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[Short introduction by Dean Torrence]
Jan Berry and Dean Torrence
Jan and Dean
Ed's Soft Serve
I was cruisin' in my Stingray late one night,
When an X-K-E pulled up on my right
He
rolled down the window of his shiny new Jag,
And challenged me then and there to a drag
I said "You're on buddy -- my mill's running fine,
Let's come off the line now at Sunset and
Vine
But I'll go you one better, if you've got the nerve,
Let's race all the way -- to Ed's Soft Serve"
(Ed's Soft Serve) you first have to pay
(Ed's Soft Serve) you'd best keep away, from
my
(Ed's Soft Serve) I can hear 'em say:
"Y'all come back to Ed's Soft Serve"
The strip was deserted late Friday night;
We were buggin' each other while we sat out the light
We
both popped the clutch when the light turned green,
You shoulda heard the whine from my screamin' machine!
I flew past La Brea, Schwab's and Crescent Heights,
And all the Jag could see were my six taillights
He
passed me at Doheny then I started to swerve,
But I pulled her out and there we were - at Ed's Soft Serve
(Ed's Soft Serve) you first have to pay
(Ed's Soft Serve... [sounds of skids and crashes]
)
(Spoken): "Well, the last thing I remember, Doc,
I craved Soft Serve
And then I saw the Jag
slide into the curb
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight,
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right"
They had closed that place called Ed's Soft Serve!
(Ed's Soft Serve) you first have to pay
(Ed's Soft Serve) you'd best keep away, from
my
(Ed's Soft Serve) I can hear 'em say:
"Won't come back to Ed's Soft Serve"
(Ed's Soft Serve) you first have to pay
(Ed's Soft Serve) you'd best keep away, from
my
(Ed's Soft Serve) I can hear 'em say:
"Won't come back to Ed's Soft Serve"
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From an interview with Dean Torrence:
He [Jan Berry] could read and write music?
Absolutely. He minored in music [at UCLA]. He was getting grades on arrangements he was writing for Jan and Dean. If a
professor said, "Oh, that's no good," Jan would bring it in again four weeks later -- on a record. I'd seen him transpose
stuff while he was driving in his car. He'd go, "That key is wrong. Hand me the sheet music." Why he didn't just ask me to
drive while he changed the notes, I don't know.
Who came up with the original idea of "Dead Man's Curve"? There are four writers credited: Jan, Brian, Roger Christian
and Artie Kornfeld.
The way I remember it, Artie came up with the idea, and everybody contributed a verse here, a verse there. Most of the
good stuff was done by committee. Everybody was asked, "If you have a good idea, speak up." That's why the studio musicians
dug playing on Jan and Dean tracks, because we would do it our way first -- Jan's way -- and then he'd say, "We're open for
discussion. Anybody have something to add?" Glen Campbell would go, "I hear this on guitar . . ." Jan would say, "OK, that's
cool, do that."
There was an actual stretch of Sunset Boulevard locally known as a dead man's curve, although it was not where
Jan had the accident.
The one up near UCLA -- we all understood that was the one we were talking about. But we tried to keep it general too.
We talked about Sunset Boulevard, but we also mentioned spots in Hollywood. And we knew that everybody would have their own
dead man's curve and make that connection.
The car-crash sounds on the record seemed to be standard sound-library effects. But I read that for "Sidewalk Surfin'"
(1964), you taped yourselves wiping out on your own skateboards outside the studio.
You couldn't go to the sound library and ask for skateboarding. They didn't know what a skateboard was. "How about roller
skates?" No, that's no good. We raided the tape library for the car stuff, but the skateboards -- we had to do it ourselves.
And we carried our skateboards wherever we went. We always had one or two in the car. We were at a state-of-the-art studio
[United in Los Angeles], and we had state-of-the-art microphones that we could take outside. We just kept wiping out 'til
we got it right.
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