Review of Bob Green's "When We Get to Surf City"

Review of When We Get to Surf City by Bob Greene

By Phil Miglioratti

Every year, in the wind-chill days of winter, my wife and two daughters and I would gather at the dining room table to discuss our summer vacation plans, our hopes and dreams for an endless summer. If you were eavesdropping you’d have heard all the what-you’d-expect destinations; “rent a cottage by the lake,” visit our cousins in St. Louis,” “Disney World!” and (from guess who?) “Let’s follow the Beach Boys’ tour!”

Three out of four ain't bad, I guess. Plus, almost every summer we eventually made it to a Beach Boys concert. And, as our kids have grown older, married and each brought a daughter into the world who, even at the ages of four and two, already have their favorite Beach Boys song – well, I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed that we never hit the road for a city-by-city string of summer time fun music.

I had made my peace with merely one summer night – live! show a year until Bob Greene ruined it for me with the publication of his latest book When We Get to Surf City. The acclaimed journalist recounts his days as a member of Jan and Dean’s touring band with 340 pages of “What I Did On My Summer Vacation.” With his previous releases entitled All Summer Long;, Chevrolet Summers, Dairy Queen Nights; Be True to Your School, Bob Greene is at the head of the class when it comes to knowing what would make a Jan and Dean fan both curious and jealous.

When We Get to Surf City is more than a travelogue of the cities and the stadiums, the ballparks and ballrooms where they played to throngs of several hundred to tens of thousands; this is vintage Bob Green. He takes us into the stories of people, places and things that transform a part-time summer job into the glad and the sad of relationships. He takes us back to the happy sounds and adolescent memories of riding the wild surf to the real world conflicts and adult tensions of low-budget travel (not quite a diet of popsicles and vegetables, but certainly not what I expected). More than that, the author gives us a backstage glimpse into life after dead man’s curve and how it altered the history of Jan and Dean as well as the lives of Jan Berry and Dan Torrence.

If you are looking for a career retrospective of Jan and Dean or an in depth commentary on their place in rock and roll history, you may be disappointed. You’ll run across many historical bits of information but only as they serve the purpose of better explaining the mood or motivation of our heroes in their after-Top 40-stardom. For example, we read of Jan recording and eventually releasing his first solo album – an amazing accomplishment for a man who barely survived that crash in his Corvette decades ago – but only as it helps us see him in the present, struggling to prove his capability and retain his dignity. You’ll find nothing of life in the studio or recording techniques as they have nothing to do with this book; a book about friends and friendships, even failures.

So too are the cameos – all-too-brief mentions of some of rock and roll’s most famous stars (including the Beach Boys) – You’ll appreciate what you get (Chuck Berry’s arrival at one of their shows is classic Chuck Berry!) but you’ll always want more (who’s idea was it for the Jan and Dean band to share a dressing room with Martha and the Vandellas?). And, while the historic intersection of Jan and Dean’s and the Beach Boys’ careers is not overlooked, you’ll wonder just how deep feelings of jealousy night run in Dean as he flies coach and his buddies fly first class.

After reading in various interviews through the years Dean’s frustration with Jan’s dictatorial control in the studio and with the Berry family after Jan’s accident, it is comforting to watch him hunt down Jan in the airport. During a flight delay Jan disappears, found eventually by Dean, seated in a snack shop having difficulty managing his plate of food which Dean quietly cuts for him assuming they are unobserved. A tender moment appreciated by this reader that begs for more details or further insight.

In actuality, this is as much a book about the band members as it is about Jan Berry and Dean Torrence. Maybe more, since we discover how secluded Jan came to be in his own world (maybe his only way of surviving) and how rare it was for Dean to discuss things personal (such as family). Bob’s journal entries on Chris Farmer (did he really make decisions on who sang and when?) or Gary Griffin (fortuitous that he and Bob grew up in the same region of Ohio) reminded me the book is about Bob’s personal experience playing with the band; for him, Surf City is a “place” that transcends the #1 breakthrough single.

Did I enjoy the book? Yes. At times did I wish for less sociological insight and more inside scoops on Dean or Jan? Absolutely. In retrospect, I’d read When We Get to Surf City differently next time. Kind of like I read a Christian devotional or a thought-for-the-day guide. Certainly not like a novel or an in depth documentary. When Bob Greene got to surf city he didn’t find a girl; he found some friends.


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