No more shootin’ the curls

Just read that Jan Berry of Jan & Dean has died. Not too long ago, I found a Belgian pressing of Jan & Dean’s Greatest Hits in my collection, and was amazed that I had this and couldn’t remember the last time I had played it. So I got it all ready and put it right onto CD, and found out why . . . by the time I was done putting the disc together, I hoped not to hear it for another 20 years. I’m thinking Brian Wilson deserved more than some of the co-writing credit on “Surf City.” “Dead Man’s Curve” is a fairly typical, though fun, teen death song (actually, near-death song) of the era. “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” is a regrettable novelty. And everything else is awful, just awful. Not to speak ill of someone who’s just passed on, but it’s really not clear why we even remember Jan & Dean, musically speaking.

Oh, geez, I am going to hell, aren’t I?

(After I posted this, I spent the rest of the morning with “LOLFP” irretrievably stuck in my head. Karma’s a bitch.)