Customer Reviews

When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bob Greene's books make me nostalgic for a past that I never knew. He brought the Homefront to life in Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen. His novel, All Summer Long, made me want to take off across country. And, he manages to bring the music world of the 1960s to life in When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through American in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.

In 1992, Greene opened a letter from Gary Griffin, another reader who was caught up in his book, Be True to Your School. Griffin, who made his living as a musician with Jan and Dean's touring band, noticed an entry in that diary of 1964 about Greene's purchase of one of their albums. He invited Greene to meet the band, and suddenly, Greene's life, and his summers, took a dramatic change. For the next fifteen years, Bob Greene spent his summers meeting up with Jan and Dean, and their band, so he could first watch, and then perform, with them.

In midlife, Greene found himself living a dream. Each summer, he escaped with a group of "Lost Boys," men who lived to play and sing on stage, and enjoy their own company. In fine detail, Greene discusses life on the road, the good and the bad. He met the idols of his teen years, the Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, the Everly Brothers, and, of course, Jan and Dean. He tells the tragic story of Jan Berry, his car accident, and the changes in his life and career. At the same time, Greene observed Jan's courage, and his determination.

Every time I read Bob Greene's books, I feel as if I'm reading my husband's past. Greene is about the same age, and shares similar memories of rock and roll, small town Ohio, and growing up in the fifties and sixties. Greene and my husband could both be "Lost Boys," still searching for their youth. Bob Greene is able to bring that past vividly to life. He's also unashamed to talk about the small details of male friendship, something most men never talk about. In all of his books, and, When We Get to Surf City is no exception, Bob Greene "captures the freedom and the exhilaration and the blithesome mornings of our world."

I admit up front that I am a great admirer of Bob Greene's writing. I have enjoyed his prose for many years, starting with his columns for the Chicago Sun-Times and staying with him when he switched to the Chicago Tribune. I have not read all of his books, but I have read most of them. I guess what I like most about his writing is his ability to reach out and touch you, usually somewhere in the area of your heart. He has a way of capturing in words those sweet moments in life that we all experience and want to hold on to and he does it with such clarity and style that it leaves a bit of a sweet ache afterwards. I have always thought that the Beatles music would be the perfect sound track for my life. That is why I adored Bob's last book "And You Know You Should Be Glad" so much. But good music has been and always will be the sound track of all our lives and Bob's chronicle of his years touring with Jan and Dean is pitch perfect. There is something about the innocence and soft lyricism of the beach music scene that so perfectly captures that era and this is a sweet walk down memory lane.

This is the first Bob Greene book that I have read. I saw the jacket cover and title and was immediately attracted to the book. What an awesome read!!! Bob Greene takes you on a wonderful journey as a backup singer for Jan and Dean. You will feel as though you are travelling with them too! It is a very poignant story and will capture your heart!!

Simple America at it's finest....they tour all over our country to fairs, stadiums and festivals.

I have already ordered another Bob Greene book. I wish I could buy a few more.....but most of them are out of print.

I wholeheartedly agree with the earlier 5-star reviews and, especially, Amazon's product review --- I wouldn't change a word of it. Bob Greene's marvelous account of his fifteen years (1992-2004) of summer tours as a member of Jan & Dean's backup band filled me with joy. Greene is a national treasure, and, in this book, he reacquaints the reader with some of the truly amazing music that was being created by dozens and dozens of bands and individual musicians across America throughout the 1960s --- a magic time, when, every week, all across the country, a brilliantly written and performed pop tune exploded, fresh and unique, like a brand-new pocket universe, out of millions of teenagers' transistor radios.

If you're reading this review, you most likely know some of the history of Jan & Dean. From July 1963, when "Surf City" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, until Jan Berry's auto accident in 1966, Jan & Dean released a steady stream of delightful singles that could easily hold their own against the best of the competition provided by the two leading geniuses of American popular music during that time: Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. Of the fourteen Jan & Dean songs that made the Hot 100 during this time period, nine were co-written by Jan Berry and five of those were collaborations with Brian Wilson. All of this changed when Jan Berry had a near-fatal auto accident in April 1966 that left him physically handicapped, with permanent speech and memory difficulties.

Despite Jan's health problems, Jan & Dean resumed performing and touring in 1978 and continued to do so until Jan's death in 2004. Bob Greene gives a rose-colored (only in the best sense of the term), but unvarnished and clear-eyed account of these tours starting in 1992. The details he provides are fascinating: Jan & Dean's supremely talented and devoted backup musicians, encounters with a wide sampling of other rock 'n' roll stars from the 1960s, Jan's superhuman 8-year effort to record and release a final album ("Second Wave," released in 1997), Dean's desire to get Jan & Dean into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but only because Jan Berry had earned and deserved it ... I could go on and on and on.

Anyone who loves popular music from the 1960s will love this book. Greene has given us a wonderfully detailed and fascinating description of a remarkable group of musicians and friends. And, yes ... Dean Torrence should have a writing credit on "Surf City!"

Bob Greene takes fans of 60's music through an insightful story from behind the scenes as he tells of his travels with Jan and Dean. His observations as one of the back up musicians reveal little known things about musicians and how concerts work. He also has many anecdotes about Jan and Dean after Jan's "recovery" from his terrible accident. Some of them are humorous and some rather sad. Reading this book led me to buy other books by Greene that I hadn't read so far in addition to buying another book about Jan and Dean. A good read.

Bob Greene completly nails the journey we all make from teenagers to middle-agers and what changes and wonderfully, what remains the same. I bought "When I get to Surf City" because I am a Jan and Dean fan . The book however, moves quickly past J & D to us, to me, the aging baby boomers and how the search for companionship, acceptance and reverie develop in a satifying way for us if we are willing to go back, reconnect and have fun.

I am buying it for all my friends, most of whom could care less about Jan and Dean in the hope that we all get to Surf City.

This is a great book. I especially enjoy reading about Gary Griffin....he's a real cutie. It's interesting to find out that life on the road isn't all glamor. A wonderful inside view of the people and songs that we all remember.

Bob Greene has yet another winner with 'When We Get to Surf City'! Mr. Greene has such a wonderful writing style. You honestly think you are there on tour with those guys as you read it. I highly recommend this book to anyone. You don't need to be in a band, you don't need to be of the surfer song era, you don't need to be a musician OR a guy, to enjoy 'Surf City'. You will laugh and smile and be moved to tears...and what a journey it will be!!! 5 STARS!

The author ultimately makes the song title a metaphor for finding that perfect place in one's life and mind. Blending the elements of travel, summer, song, and most of all, friendship, the narrative flows easily and is rich with entertaining anticdotes. Bob Greene knows his subject well and shares it in the simple, eloquent style that has made him so popular for over 30 years. Don't miss it.

In late 1978, my then wife and I went to see Jan and Dean at an indoor amusement park in Joliet, Illinois name Chicagoland. With backing by a group name the Bel-Air Bandits, Jan Dean sounded more-or-less as they did on record. The event, however, was both magical and sad. Having grown up in the 1960s seeing groups at major venues - The Beatles at Shea Stadium, for example - or at least in large auditoria, it was a shock to see and hear a "name" group performing amidst the sound of roller coaters and other rides. Had I known this occurrence was effectively what Mr. Greene would write about as the status quo two or three decades later; I would have added the term ironic.

This immaculate, sincere and heart-string-pulling story is a parable about the impact rock `n' had on the baby-boomers. Many of us would give whatever the asking price to have been in Greene's shoes. My secret and as-yet-unfulfilled fantasy is to - after coming into a large sum of money - use the proceeds to hire/join a band playing bars for a year...or maybe forever.

Why? Because this music and the musicians' life is what many of us felt was the act of perfection.

Touring this way is a virtual hand-to-mouth existence; low pay, long hours, venues that varied from the sublime to the ridiculous. And, as noted by Mr. Greene it wasn't just Jan and Dean and their band doing this. There are many, many other well-known performers from the 50s and 60s for whom this is the source of income or a major supplement. After all, not everyone got to be The Beatles, where the sheer volume of money earned allowed everyone to take their share and still allow the band members to live a life of luxury. For most of the bands - who had either a one-hit-wonder or even a stream of Top 40 hits - life now is much the same as before the success; namely a struggle to make ends meet.

The metaphysical benefits of camaraderie cannot and should not be undersold. If there is a message in this book it is, quite simply, be happy in your work.

Unfortunately, there is also a subplot in the story that is agonizingly tragic. Most/all of us know the story of Jan Berry's auto accident that left him physically and intellectually damaged. His long series of battles against his infirmities are inspiring even though it becomes clear that the war will be lost. This story is written in parallel with another story by Mr. Greene, one where his closest friend has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the end, both stories end in death but the joy of what was experienced before death wins out.