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Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles Flo and Eddie and Frank Zappa | Rock Music Biography and Memoir of a Legendary Musician | Behind the Scenes with The Turtles and Frank Zappa’s Band
Two full-color eight-page photo inserts
312 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
April 29, 2013
I don't buy many new books these days but when I heard about this one I ordered it right away. I am not a huge fan of Howard Kaylan's music though I do have the Turtles Greatest Hits and a couple of Flo & Eddie albums. Indeed I only saw him perform once when he sang with the Mothers at the Bath Festival in 1970. However Howard Kaylan has always struck me as an interesting person so I thought this would be an interesting book. I found this an amusing and entertaining read though I did struggle a bit keeping up with all his relationships as he got married five times! He admits he made a lot of bad choices but he is a survivor. I even ordered two more Flo & Eddie albums after reading this.
June 6, 2013
It's a rock autobiography - a light read with lots of name dropping and rollicking accounts of the life. If you're into Frank Zappa, The Turtles, 60's pop and 70's excess, it's another Spinal-Tap tinted window on that world; on that level it's well worth the time reading (and it'll go quickly).
Of course, if you're not into the above, and looking for a more poetic/introspective personal account, you might be disappointed. But that wouldn't be rock and roll, would it?
Of course, if you're not into the above, and looking for a more poetic/introspective personal account, you might be disappointed. But that wouldn't be rock and roll, would it?
July 12, 2016
I always thought The Turtles were an underrated band, but I did not know an awful lot about them personally (and I never made the connection that Captain Cloud from Get Crazy, was in fact Howard Kaylan aka "Eddie"). And though there is a long story behind the Flo and Eddie moniker, I did not realize it came from their stint as Frank Zappa's back-up singers. And yes, they were on stage at Montreux when "some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground." After barely escaping with their lives, they went back the next day and salvaged the cowbell used in their act.
This is for people who will read any book about the '60s and '70s because all the usual suspects are here. Because Kaylan kept a diary of those years, he has pretty good recall of events including the first time he met the Beatles and Hendrix at the Speakeasy Club (a story so funny I do not want to ruin it). Apparently, this was made into a movie which I now need to track down. What makes it interesting is this is the story of a second tier group that achieved massive singles success, then broke up. They blew through that money quickly and were forced to keep the wolf from the door while keeping up the veneer of an A-list existence by doing many side projects with the likes of Alice Cooper, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon (and the cartoon character, "Strawberry Shortcake"). Hence, while Kaylan was actually collecting unemployment, he still got to fly on other peoples' private jets.
Of course they could have managed their money a little better. However, Flo and Eddie ended up owning The Turtles masters and thanks to hooking up with some honest management and Rhino records, they were not as badly ripped-off as most artists from this era. Then again, if they hadn't flaunted it when they had it, the story might have been a lot less crazy. Among a few anecdotes I recognized from Spinal Tap was one about a band whose album cover was deemed "sexist" and replaced with a generic yellow obelisk.
This is for people who will read any book about the '60s and '70s because all the usual suspects are here. Because Kaylan kept a diary of those years, he has pretty good recall of events including the first time he met the Beatles and Hendrix at the Speakeasy Club (a story so funny I do not want to ruin it). Apparently, this was made into a movie which I now need to track down. What makes it interesting is this is the story of a second tier group that achieved massive singles success, then broke up. They blew through that money quickly and were forced to keep the wolf from the door while keeping up the veneer of an A-list existence by doing many side projects with the likes of Alice Cooper, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon (and the cartoon character, "Strawberry Shortcake"). Hence, while Kaylan was actually collecting unemployment, he still got to fly on other peoples' private jets.
Of course they could have managed their money a little better. However, Flo and Eddie ended up owning The Turtles masters and thanks to hooking up with some honest management and Rhino records, they were not as badly ripped-off as most artists from this era. Then again, if they hadn't flaunted it when they had it, the story might have been a lot less crazy. Among a few anecdotes I recognized from Spinal Tap was one about a band whose album cover was deemed "sexist" and replaced with a generic yellow obelisk.
January 1, 2022
A rock’n’roll life full of misspent youth, debauchery, and name-dropping
I’ve known that Howard Kaylan was literate and funny for many years so I hoped a memoir by him would leap from the page with hilarity and insight. I’m not disappointed. I am impressed by the fact that as many drugs as he has consumed and as much philandering as he did, he was not so wasted that he didn’t keep a pretty detailed diary through those years and remember in great detail to put it all (or most of it) down on the page. Howard lived a wild and crazy life and lived to tell the tale.
Like many male teenagers of the early 1960’s, Howard Kaylan and his cohorts had ambitions to be rock’n’roll stars. They’d been hooked in the early 60’s by the Beach Boys and became inextricably committed once they’d been exposed to the Beatles. For a while it seemed there were nascent young bands springing up on every corner. The boys of the future Turtles were not even out of high school when they began as a surf-party combo called the Nightriders, then became the Crossfires. Howard and his non-instrument playing friend Mark Vollman picked up saxophones so they’d get paid as musicians whenever the band was lucky enough to get a gig that paid. To get a record contract, they would have to get a demo record made so they made that happen.
Howard admits that they were naïve and stupid and got royally ripped off by bad management and recording contracts. They were fortunate to get in on the folk rock bandwagon of 1965 in the wake of Bob Dylan’s electric conversion and the Byrds’ electric conversion of Dylan’s folk standards into danceable rock’n’roll. The Byrds had “Mr. Tambourine Man”. The Turtles got “It Ain’t Me, Babe”. Along similar lines they included a few other Dylan covers, plus the protest song “Eve of Destruction”. Howard even contributed a few angry young man songs of his own such as “Wanderin’ Kind” and “Let the Cold Winds Blow”. The first album did well but Howard realized the folk rock theme did not come naturally. Of “Wanderin’ Kind”, he said it was “very much a Bob Dylan ‘boot heels will be wanderin’’ kind of song…I was 17 or 18 years old when I wrote it, and my boot heels never wandered in their lives. It was sort of a protest song, but I had nothing to protest.”
Changing their image, they aspired to do ‘good time music’ in the vein of the Lovin’ Spoonful, and “You Baby”, the title track from their second album, did just the trick. They introduced humor into their music, something that was absent from the very serious first album, and with their third album, they struck gold with the monster hit that would mark their lives, “Happy Together”. Life was changing too fast for these young lads. They thought they had money so they spent it, got married, bought houses, and went on their first tour in England.
This is territory that is also covered by the movie, ‘My Dinner with Jimi’, with a screenplay by Howard. They were in London at the epicenter of the rock music scene at a propitious time, the weekend after The Beatles had released their monumental album, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. On this trip, they meet Graham Nash (then with the Hollies), who plays the Beatles masterpiece for them the first time, Donovan, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, and the Fab Four themselves at their permanent spot at the hippest London nightclub the Speakeasy.
It doesn’t go quite as well as they would hope. The Turtles are gushing fans. Howard bonds with Paul a bit as they both share their love for Little Richard but John, not in the mood to suffer fans gladly, eviscerates rhythm guitarist Jim Tucker mercilessly, shattering “Tucko’s” illusions and prompting him to leave the band after their tour along with the music business in general for good.
Howard runs into Brian Jones, who surprisingly is a big Turtles fan, introducing him to this new sensation Jimi Hendrix. Brian disappears and Jimi invites Howard to join him for a midnight breakfast of spinach omelets and multiple Scotch and Cokes. At this point, Howard hasn’t heard much of Hendrix but is immediately charmed by his charisma as he gets progressively sicker after more Scotches and omelet and proceeds to throw up all over the table and onto Hendrix’s red velvet suit before passing out and somehow making it to his hotel later.
A few more records, lots more drugs, and performances later occurs another memorable episode in the life of Howard Kaylan and the Turtles when they are invited to play at the White House by Tricia Nixon, a huge Turtles fan. Fortunately, her father is not there because the Turtles by 1969 are vehemently anti-Nixon and anti-Vietnam war and things would not have gone as smoothly as they did if he had been there. They were briefed by secret service men, who proceeded to unload their equipment. As they proceed to unload the trap case containing the snare drum and percussion, they tip it to one side and trigger the switch on the electric metronome/tuner that they always carry with them.
‘tick…tick…tick.”
Out came the guns.
“Up against the wall!”
Oh, we went there. Up against that wall it was as they carted off our little black box. We stood there, a rock group inside enemy territory, the Nixon White House, looking through the cross hairs from the wrong direction. Guys in hazmat suits were brought in to deal with our little plastic tuner, and their freak-out escalated yet another notch when someone hit the 440-cycle A tone started shrieking from the metronome.”
After the G-men break apart every component of the metronome, the Turtles embark on what turns out to be their most surreal gig. They were taken to the Abraham Lincoln library to use as a dressing room, which is they proceed to snort lines of coke from Lincoln’s desk.
All of that happens before the 60’s had even come to a close and before Howard and his cohort Mark Vollman started performing with Frank Zappa and the Mothers. The time with Zappa doesn’t involve any more trips to the White House, although the Mothers do make a movie, ‘200 Motels’, that includes one Beatle—Ringo and play with one other Beatle—John—at the Fillmore East. Their time with Zappa is eventful. At the Montreux Jazz Festival near the end of 1971 while the Mothers are playing some enthusiastic fan shoots off a flare gun toward the ceiling, setting it on fire. Fortunately, no one is injured but all of the Mothers’ equipment, save one cowbell, is destroyed in the fire. Deep Purple did base their classic song, “Smoke on the Water” on the event. Shortly afterward, after an encore in London, some crazed fan jumped on stage and threw Frank off of it, breaking his leg and knocking him unconscious. After incidents like those, the days were numbered for that particular configuration of the Mothers.
In addition to the aforementioned names, several more are mentioned, a who’s who of famous music celebrities of the 60’s and 70’s: Alice Cooper, Harry Nilsson, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. Howard has an older and slightly wiser attitude toward his misspent youth. He admits he was young and foolish and not a good or faithful husband (I think he’s on his fourth marriage now) and he consumed enough drugs to kill someone half his age and managed to survive. He and Mark became Flo & Eddie while with Zappa because they could not perform under their own names in the fallout from the Turtles’ breakup and lawsuits with former managers. Mark has taught music business at Belmont University in Nashville and Howard has written some science fiction stories and writes a blog for a Turtles website and, intermittently, they have performed as Flo & Eddie and, more recently, as the Turtles since they sued to get their own names back.
He realizes that he made too many mistakes to ever undo but he doesn’t regret much of it:
‘The years fifteen through twenty were—as they probably are for most people—the most formative years of my life. Mainly, during this time, I learned to make my own decisions. Had I truly realized how important this time in my life was, I probably would have taken greater pains to be more serious about choices that obviously affected every facet of my future…I personally don’t think I had any choice in the matter. I was destined to do this entertainment thing from a very early age, and I knew it. And when anyone is that certain about anything, and is prepared to stay the course for his or her convictions, that path is a righteous one and that dream is destined to come true. Honestly. I truly believe, and I’ll go down fighting on this one, that this is true.”
I’ve known that Howard Kaylan was literate and funny for many years so I hoped a memoir by him would leap from the page with hilarity and insight. I’m not disappointed. I am impressed by the fact that as many drugs as he has consumed and as much philandering as he did, he was not so wasted that he didn’t keep a pretty detailed diary through those years and remember in great detail to put it all (or most of it) down on the page. Howard lived a wild and crazy life and lived to tell the tale.
Like many male teenagers of the early 1960’s, Howard Kaylan and his cohorts had ambitions to be rock’n’roll stars. They’d been hooked in the early 60’s by the Beach Boys and became inextricably committed once they’d been exposed to the Beatles. For a while it seemed there were nascent young bands springing up on every corner. The boys of the future Turtles were not even out of high school when they began as a surf-party combo called the Nightriders, then became the Crossfires. Howard and his non-instrument playing friend Mark Vollman picked up saxophones so they’d get paid as musicians whenever the band was lucky enough to get a gig that paid. To get a record contract, they would have to get a demo record made so they made that happen.
Howard admits that they were naïve and stupid and got royally ripped off by bad management and recording contracts. They were fortunate to get in on the folk rock bandwagon of 1965 in the wake of Bob Dylan’s electric conversion and the Byrds’ electric conversion of Dylan’s folk standards into danceable rock’n’roll. The Byrds had “Mr. Tambourine Man”. The Turtles got “It Ain’t Me, Babe”. Along similar lines they included a few other Dylan covers, plus the protest song “Eve of Destruction”. Howard even contributed a few angry young man songs of his own such as “Wanderin’ Kind” and “Let the Cold Winds Blow”. The first album did well but Howard realized the folk rock theme did not come naturally. Of “Wanderin’ Kind”, he said it was “very much a Bob Dylan ‘boot heels will be wanderin’’ kind of song…I was 17 or 18 years old when I wrote it, and my boot heels never wandered in their lives. It was sort of a protest song, but I had nothing to protest.”
Changing their image, they aspired to do ‘good time music’ in the vein of the Lovin’ Spoonful, and “You Baby”, the title track from their second album, did just the trick. They introduced humor into their music, something that was absent from the very serious first album, and with their third album, they struck gold with the monster hit that would mark their lives, “Happy Together”. Life was changing too fast for these young lads. They thought they had money so they spent it, got married, bought houses, and went on their first tour in England.
This is territory that is also covered by the movie, ‘My Dinner with Jimi’, with a screenplay by Howard. They were in London at the epicenter of the rock music scene at a propitious time, the weekend after The Beatles had released their monumental album, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. On this trip, they meet Graham Nash (then with the Hollies), who plays the Beatles masterpiece for them the first time, Donovan, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, and the Fab Four themselves at their permanent spot at the hippest London nightclub the Speakeasy.
It doesn’t go quite as well as they would hope. The Turtles are gushing fans. Howard bonds with Paul a bit as they both share their love for Little Richard but John, not in the mood to suffer fans gladly, eviscerates rhythm guitarist Jim Tucker mercilessly, shattering “Tucko’s” illusions and prompting him to leave the band after their tour along with the music business in general for good.
Howard runs into Brian Jones, who surprisingly is a big Turtles fan, introducing him to this new sensation Jimi Hendrix. Brian disappears and Jimi invites Howard to join him for a midnight breakfast of spinach omelets and multiple Scotch and Cokes. At this point, Howard hasn’t heard much of Hendrix but is immediately charmed by his charisma as he gets progressively sicker after more Scotches and omelet and proceeds to throw up all over the table and onto Hendrix’s red velvet suit before passing out and somehow making it to his hotel later.
A few more records, lots more drugs, and performances later occurs another memorable episode in the life of Howard Kaylan and the Turtles when they are invited to play at the White House by Tricia Nixon, a huge Turtles fan. Fortunately, her father is not there because the Turtles by 1969 are vehemently anti-Nixon and anti-Vietnam war and things would not have gone as smoothly as they did if he had been there. They were briefed by secret service men, who proceeded to unload their equipment. As they proceed to unload the trap case containing the snare drum and percussion, they tip it to one side and trigger the switch on the electric metronome/tuner that they always carry with them.
‘tick…tick…tick.”
Out came the guns.
“Up against the wall!”
Oh, we went there. Up against that wall it was as they carted off our little black box. We stood there, a rock group inside enemy territory, the Nixon White House, looking through the cross hairs from the wrong direction. Guys in hazmat suits were brought in to deal with our little plastic tuner, and their freak-out escalated yet another notch when someone hit the 440-cycle A tone started shrieking from the metronome.”
After the G-men break apart every component of the metronome, the Turtles embark on what turns out to be their most surreal gig. They were taken to the Abraham Lincoln library to use as a dressing room, which is they proceed to snort lines of coke from Lincoln’s desk.
All of that happens before the 60’s had even come to a close and before Howard and his cohort Mark Vollman started performing with Frank Zappa and the Mothers. The time with Zappa doesn’t involve any more trips to the White House, although the Mothers do make a movie, ‘200 Motels’, that includes one Beatle—Ringo and play with one other Beatle—John—at the Fillmore East. Their time with Zappa is eventful. At the Montreux Jazz Festival near the end of 1971 while the Mothers are playing some enthusiastic fan shoots off a flare gun toward the ceiling, setting it on fire. Fortunately, no one is injured but all of the Mothers’ equipment, save one cowbell, is destroyed in the fire. Deep Purple did base their classic song, “Smoke on the Water” on the event. Shortly afterward, after an encore in London, some crazed fan jumped on stage and threw Frank off of it, breaking his leg and knocking him unconscious. After incidents like those, the days were numbered for that particular configuration of the Mothers.
In addition to the aforementioned names, several more are mentioned, a who’s who of famous music celebrities of the 60’s and 70’s: Alice Cooper, Harry Nilsson, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. Howard has an older and slightly wiser attitude toward his misspent youth. He admits he was young and foolish and not a good or faithful husband (I think he’s on his fourth marriage now) and he consumed enough drugs to kill someone half his age and managed to survive. He and Mark became Flo & Eddie while with Zappa because they could not perform under their own names in the fallout from the Turtles’ breakup and lawsuits with former managers. Mark has taught music business at Belmont University in Nashville and Howard has written some science fiction stories and writes a blog for a Turtles website and, intermittently, they have performed as Flo & Eddie and, more recently, as the Turtles since they sued to get their own names back.
He realizes that he made too many mistakes to ever undo but he doesn’t regret much of it:
‘The years fifteen through twenty were—as they probably are for most people—the most formative years of my life. Mainly, during this time, I learned to make my own decisions. Had I truly realized how important this time in my life was, I probably would have taken greater pains to be more serious about choices that obviously affected every facet of my future…I personally don’t think I had any choice in the matter. I was destined to do this entertainment thing from a very early age, and I knew it. And when anyone is that certain about anything, and is prepared to stay the course for his or her convictions, that path is a righteous one and that dream is destined to come true. Honestly. I truly believe, and I’ll go down fighting on this one, that this is true.”
July 29, 2020
Howard Kaylan is one-half of the great singing duo of The Phlourescent Leech and Eddie, better known as Flo & Eddie. Their octave-defying vocals gave them the ability to sound like pretty girls as well as dudes singing backup for an endless list of artists. Their biggest claim to fame was as the vocalists in The Turtles.
Unfortunately, The Turtles don't get enough attention in the book with the same love as The Mothers, and that might be due to endless lawsuits with the other band members, particularly co-founder Al Nichol. Oh, well.
Many parts of the book read like an outline, as in "we did this and we did that", with little insight shown towards their great albums. There's thankfully a lot of cool Frank Zappa stories from his time in The Mothers, but even the Flo & Eddie band get little coverage. If Ray Davies produced one of my albums I'd have a lot to say about him. Kaylan does not, except to complain about his production talent.
Shell Shocked, named after the aborted Turtles album Shell Shock, only finds its voice when Kaylan lists every bad business deal made, his love for doing drugs and his endless quest for pussy. It's a fairly vulgar book, redeemed only by several touching accounts regarding Marc Bolan and Harry Nilsson.
Unfortunately, The Turtles don't get enough attention in the book with the same love as The Mothers, and that might be due to endless lawsuits with the other band members, particularly co-founder Al Nichol. Oh, well.
Many parts of the book read like an outline, as in "we did this and we did that", with little insight shown towards their great albums. There's thankfully a lot of cool Frank Zappa stories from his time in The Mothers, but even the Flo & Eddie band get little coverage. If Ray Davies produced one of my albums I'd have a lot to say about him. Kaylan does not, except to complain about his production talent.
Shell Shocked, named after the aborted Turtles album Shell Shock, only finds its voice when Kaylan lists every bad business deal made, his love for doing drugs and his endless quest for pussy. It's a fairly vulgar book, redeemed only by several touching accounts regarding Marc Bolan and Harry Nilsson.
February 18, 2024
Got this for the Zappa connection, as I'd really no idea how prolific and influential Flo and Eddie were (albeit intermittently) and how many other musicians' recordings they were involved in. The book doesn't gloss over Howard's shortcomings, and he takes full credit for the hardest parts of his life. A good escapist read.
March 1, 2020
I personally think that Kaylan and Volman may have the greatest two-part high harmonies in Rock for white dudes (look up their CV and argue that shit). However, I caution against reading this. Why? It's really just a tawdry travelogue of fucking, drugging, and shit-talk about the long-dead. Also, hearing anyone rhapsodize about the benefits of weed at this remove is just exhausting. Listen to the records, keep your memories pure.
October 11, 2018
Hugely entertaining book by one of the most underrated vocalists in rock.
It helped knit together all the different relationships of a musical kind that I knew that Howard and partner Mark Volman have enjoyed over the years, and the friendships that underpinned them.
Oddly enough, there is little on his relationship with Volman which seems strange given the length of time that they have been partners.
I had the immense pleasure of seeing The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie supporting Alice Cooper in Glasgow on his Billion Dollar Babies tour. It remains a heartfelt
desire to see Howard and Mark as The Turtles in the UK at some point.
It helped knit together all the different relationships of a musical kind that I knew that Howard and partner Mark Volman have enjoyed over the years, and the friendships that underpinned them.
Oddly enough, there is little on his relationship with Volman which seems strange given the length of time that they have been partners.
I had the immense pleasure of seeing The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie supporting Alice Cooper in Glasgow on his Billion Dollar Babies tour. It remains a heartfelt
desire to see Howard and Mark as The Turtles in the UK at some point.
June 22, 2013
I actually don't care too much about reading musician autobiographies. (besides the Beatles, even still) You won't catch me reading any autobiographies of the guys of Motley Crue or Poison because I would find it boring.
My guy friend let me borrow this book (with a signed dedication in the front) because he had gotten me into a lot of Frank Zappa related things, beginning with what would end up being my favorite book, "I'm With the Band" by Pamela Des Barres. (though I don't know if I'd be up for reading more groupie tell-alls.)
Anyway, what does make me want to read music autobiographies is if:
1. Its funny/insightful
2. Its by somebody I marginally like.
3. Its not completely full of self-aggrandizemnet, "These are the people I fucked, these are the people who fucked me over, my life was pretty fucking oresum."
The incredibly naive babe in the woods that I am, I tend to take tell-alls at face value, not really counting that some of the details have been fabricated/exaggerated/glossed over, what have you. Why make things up if you're going to include times when you were at your lowest lows? Pity? IDEK.
For what's its worth, Howie Kaylan mostly takes accountability for his mistakes and trasgressions during his life, almost as if to say "Yeah, I did this. I'm not proud of it and I know better now but that's what happened." The stories stretch plausibility, (doing coke lines in the Lincoln Bedroom, meeting John and Paul while they're trying to peek under girls' skirts at a restaurant like a pair of teenagers) Kaylan tells it with a sense of humor and a breathless "Man, I can't believe this happened to me." kind of way.
My guy friend let me borrow this book (with a signed dedication in the front) because he had gotten me into a lot of Frank Zappa related things, beginning with what would end up being my favorite book, "I'm With the Band" by Pamela Des Barres. (though I don't know if I'd be up for reading more groupie tell-alls.)
Anyway, what does make me want to read music autobiographies is if:
1. Its funny/insightful
2. Its by somebody I marginally like.
3. Its not completely full of self-aggrandizemnet, "These are the people I fucked, these are the people who fucked me over, my life was pretty fucking oresum."
The incredibly naive babe in the woods that I am, I tend to take tell-alls at face value, not really counting that some of the details have been fabricated/exaggerated/glossed over, what have you. Why make things up if you're going to include times when you were at your lowest lows? Pity? IDEK.
For what's its worth, Howie Kaylan mostly takes accountability for his mistakes and trasgressions during his life, almost as if to say "Yeah, I did this. I'm not proud of it and I know better now but that's what happened." The stories stretch plausibility, (doing coke lines in the Lincoln Bedroom, meeting John and Paul while they're trying to peek under girls' skirts at a restaurant like a pair of teenagers) Kaylan tells it with a sense of humor and a breathless "Man, I can't believe this happened to me." kind of way.
March 22, 2014
The guy who sang harmony on "Happy Together" led a fascinating life. Kaylan careened through rock n' roll (& pop culture) history for four decades, making friends with Zappa, Hendrix, Lennon, Nilsson, Brian Jones, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry, Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley, Tom Jones, Ramones, Springsteen, Psych Furs and on and on.
Flo & Eddie -- and Kaylan and and his lifelong partner-in-arms Mark Volman became known as -- knew *everyone* in the biz. A little bit of disciplined high school music training went *a long way* in the rock n roll era, evidently.
I get the feeling Kaylan is a true mensch. He seems like a lifelong entertainer who could work any stage. As a result, he is damn fine story teller here. The opener about doing lines off of Abe Lincoln's desk in Dick Nixon's White House ("Yes, that Abraham Lincoln and that White House") was a brilliant glimpse into 1969.
One curiosity: He devotes almost no attention to Volman. The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie have been together longer than any of their marriages. Then again, "Happy Together" really is a song worth devoting a life to singing.
Flo & Eddie -- and Kaylan and and his lifelong partner-in-arms Mark Volman became known as -- knew *everyone* in the biz. A little bit of disciplined high school music training went *a long way* in the rock n roll era, evidently.
I get the feeling Kaylan is a true mensch. He seems like a lifelong entertainer who could work any stage. As a result, he is damn fine story teller here. The opener about doing lines off of Abe Lincoln's desk in Dick Nixon's White House ("Yes, that Abraham Lincoln and that White House") was a brilliant glimpse into 1969.
One curiosity: He devotes almost no attention to Volman. The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie have been together longer than any of their marriages. Then again, "Happy Together" really is a song worth devoting a life to singing.
June 28, 2016
Howard Kaylan may not be a household name in rock & pop but everyone knows the Turtles and hits like "Happy Together" and "You Showed Me". Due to typical music biz legal shenanigans, he and his Turtles partner Mark V0lman had to adopt new names and so became Flo & Eddie. Now you've probably heard of them.
Howard's tales of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll are pretty standard but the number of acts he has worked with over the years is pretty incredible. Though the book sometimes replaces story-telling with name-dropping, it never becomes tired due to the pace. Sometimes I wished he would slow down and linger awhile on some aspect of his career. However, it is a rollicking good time overall and we get to see Kaylan's growth as an artist and business person. There are great stories for fans of Frank Zappa, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and even Strawberry Shortcake. Howard and Mark have sung back-up on so many classic songs, you'll be stunned. The post-litigation Turtles still tour, catch 'em if you can.
Howard's tales of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll are pretty standard but the number of acts he has worked with over the years is pretty incredible. Though the book sometimes replaces story-telling with name-dropping, it never becomes tired due to the pace. Sometimes I wished he would slow down and linger awhile on some aspect of his career. However, it is a rollicking good time overall and we get to see Kaylan's growth as an artist and business person. There are great stories for fans of Frank Zappa, Marc Bolan, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and even Strawberry Shortcake. Howard and Mark have sung back-up on so many classic songs, you'll be stunned. The post-litigation Turtles still tour, catch 'em if you can.
August 6, 2014
I felt like I read this book before. Interchangeable with other tales of groupies and cocaine but a fun read nonetheless.
June 23, 2013
(Crossposted from my blog)
For the next month or so, most of my writing time will be taken up with copy-edits on the Beach Boys book and on my novel (along with the Doctor Who posts and How To Build Your Own Time Machine). So for the next month most of what’s posted here will be rather light book reviews.
To start with, Shell-Shocked: My Life With The Turtles, Flo And Eddie, Frank Zappa etc. by Howard Kaylan.
For those who don’t know the name Howard Kaylan, he’s probably most famous as the lead singer of the Turtles. He sang lead on all their hits, as well as writing Elenore and a lot of their album tracks, but after they split up in the late sixties, he and Mark Volman (the Turtles’ backing vocalist, tambourine player, and comedian to Kaylan’s straight man) went on to do an immense amount of other interesting work — lead vocalists with the Mothers of Invention for a couple of years, backing vocals with T-Rex, backing vocals on Hungry Heart by Springsteen, and much more, as well as their own albums of hippie comedy-folk-pop under the name Flo And Eddie.
Kaylan’s autobiography is a fascinating, but frustrating read. Kaylan is clearly one of the more intelligent, thoughtful, 60s rock stars, and some of the insights given into the actual working methods of the bands he’s worked with are absolutely fascinating. I hadn’t realised before that Kaylan modelled his vocal style on that of Colin Blunstone (musically he and Volman were definitely Anglophiles, working with Ray Davies and covering the Small Faces at a time when those musicians were nearly unknown in the US), that he and Volman patterned their stage double-act on Louis Prima and Keely Smith, or that the Turtles’ stylistic change from their early folk-rock to the bouncy pop of Happy Together was inspired by the Lovin’ Spoonful, but all these things are very obvious once you know.
When he talks about this stuff, the book is at its best — I found the discussions of his writing the great Turtles song Marmendy Hill, or the recording of Lady-O (the last and best Turtles single) riveting, and also loved the insights into Zappa’s working methods, and little details like Springsteen being unable to sing on-key without holding his guitar.
Those portions of the book are, to my mind, easily the most interesting, and I wish there could have been more of them — the recording of the Turtle Soup album, for example (one of the best 60s pop albums of all time) is covered in a little over a page, although this is possibly because it was the Turtles album with least active involvement from Kaylan.
Almost as interesting are the anecdotes about other pop musicians, ranging from the heartbreaking :
to the… well, to this:
The best of the anecdotes reveal a huge amount about the musicians Kaylan has known (which seems to include almost every major figure from the 60s and 70s). The worst are just the usual stories of hedonistic excess that pad out every rock bio. For those, you had to be there, I suspect.
What’s rather sad here is that Kaylan’s personal life seems to have been a mess. I lost track of the number of wives he had (I *think* I counted five or six) because each marriage seems to be described in pretty much identical terms — Kaylan meets a woman and marries her. He is convinced that she is The One and he will never need another woman, she promises she’s going to get off the booze and drugs Real Soon Now. Cut to a year or so later, and he’s sleeping with every woman in the continental United States while she’s permanently off her head. Rinse and repeat. (Thankfully, his current wife seems to have been with him about twenty years, so maybe things are better for him now).
Frankly, the book is too short for what it’s trying to do, which is to be both a straight autobiography and a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences about other people. There’s almost nothing, for example, about Kaylan’s working relationship with Mark Volman — despite the fact that the two have been colleagues for fifty years now, I came out of the book knowing next to nothing about him.
But what *is* there, particularly in the first half, is essential reading for anyone who’s interested in the LA music scene of the 60s.
Penn Jilette’s foreword, as well, is fascinating, and makes me think rather better of him than I did previously:
For the next month or so, most of my writing time will be taken up with copy-edits on the Beach Boys book and on my novel (along with the Doctor Who posts and How To Build Your Own Time Machine). So for the next month most of what’s posted here will be rather light book reviews.
To start with, Shell-Shocked: My Life With The Turtles, Flo And Eddie, Frank Zappa etc. by Howard Kaylan.
For those who don’t know the name Howard Kaylan, he’s probably most famous as the lead singer of the Turtles. He sang lead on all their hits, as well as writing Elenore and a lot of their album tracks, but after they split up in the late sixties, he and Mark Volman (the Turtles’ backing vocalist, tambourine player, and comedian to Kaylan’s straight man) went on to do an immense amount of other interesting work — lead vocalists with the Mothers of Invention for a couple of years, backing vocals with T-Rex, backing vocals on Hungry Heart by Springsteen, and much more, as well as their own albums of hippie comedy-folk-pop under the name Flo And Eddie.
Kaylan’s autobiography is a fascinating, but frustrating read. Kaylan is clearly one of the more intelligent, thoughtful, 60s rock stars, and some of the insights given into the actual working methods of the bands he’s worked with are absolutely fascinating. I hadn’t realised before that Kaylan modelled his vocal style on that of Colin Blunstone (musically he and Volman were definitely Anglophiles, working with Ray Davies and covering the Small Faces at a time when those musicians were nearly unknown in the US), that he and Volman patterned their stage double-act on Louis Prima and Keely Smith, or that the Turtles’ stylistic change from their early folk-rock to the bouncy pop of Happy Together was inspired by the Lovin’ Spoonful, but all these things are very obvious once you know.
When he talks about this stuff, the book is at its best — I found the discussions of his writing the great Turtles song Marmendy Hill, or the recording of Lady-O (the last and best Turtles single) riveting, and also loved the insights into Zappa’s working methods, and little details like Springsteen being unable to sing on-key without holding his guitar.
Those portions of the book are, to my mind, easily the most interesting, and I wish there could have been more of them — the recording of the Turtle Soup album, for example (one of the best 60s pop albums of all time) is covered in a little over a page, although this is possibly because it was the Turtles album with least active involvement from Kaylan.
Almost as interesting are the anecdotes about other pop musicians, ranging from the heartbreaking :
When “The Puppy Song” played, Nilsson’s eyes filled with tears. “Dreams are only made of wishes and a wish is just a dream you hope will come true.”
“I was a pretty good singer once, wasn’t I?”
“You’re the best there ever was.” I told him, meaning every word. I was tearing up too.
“He took it from me. He stole my voice and I never got it back!”
The “he” that Harry referred to was John Lennon, who famously produced the Pussy Cats album for Nilsson in 1974. Harry spoke of the primal screaming contests that John would coerce him into.
“I can scream louder and longer than you!” and John could. But, sweet, gentle Harry couldn’t do it. He tried. The competition was fierce, and by the time Lennon returned to London, abandoning May Pang and the lost California years, it was too late; the damage had been done. Harry’s vocal cords were abraded beyond repair and the new stuff was scratchy and desperate. Harry cried.
“Once I was a king, Howard. Now look at me. I’m just waiting to die
to the… well, to this:
Tom Jones was an education all by himself. Every day, when the tour bus arrived at our venue, there were hundreds of waiting, screaming teenage girls, and Tom taunted them mercilessly from behind the safety of his window. He actually pulled out his legendary-for-good-reason schlong, which he had nicknamed Wendell, and waved it at the befuddled girls, who hooted, hollered, and pushed their friends aside to get a look at the one-eyed monster.
“Ooh, you’d like to meet Wendell, wouldn’t you, ladies? Arrrgh, here he comes, girls.” Tom was very advanced.
The best of the anecdotes reveal a huge amount about the musicians Kaylan has known (which seems to include almost every major figure from the 60s and 70s). The worst are just the usual stories of hedonistic excess that pad out every rock bio. For those, you had to be there, I suspect.
What’s rather sad here is that Kaylan’s personal life seems to have been a mess. I lost track of the number of wives he had (I *think* I counted five or six) because each marriage seems to be described in pretty much identical terms — Kaylan meets a woman and marries her. He is convinced that she is The One and he will never need another woman, she promises she’s going to get off the booze and drugs Real Soon Now. Cut to a year or so later, and he’s sleeping with every woman in the continental United States while she’s permanently off her head. Rinse and repeat. (Thankfully, his current wife seems to have been with him about twenty years, so maybe things are better for him now).
Frankly, the book is too short for what it’s trying to do, which is to be both a straight autobiography and a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences about other people. There’s almost nothing, for example, about Kaylan’s working relationship with Mark Volman — despite the fact that the two have been colleagues for fifty years now, I came out of the book knowing next to nothing about him.
But what *is* there, particularly in the first half, is essential reading for anyone who’s interested in the LA music scene of the 60s.
Penn Jilette’s foreword, as well, is fascinating, and makes me think rather better of him than I did previously:
Years later, brilliant voice actor Billy West would say, “There’s one show business.” I didn’t have those words for it then, but Frank Zappa, Howard Kaylan, and Mark Volman taught me that there was only one showbiz that night in Boston. These lightweights were onstage with the heavyweights and they were doing the best show I would ever see. Their voices were beautiful. The music was hard, and they were still having fun. Some of the jokes were very serious and over my head (what the fuck was going on singing in German about a sofa?). Some of the jokes were just stupid jock cock jokes that I would sneer at in my school. It was all mixed together. It was a show that was smart and stupid, heavy and light, beautiful and more beautiful.
They were doing a show with cheesy jokes, and it was also art. How could that be? It wasn’t stuffy—it was funny, entertaining, showbiz, vaudeville, and fun, and it still had content. Those turtlefucking Mothers with those motherfucking Turtles.
They did “Happy Together” in this Mothers show, and it was a really good song. And the music was more sophisticated than I had ever thought. Those perfect AM voices doing art. I loved hearing something I knew from the radio in a smarty-pants show. Were they making fun of it? Yes. Were they also playing it for real? Yes. Were they playing it because it was fun? Yes. My view of showbiz and art came together. It was that moment, during that show in Boston, that the line between showbiz and art was erased for me. If Turtles could be Mothers, maybe a hick juggler could speak his heart in a magic show.
I drove back to Greenfield and now did my best to look as much like the Phlorescent Leech as I could. When people said, “You look like that guy,” I said, “Yeah, the guy in the Turtles, he’s also in the Mothers now.” I was proud of being in showbiz and I was proud of how I looked, and I knew what I wanted to do in life. That’s a lot to learn from a couple of Turtles.
February 1, 2021
"I was snorting coke on Abraham Lincoln’s desk in the White House. Yes, that Abraham Lincoln and that White House."
That may be the greatest opening sentence ever. And things just get more interesting from there.
It stands apart from the glut of rock star tell alls and self-serving autobiographies by being honest, self-deprecating and never forgetting much of his success was simply being in the right place at the right time.
Even if you read nothing else, the chapter about meeting the Beatles, Donovan, Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix all in one insane London night is pure gonzo nuttiness.
That may be the greatest opening sentence ever. And things just get more interesting from there.
It stands apart from the glut of rock star tell alls and self-serving autobiographies by being honest, self-deprecating and never forgetting much of his success was simply being in the right place at the right time.
Even if you read nothing else, the chapter about meeting the Beatles, Donovan, Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix all in one insane London night is pure gonzo nuttiness.
May 20, 2017
If you've seen the movie "My Dinner with Jimi" (and you should if you like late 60s psychedelia nostalgia), this book is an extension of that tale on up through the 80s and 90s. It's exactly the kind of name dropping, wild rock and roll ride you might expect, but it's also a nostalgic if a bit iconoclastic look at the feelings we of the counterculture or counterculture wannabes had during those times. I confess to shedding a tear or two at Kaylan's heartfelt few paragraphs of gratitude toward life as he sums it all up near the end.
May 18, 2021
The story gives the reader an inside look into a life of rock ‘n roll artist who did what he could to stay in show business. 3 stars because I could not keep up with all of the names & relationships, but the information gleaned from it gives the reader a great jumping off point for more history of musicians & their relations research. A fun read, and the author is honest about his past—how rare is that? As another reviewer points out—the author is certainly a survivor. Recommended for anyone interested in rock or show business history from the ‘60s through the early 2000s.
October 15, 2018
Another book that should have dived a little deeper that how many women I've been with and how many drugs I took and how great I am. I was looking for a little more insight on how recording and touring changed from the primitive days of the early 60's as well as detail about what the artists Howard worked with were like. These just seem like little tidbits from his diaries. Maybe Mark Volman will write a book with that stuff in it.
February 25, 2020
A Very Good Read
IMO Kaylan's book is an above average rocker autobiography. The story is chockablock with humor and the pace is brisk, but there's good details to delve into. I definitely learned more than I knew about Kaylan, some of it a bit uncomfortable to read. I would have preferred a bit more substance concerning The Turtles recording and band members, Al Nichol specifically although I guess Al needs to write a book. Overall I reccomend.
IMO Kaylan's book is an above average rocker autobiography. The story is chockablock with humor and the pace is brisk, but there's good details to delve into. I definitely learned more than I knew about Kaylan, some of it a bit uncomfortable to read. I would have preferred a bit more substance concerning The Turtles recording and band members, Al Nichol specifically although I guess Al needs to write a book. Overall I reccomend.
July 26, 2018
A must read if you love your rock history. Some ridiculous stories. The yarn about when The Turtles first landed in the UK is mind-blowing... Graham Nash, Donovan, a pre-release sneak peak of Sgt Peppers, The Beatles, Hendrix, Brian Jones. The book opens with the line "I was snorting coke on Abraham Lincoln’s desk in the White House".
April 29, 2023
Excellent! One of the very best rock autobios I've read, and I've read a LOT! Howard Kaylans' musical and comedy career speaks for itself and is timeless but this narrative fills in so many juicy details. All the dirt, vomit, sweat, booze, sex, drugs and greatness of the classic years of Rock n' Roll can be found and devoured between these pages. Highly recommended!
March 9, 2018
Fabulous!
Enjoyable and entertaining. Howard's sense of humour shines in his writing. A thorough chronological register of his life and man has lived! Interesting anecdotes about certain famous beings. I heartily recommend it!
Enjoyable and entertaining. Howard's sense of humour shines in his writing. A thorough chronological register of his life and man has lived! Interesting anecdotes about certain famous beings. I heartily recommend it!
January 18, 2018
Its an amazing book about Howard Kaylan's life and as a fan of the music he did I loved it from page one to the very back of the book
April 18, 2018
Audiobook, read by Howard himself. Loved every minute. A must for all music/Zappa fans.
May 5, 2018
Excellent read
Witty and interesting read by one of the funniest guys from the classic rock era. Not nearly as much of a downer as a lot of the other rock autobiographies I have read.
Witty and interesting read by one of the funniest guys from the classic rock era. Not nearly as much of a downer as a lot of the other rock autobiographies I have read.
Read
January 3, 2020Just ok.
April 7, 2020
A brutal look at Howard's life. The amount of famous friends is astounding. A good look at the rock world of the 60's and 70's. A really good read.
July 6, 2021
Possibly the most entertaining rock autobiography I will ever read.
January 25, 2022
Confessions of a sex addict
October 14, 2025
he tried too hard to be funny but it’s ok
November 2, 2017
Started off really interesting with lots of details but eventually became a bit of a drag ...lots of cryptic quips and events mentioned that just left me puzzled. Then there was a huge life change that got about 2 sentences!?
I also found all his marital info confusing and uninteresting.
I also found all his marital info confusing and uninteresting.
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