The Turtles’ performance at the White House-where they performed in 1969 at the invitation of President Nixon’s daughter-has been the stuff of rock legend for decades. Everyone who lived through the baby boomer years and loved rock and roll is familiar with the Turtles’ music, and countless others have discovered it in the decades since it was created. His first band, the Crossfires, played instrumental music, but the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 encouraged a change of focus, and Howard’s undeniable vocal abilities made him the obvious choice to be the frontman when the Crossfires evolved into the Turtles.įor roughly five years, the latter half of rock’s most volatile and productive decade, the Turtles were among the most successful and beloved American rock bands, with all of the attendant excitement-and volatility-that such a lofty position brought. One of the most in-demand and well-respected vocalists in popular music, the voice of Howard Kaylan is still instantly recognizable to generations of rock fans nearly 50 years since it first came across on millions of transistor radios and black and white television sets.īorn in New York City in 1947, Howard Kaylan moved to Southern California just in time for the surf music craze of the early ’60s.
In his inimitably witty manner, Kaylan exposes the ups and downs of fame and its effects-both positive and negative-on an artist who has seen the top of the charts, seen the downside of the music world, and is still here, decades later, to tell about the view from both angles. Shell Shocked is stuffed with juicy anecdotes about some of rock’s biggest stars, but it also digs beneath the surface and places the crazy rock life into context. (Backbeat Books, April 16, 2013) is Howard Kaylan’s incredible story, a timeless rock and roll tale- intensely colorful, brutally honest, unapologetically intimate and a whole lot of fun!
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Howard Kaylan’s entry into professional music and he’s still out on the road with Mark singing the hits! Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.
His two years with the renowned Zappa were an education and a complete artistic upheaval, marked by highs such as sharing the stage with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and lows like watching the band’s equipment burn to a crisp at the notorious Montreux casino fire that later became the subject of the Deep Purple classic “Smoke On the Water.” Kaylan appeared on four Mothers of Invention albums and in Zappa’s theatrical feature film 200 Motels.įollowing their stint with Zappa, Kaylan and fellow Turtles/Mothers vocalist Mark Volman went off on their own, calling themselves at first The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie, and then just Flo and Eddie, until reclaiming the Turtles name. But while most artists would have been elated with the five-year success that the Turtles enjoyed, for Howard Kaylan that run at the top of the charts was only the beginning.
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Kaylan’s years with the Turtles are the stuff of legend: the first rock group to perform at the White House, wild encounters with the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix (on the same night!), countless TV and concert appearances, encounters with rock royalty and a string of hit records that have never lost their popularity. Howard’s voice has also appeared on recordings by a vast array of artists including Bruce Springsteen, T. In addition to his years with the Turtles-whose other best-selling hits include “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “You Baby,” “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “She’s My Girl,” “Elenore” and “You Showed Me”-Kaylan was a core member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and half of the much loved duo Flo and Eddie.
For five decades, Howard Kaylan has been a key player at the heart of the rock and roll revolution. But that recording, named in 1999 by BMI as one of the top 50 songs of the 20th century, with over 5 million radio plays, is only the tip of a rather enormous iceberg. Visit Howard’s Website: If Howard Kaylan had sung only one song, the Turtles’ 1967 #1 smash hit “Happy Together,” his place in rock and roll history would still be secure.
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