Customer Reviews

As Easy As 123 (Popsicle/The Little Old Lady From Pasedena/Drag City)

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This is an Australian import re-issue of three Jan & Dean LP's from the sixties; (1) Popsicle, (2) Little Old Lady From Pasadena, (3) Drag City. The title of this CD is "Jan & Dean, Easy As 1, 2, 3". The Australian label is "Raven", I've never heard of em. It is rather rare to see the original Popsicle and Drag City LP's re-issued on anything (LP or CD). All songs are in true stereo and sound good enough to have come from the master tapes although there is no mention of this on the CD. Only the bonus coke jingle is in mono. In addition, the so called "Visual Sound Stereo" mixing is left the same as it was on the original LP's. "Visual Sound Stereo" was a term that referred to the somewhat unusual stereo mixing where the main vocals came out of one channel, and the instruments came out of the other channel. This never caught on, but that's how the originals LP's were issued. Unfortunately, many Jan & Dean re-issues have re-mixed the stereo in an unfortunate attempt to improve upon this. Thanks Raven for not changing this and leaving the stereo exactly as it was originally issued. To change it is like colorizing a black and white movie.

At first I was skeptical that three LP's (33 tracks) could fit on one CD. Upon comparing the songs with the original vinyl albums, I discovered that four songs were duplicated between the three original LP's. Since these did not have to be duplicated on the CD, this allowed all songs from three LP's to fit with no omissions. As the back of the CD states: "Over 75 Minutes Of Music". Looks like they used the entire CD.

Note: There is an interesting typo on the track listing on the back. There is no track 31. It skips from 30 to 32. Thus, the last couple of track numbers do not match what's actually on the CD. The proof reader was on vacation?

Track listing:

(1)Popsicle (2)The Restless Surfer (3)She's My Summer Girl (4)Down At Malibu Beach (5)Tennessee (6)Norwegian Wood (7)A Surfer's Dream (8)Surf Route 101 (9)Surfin' Wild (10)Waimea Bay (11)The Little Old Lady From Pasadena (12)Memphis (13)When It's Over (14)Horace, The Swingin' School Bus Driver (15)Old Ladies Seldom Power Shift (16)Sidewalk Surfin' (17)The Anaheim Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review And Timing Association (18)Summer Means Fun (19)It's A Easy as 1-2-3 (20)Move Out Little Mustang (12)Skateboarding part II (22)One-Piece Topless Bathing Suit (23)Drag City (24)I Gotta Drive (25)Drag Strip Girl (26)Surfin' Hearse (27)Dead Man's Curve (28)Schlock Rod Pt.1 (29)Schlock Rod Pt.2 (30)Sting Ray (31)Little Deuce Coupe (32)Hot Stocker (33)Bonus - Coke Jingle

Possessing excellent sound quality, "As Easy As 123 (Popsicle/The Little Old Lady From Pasedena/Drag City)
by Jan & Dean" creates little doubt that the famous duo had a major influence on surf music. For those of us who lived through the sixties, Jan&Dean were second only to The Beach Boys in surf popularity. The songs on this CD demonstrate that J&D had some very fine musicians playing behind them. The music really does come alive here. Very exciting stuff!! However, be prepared to hear Jan and Dean's vocals sound somewhat out of key. The excellent stereo sound does exploit the fact that their harmonies (even with Brian Wilson's occasional help) never seem completely true. About the only positive thing that can be said about their original Mono records is that many of the vocal issues were hidden. But cheer on surf dudes, this CD also captures the fun that J&D had in creating their songs. FUN,FUN, FUN ALL WAY!!

So, refer to the other reviews for more specifics but regarding the Stereo Sound: This original CD contains the Liberty Split channel stereo sound meaning that the vocals come out of one speaker and the instruments come out of the other. This is also true of the orginal Libery Stereo albums. If you purchase the two CD set "All The Hits", the songs have been mixed into True Stereo with the vocals in the middle and the instruments located at both ends of the spectrum. It depends on what you prefer.