"Dead Man's Curve" is a 1964 hit song by Jan and Dean whose lyrics detail a teen street race gone awry.
The singer goes out for a leisurely drive one night in his Corvette StingRay, when a guy pulls up alongside in his Jaguar XKE and challenges him to a drag race. According to the song, the race starts at Sunset and Vine, traveling westbound on West Sunset Blvd., passing North La Brea Ave., North Crescent Heights Blvd., and North Doheny Dr. The original Schwab's Drug Store was located just east of Crescent Heights on Sunset. The North Whittier Drive curve, a nearly 90° right turn traveling west on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive, may have been the "dead man's curve" in the song, but there is debate on the actual location of the curve. The song ends with the singer relating his last memories of the ill-fated race to a doctor. Sound effects of screeching tires and crashing are also heard in the song.
Ironically; Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean, would himself later be involved in a near-fatal incident in 1966, when he crashed his own StingRay into a parked truck on North Whittier Drive near (but not on) Dead Man's Curve. Years later he would die from residual complications of this wreck.
[ + ] COF
[ - ] COF 0 points 3.7 yearsOct 7, 2021 21:28:07 ago (+0/-0)
The singer goes out for a leisurely drive one night in his Corvette StingRay, when a guy pulls up alongside in his Jaguar XKE and challenges him to a drag race. According to the song, the race starts at Sunset and Vine, traveling westbound on West Sunset Blvd., passing North La Brea Ave., North Crescent Heights Blvd., and North Doheny Dr. The original Schwab's Drug Store was located just east of Crescent Heights on Sunset. The North Whittier Drive curve, a nearly 90° right turn traveling west on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive, may have been the "dead man's curve" in the song, but there is debate on the actual location of the curve. The song ends with the singer relating his last memories of the ill-fated race to a doctor. Sound effects of screeching tires and crashing are also heard in the song.
Ironically; Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean, would himself later be involved in a near-fatal incident in 1966, when he crashed his own StingRay into a parked truck on North Whittier Drive near (but not on) Dead Man's Curve. Years later he would die from residual complications of this wreck.
[ + ] lord_nougat
[ - ] lord_nougat [op] 0 points 3.7 yearsOct 7, 2021 02:15:49 ago (+0/-0)