IN THE PIPELINE:Rock bio takes readers on tour

Tag : gift notebook


On Tinker Street, the main drag up in the woodsy hamlet ofWoodstock, N.Y., there’s a great little bookstore called TheGolden Notebook. When I ducked in there recently to avoid a softsummer storm, two things caught my eye.

First, three entire shelves were bursting with books about BobDylan (who lived/recorded up there in the mid 1960s — in facthis mysterious motorcycle accident happened just minutes from thestore).

Second was a blue-and-orange cover; a recent book called“When We Get To Surf City — A Journey Through Americain Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship and Dreams” writtenby the exceptionally talented Bob Greene (NPR commentator,“Nightline” correspondent, New York Times bestsellingauthor).

Could any self-respecting Huntington Beach resident resist a titlewith Surf City in it? Not this one, and so later that night, thefamily snug and asleep in the Catskill woods, I lost myself in thismarvelous story.

Some background from Publisher’s Weekly: “In 1992… Greene was invited onstage to sing the song ‘SurfCity’ with the 1960s surf duo Jan and Dean. Greenedidn’t know it at the time, but he would spend the next 15years touring and performing with them. Overall, the structure ofthe book mirrors perfectly life on the road — a blur studdedwith moments of great intensity.”

I was so taken with the book that when I got home, I wanted to talkwith both him and longtime Huntington Beach resident Dean Torrenceabout the journey. I’d never spoken with Greene before, buthis narration is so personal and engaging that after 300-some-oddpages, I felt like I’d put in a few miles myself with him andthe boys. The road-tested friendships, band camaraderie, thedelicate balance between Jan and Dean, a smattering of celebrityencounters and Greene’s gift for detail (filtered through hisown pinch-me-I-must-be- dreaming appreciation of the moments heexperienced) give the book a natural sparkle.

His enthusiasm in discussing the book is no less refreshing. Heworships surf music, the soundtrack of his youth, and so the chanceto join one of the genre’s A-teams as a guitarist/singer was(and still is) something very special.

“Every night we played we’d experience this rarething,” he told me from Chicago. “The looks onpeople’s faces as we played, what this music did to them— the joy — it’s so timeless and reassuring. Thiswas a dream for me that I still have trouble comprehending. I mean,playing on stage with Jan and Dean for so many years, I stilldon’t believe it. Plus the friendships I made, the moments weall shared together — I really wanted this book to give areader the sense of just how incredible this experience was forme.”

“I would have been disappointed had he not been writing abook,” Dean Torrence told me when I asked if he was awarethat Greene was documenting the experience. “But it really isa great read. It sort of made me tired in a way because Ididn’t realize we did so much in all those years. You justdon’t think about it while its happening.”

Today, Torrence continues to tour steadily (Jan Berry died in 2004)and from time to time Greene finds himself back onstage with hiscohorts. When not on the road, Torrence lives here in Surf Citywith his wife and two daughters (“Two girls for every boy— this boy anyway,” Torrence chuckles as he clips aline from Jan & Dean’s iconic surf anthem). As for hisdesire to write a book about his life as one of pop music’smost popular duos, he’s working on it now, transcribing hoursof audiotape.

At the International Surfing Museum here in town, running throughOctober there’s an exhibit featuring Jan and Deanmemorabilia, a loop running old Jan and Dean clips and concertsfrom the 1960s and some other surprises. And at jananddean.com you can learn more about the group and catch up on all ofDean’s latest performance dates.

Bob Greene remembers playing here in Surf City with the group yearsago, but for him, the essence of the term is not defined by just aspot on the map.

“One thing I came to realize is that ‘Surf City’is truly a state of mind,” he told me. “That special,elusive place just around the corner where you are always trying toget to. Where everything is better.”

“When We Get To Surf City” is available wherever booksare sold, and I encourage you to read it this summer. It is joyous,loving, funny and touching, like a salty breeze blowing memoriesacross the page. And it puts that music — that wonderfulmusic — right back in your head where it belongs.



CHRIS EPTING is the author of 14 books, including the new“Huntington Beach Then & Now.” You can write him at chris@chrisepting.com .