by Howard Kaylan with
Jeff Tamarkin
Howard Kaylan Names
Names and Shares Shocking Tales in This Hilarious and Candid Memoir Spanning
Five Decades of Rock
and Roll
LOS ANGELES,
CA – Howard Kaylan has been at the vortex of rock culture
since the heady 1960s, and he remains immersed in it today, still touring with Mark
Volman as the Turtles. His life has
been a dangerous ride, and, here he is only too happy to report on it, naming names and unfurling shocking tales
of sex, drugs, and creative excess.
In his memoir, ShellShocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo & Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.
(Backbeat Books, Released April 16, 2013), Kaylan tells the story of his nearly
five decades in the rock and roll revolution. This revealing and highly entertaining
account was written with American pop culture historian, music journalist, and
editor, Jeff Tamarkin.
If Howard Kaylan had sung only
one song, the Turtles’ 1967
number-one smash hit “Happy Together,” his place in rock and roll history would
be secure. But that recording, named by BMI as one of the top 50 songs of the
20th century, with more than 5 million radio plays, is only the tip
of a most remarkable iceberg.
For
roughly five years in the latter half of the ’60s, rock’s most volatile and productive
decade, the Turtles were pop music royalty, with all of the attendant
excitement and chaos that such a lofty position brought. 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. In
1970 the Turtles became the first rock group ever to perform at the White
House, at the invitation of President Nixon’s daughter, Tricia, a fan of the
group. What really happened that night? Now the truth will finally be told!
Most
artists would have been happy for the five-year success that the Turtles
enjoyed, but for Kaylan, that run at the top of the charts was only the
beginning. The Turtles broke up in 1970 and Kaylan, along with career-long
partner Mark Volman, surprised the rock world when they joined Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention. Overnight,
Howard’s squeaky-clean image as an AM radio hitmaker was turned inside out.
Kaylan
and Volman’s next adventure was The
Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, later renamed Flo & Eddie. This duo act ultimately furthered their popularity
and artistic reach. Among their many successes were the releases Flo & Eddie, Illegal, Immoral and
Fattening, Moving Targets, and Rock
Steady with Flo & Eddie.
Throughout
the 1970s, Kaylan and Volman continued to do session work, lending their
trademark harmonies to T. Rex, Roger McGuinn, Stephen Stills, Keith Moon, David
Cassidy, Alice Cooper, Blondie, the Ramones, and Bruce Springsteen. Howard's
list of friends, collaborators and fellow party animals included everyone from
David Bowie to John Belushi, Joni Mitchell to Harry Nilsson.
Versatile
performers with an insatiable desire to expand their artistic reach, Kaylan and
Volman reached millions in the 1980s with their syndicated radio show. Kaylan
also wrote the screenplay for My Dinner
with Jimi, a popular feature-length cult film that chronicles the rise of
the Turtles and recounts one wild night when Howard met the Beatles, Graham
Nash, the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, the Moody Blues, Donovan and Mr. Hendrix
himself.
Most recently Flo & Eddie
toured the U.S. with the “Happy Together: 25th Anniversary Tour” in the summers
of 2010 and 2011. They were joined by The Grass Roots, Mark Lindsay, The
Buckinghams, and Monkees member Micky Dolenz.
With a cover designed by Cal
Schenkel, who was
responsible for the art and design of many of Zappa’s album covers, and a foreword by Penn Jillette of the legendary magic team Penn
and Teller, Shell Shocked will stand alone as not only one of the best-told
music-biz memoirs, but as a candid and unmatchable story of rock and roll
insanity and success from a man who glories in it all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jeff Tamarkin, a prolific music journalist, has
been on the scene for more than 35 years. For 15 years, Tamarkin was editor of Goldmine. Prior to that, he served as
the first editor of CMJ and as editor of Relix.
He has written for many well known publications, including Billboard, Newsweek, Playbill, Creem, Mojo, and The New York Daily News.
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