Death # 3 - Jan & Dean

I could have put this in the just completed Be My Baby series. It has pretty much the same drum track and indeed the same drummer Hal Blaine and band, the legendary Wrecking Crew team of LA studio musicians. But perhaps it slots more comfortably in the 'death' category. Remarkably cheery given the subject matter. Also geographically quite specific, detailing the route from Sunset Strip to the notorious curve in the road an almost 90 degree turn in the road on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive.. Of course the song was given added poignancy and mystique when writer and band leader Jan Berry had his own near fatal accident a couple of years later not far from the very same spot which derailed the duo's career. Racing cars was a real American teenage phenomenon, rites of passage and distraction from boredom, never mind a source of fictional twists in the late Fifties and early Sixties from Rebel Without a Cause  to American Graffiti  to Grease to this that's probably worth a book chapter of its own if it hasn't already been written. And the message is, 'Don't do it kids!'

'I was cruisin' in my Sting Ray late one night

When an xke pulled up on the right
And 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 runnin' fine
Let's come off the line now, at Sunset and Vine
But I'll throw you one better if you've got the nerve
Let's race all the way
To Dead Man's Curve"

Dead Man's Curve, it's no place to play
Dead Man's Curve, you best keep away
Dead Man's Curve, I can hear 'em say
Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve

The street 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 should of heard the whine from my screamin' machine
I flew past Labrea, Schwab's, and Crescent Heights
And all the Jag could see were my six tail lights
He passed me at Doheny then I started to swerve
But I pulled her out and there we were
At Dead Man's Curve

Dead Man's Curve, it's no place to play
Dead Man's Curve

Well, the last thing I remember, Doc, I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right
Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve

Dead Man's Curve, it's no place to play
Dead Man's Curve, you best keep away
Dead Man's Curve, I can hear 'em say
Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve'