I’ll try. I’m hardly a Spotify “super user”. I got it for free as an add-on to Hulu. I use it just for messing around. I’ll see if I can create a list "Like It Or Not" is my favorite Turtles song. I can’t believe I lived my entire life without it. That’s a song I can play over and over on repeat. I haven’t. I’m guessing it’s worth a listen?
I love that album. It’s hard to believe how good it is relative to how popular it is. I remember their names credited on Illegal Stills, and I never thought much of it. It was “those guys from the Turtles”. I read that Stills liked their vocals so much that he felt they substituted nicely for Crosby & Nash. I think Howard and Mark’s vocals are on all of the electric songs on Illegal Stills. I never realized it until I became a Flo & Eddie fan. They aren’t prominent in the mix though. Also, they aren’t credited by song. The are credited with “Vocals” along with Stills and Donnie Dacus, who tends to overwhelm imo.
I've been checking them out lately too. I think the closest you can get to a Turtles Odyssey & Oracle would be The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. It the band taking it's humour and sound to it's logical extreme. Plus it flows from start to finish as an album because of the Battle of the Bands concept.
One of my favorite bands of all time.... can't even count how many copies of Battle of the Bands and Turtle Soup I have spread around to people over the years.
The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands is one of the best albums from the 60's. Brilliant, a truly strong conceptual album, and yet it hardly gets mentioned.
Flo and Eddie were a music cynics dream. In their live shows, they lampooned the popular artists of the day. The faux ads were great as they extended Eddie Are You Kidding and/or You Showed Me. I recall them doing Rolling Stones for fast food (using JJF), Joni Mitchell for FDS, F-Mac for McDonalds (to the tune of Rhiannon). Some of the bits may have been on Illegal, Immoral + Fattening LP too. "Blowing holes in your rock and roll balloons"... indeed. They also a rarity, as they bought the whole crowd at the Bottom Line a drink. Sadly have lost the F+E tumbler it came in
Take a listen to "Do You Like My New Car". Flo and Eddie at their funniest with Zappa Live At The Fillmore East 1971. Incredibly hilarious spoof on groupies.
That song has the best, most interesting hooks and whatever unfinished production works in its favor.
I enjoy how they goof on everyone. You don’t get very much of that. Maybe another reason why they had trouble having a bigger audience. “Mama Open Up” was about that struggle. They enjoyed being crazy guys, but each of their albums had songs meant for a wider audience.
I really enjoyed Flo and Eddie during the Zappa period. In "real time" that is ha ha. Now that I'm older I can see why people don't like that period. I was a casual fan of the Turtles and remember seeing them on some of the TV shows of the 60's (like Hollywood Palace and Ed Sullivan etc.). Even back then Mark seemed like he was a funny, zany guy. and would "drag" Howard along into that as well. Seemed to give them some "personality". Joining Zappa really open up that side of them. Maybe too much ha ha. On another note, does anyone remember the Rhino release called 'The Winds of Phlorescent Leech and Eddie" (may not be the exact title). It was either on vinyl or cassette. I thought it was a little pricey in the day and thought I would buy it later. Never, ever saw it in a store. May have been mail order only.
“Winds Of...” didn’t have any Google search results (except your post), but of course there is this... Mark Volman And Howard Kaylan - The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie
On the face of it, I would think Zappa should have wanted to join with Volman and Kaylan. They had been in the Turtles, a big act, with a several big hits. My assumption was that without the use of the name “Turtles”, or even their own names, Volman and Kaylan, were in a terrible spot. Their attraction to the weird and unusual seems to have made them a good fit for Zappa’s crew, and I guess Zappa liked their act. However, it isn’t the most obvious relationship.
This three record set was available via mail order only in 1983. It includes lots of rarities including a song from their high school choir days, some Turtles rarities and Flo & Eddie rarities. Its fairly brilliant! I just noticed that there is a Wikipedia entry for this album, worth reading if you are interested.
I'll have to look in my paper goods to see if I have any old Rhino catalogues to see if I have more info on " The Winds of Flo and Eddie". This topic has reminded me of a few other things. Mark and Howard released a series of 45's under the name The Rhythm Butchers. I think around 1980. I'm not sure if they were recorded during the Turtles days and then released later (when under contract with Rhino?). I always hear that the releases were similar in nature to the Beatles annual Christmas EP's. I did purchase The History of Flo and Eddie and The Turtles as mentioned by Mitchy. I'd forgotten that it was also a mail order only release. Never available on CD. And one more thing, I was actually shocked when I read who Phlorescent Leech and Eddie were when they started to appear on the Zappa albums. They were on Chunga's Revenge to begin with. I suppose it was meant to be somewhat shocking. Pairing America's lovable Top 40 group singers with Mr. Zappa.
Hmmm.........just found a 2009 thread on this forum regarding The Winds of Flo and Eddie. It's titles "The Winds of Flo And Eddie". Not very long and one post mentions the Rhythm Butchers. I'm new to this forum so don't know if there is a way to merge (link) it to this conversation.
I grew up hearing and loving their AM hits. Never bought any of their records. The other day I ran into original pressings of Golden Hits and More Golden Hits for $4 each in NM condition. I'm glad I bought them. I had no idea they had so many great songs, and Johnny Barbata was their drummer. Really enjoying these 2 records.
I've been wondering, has anyone here managed to listen to the Flo & Eddie song Come To My Rescue Webelos, It was the b-side of Let Me Make Love To You and it hasn't shown up anywhere since
Wow! That's a familiar title. I just checked through my collection and don't seem to have it on anything. I may actually have the"let me make love to you" 45. But currently hard to get to my 45's.
A little Flo & Eddie story. It must have been the early 80’s, Flo and Eddie played Toad’s Place in New Haven Connecticut. Between sets they left the stage to go to the bathroom and they walked thru the crowd. On the way back I stopped them and requested that they play Umbassa the Dragon. Up until this point it was only the b side of Sound Asleep... Mark obviously impressed that anyone would ever remember it stopped with a huge smile said “Nobody has ever requested Umbassa the Dragon”...he thanked me and returned to the stage...of course they didn’t play it but it was neat seeing his reaction.
