious and contemptuous of their fans at the same time. "Now we're going to perform one of our lesser hits," they announce before launching into one of their biggest, "Dead Man's Curve," which is marred with more sound effects, sped up vocals and an incomplete ending.

According to Torrence's liner notes, "the shit hit the fan" when the duo presented the album to the execs at Liberty and they were sent back into the studio to remove some of the off-beat material in favor of more songs. Then Berry got into the horrendous car wreck creepily foretold in "Dead Man's Curve" and, with the duo out of commission, the label seized the tapes and issued a "normal" version of the LP.

It was only on the two-LP Jan and Dean Anthology in 1971 that we got to hear bits and pieces of the intended album. And now Omnivore has thankfully provided us with the whole thing.

For what's essentially a big middle finger to their record company, Filet of Soul is an extremely entertaining LP, fully deserving of its cult status among fans. Which isn't to say that lot's of people don't hate it. But if you're willing to enjoy the album within its context it's a gas. Also great for confounding people at parties.

Coming up: "Filet of Soul Redux: The Rejected Master Recordings" by Jan and Dean

Out Sept. 1. Pre-order now from Amazon.

Details:
In 1965, Jan (Berry) & Dean (Torrence), the California Sound pop-duo from Los Angeles, had outgrown its small independent record company and was striving to obtain more control over its career, including adding more comedy to their act. Having charted five Top 10 records in the past two years (including the anthem defining surf classic “Surf City”), the successful duo was now reaching for the silver screen and more. They would be starring in their own movie (Easy Come Easy Go) and would soon have their own television show, to be produced by William Asher (Bewitched). But they owed their label one more record and really didn’t want to waste any of the “good material” with them. Enter the idea of a live album… unfortunately the suits were not that interested as Jan & Dean had previously released one in early ’65, so the duo, who had been fine tuning their wise-ass shtick since high school, delivered a “live” album with comedy… label execs were appalled and rejected the album.

Sadly, on April 12, 1966, Jan Berry was involved in a tragic automobile accident that more or less derailed the duo’s career. Berry was miraculously alive but in a coma. Soon thereafter, the “suits” now saw an opportunity to exploit the Jan & Dean story all over again and deconstructed the original Filet Of Soul into another live album titled Filet Of Soul – A “Live” One.

Now, 50 years after their original vision was rejected, Omnivore Recordings is proud to release Filet Of Soul Redux: The Rejected Master Recordings, as it was originally intended… a live cutting-edge comedy album with great music interspersed with sound effects, studio skits and comic banter. Torrence, along with Endless Summer Quarterly publisher David Beard supply informative liners and studio ephemera from the sessions.