G. Barry Anderson Book Review of “When We Get to Surf City: A Journey through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams," by Bob Greene.
It all began quite simply.
Bob Greene was invited to a Jan and Dean gig and took advantage of what looked to be a one-shot opportunity to play the guitar briefly on stage. It led to 15 years of on-again, off-again touring with the 1960s rock-and-roll band known as Jan and Dean, all recounted here in “When We Get to Surf City.”
This is a wonderful book, but like some classes, it comes with a prerequisite. You need to have an appreciation of, perhaps even a fondness for, early-to-mid-1960s music that is loosely defined as “surf” music. Examples from Jan and Dean would include “Deadman’s Curve,” “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” and their 1963 No. 1 hit, “Surf City.” (I’m fully qualified to write about band music and bands, having been tossed out of my seventh-grade band by the director — and properly so, I might add).
Greene does a masterful job of weaving together the story of Dean Torrence and Jan Berry and their rise to the top of the pop music world, Jan Berry’s tragic, and near fatal, automobile accident, and his subsequent recovery which allowed him to once again play on tour.
To read the entire review, see the print edition of the Hutchinson Leader for Tuesday, July 15, 2008.
(Barry Anderson writes occasional book reviews for the Hutchinson Leader; comments about this review, and suggestions for future reviews, can be sent to [email protected]. Bob Greene’s “When We Get to Surf City” is available at area bookstores, online and through the Hutchinson Public Library. Greene is the author of numerous other books, two of which have also been favorably reviewed here, “Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents,” as well as “And You Know You Should Be Glad: The Story of Lifelong Friendship").
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Perennially judged as one of Minnesota’s and the nation’s best community newspapers, the Hutchinson Leader serves 20 communities in McLeod, Meeker, Renville, Sibley and Wright counties. 
