Tork, Goodman: On Common Ground

Two recent pop reissues have an Orange County connection.

With Rhino in the process of re-releasing the entire Monkees catalogue album-by-album, a tidbit worth noting is that Peter Tork, who played the lovably muddled bassist, stumbled into Orange County before he stumbled into the Monkees.

In 1965, Tork moved from New York to Long Beach and supported himself by pouring beers and washing dishes at the Golden Bear nightclub in Huntington Beach. He also began playing in pickup bands at the Golden Bear, backing some of the performers booked there--which is how he renewed acquaintance with Stephen Stills, whom he had known on the New York folk scene.

It was Stills who, after failing his own audition for “The Monkees” TV show, called to alert Tork to the tryouts. You and your Auntie Grizelda know the rest of the story.

Also recently released is “No Big Surprise: The Steve Goodman Anthology,” a double-CD collection of 23 studio tracks and 19 live songs from the singer-songwriter best known for writing Arlo Guthrie’s hit “City of New Orleans.” The compilation was released Sept. 20, the 10th anniversary of Goodman’s death (of leukemia, at 36).

Goodman was a Chicagoan (the compilation includes songs called “Go Cubs Go” and “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”) but he lived the final four years of his life in Seal Beach, where he had moved at the behest of his friend Steve Redfearn, then-general manager of the Pacific Amphitheatre.

In the album notes, Goodman’s widow, Nancy, recalls him setting up his own custom label, Red Pajamas Records: “The records originally were sold out of his little ‘Mom and Pop’ shop in our garage in Seal Beach. It was the realization of his American dream.”

“No Big Surprise” is available from Red Pajamas Records at its new address, 33 Music Square West, Suite 102A, Nashville, TN 37203, or by phone, (800) 521-2112.