{"id":19595,"date":"2020-10-07T05:30:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T09:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19595"},"modified":"2020-10-08T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T12:11:08","slug":"guide-for-the-turtles-fan-an-album-by-album-discussion-with-mark-volman-part-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/guide-for-the-turtles-fan-an-album-by-album-discussion-with-mark-volman-part-2-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide for the Turtles Fan: An Album-by-album Discussion with Mark Volman (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"Happy Together<\/b><\/i> (originally released April 1967)<\/b>
\nOnly four of the 11 songs on Happy Together<\/i> would be written by group members, but once again, superb taste in choosing material yielded the band\u2019s finest release to date. Years before he made a name for himself as a recording artist, Warren Zevon provided The Turtles with the lilting, heartfelt \u201cLike the Seasons.\u201d With that tune, The Turtles \u201cwere introducing one of the most important songwriters of that era,\u201d Volman says. (Zevon had already penned a chiming 12-string rocker for the band, the \u201cTaxman\u201d-influenced \u201cOutside Chance.\u201d Released as a Turtles b-side in July 1966, it wouldn\u2019t surface on LP until 1970.)<\/p>\n

Songwriters John Williams and Lesley Bricusse were already on a winning streak writhing songs for Broadway shows when they penned \u201cGuide for the Married Man,\u201d a delightful theme song for the movie of the same name starring Walter Matthau. The ba-ba-ba vocalizing of \u201cGuide\u201d was perfectly suited to The Turtles\u2019 quickly-developing sunshine pop style. It sounded like a hit single but completely failed to chart. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most overlooked soundtrack songs as well as just being a great-written song,\u201d Volman says.<\/p>\n

Happy Together<\/i> isn\u2019t wholly free of misfires, though. The Kaylan-Nichol tune \u201cRugs of Woods and Flowers\u201d features an appealing baroque pop arrangement, but Kaylan\u2019s mock-operatic vocals \u2013 a hint at the style he\u2019d sometimes use when he and Volman joined Frank Zappa\u2019s band \u2013 relegate the tune to novelty status.<\/p>\n

The record includes three songs from the team of Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon: \u201cMe About You,\u201d the delightful love song (with cowbell) \u201cShe\u2019d Rather Be With Me,\u201d and the Turtles\u2019 biggest hit, \u201cHappy Together.\u201d Yet as consistently strong as it is, Happy Together<\/i> is best-known for its title track. A hit single in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK, \u201cHappy Together\u201d claimed the #1 spot on U.S. charts, forcing The Beatles\u2019 \u201cPenny Lane\u201d from the top position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a good lifesaver, there,\u201d says Volman with a chuckle. \u201c\u2019Happy Together\u2019 still lives and breathes quirkiness. But nobody knew it was going to be what it became: a 50-year adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album as a whole represented a maturing of the band. \u201cBones was kind of out of the picture,\u201d Volman says. \u201cAnd [producer] Joe Wissert was kind of moving into the scene. Joe brought with him a quirkiness that really fit with us.\u201d Happy Together<\/i> \u201creally shows off what we were capable of doing as singers and as arrangers,\u201d Volman says. \u201cWe were beginning to be more and more involved in the production and the sound.\u201d And it showed. The Turtles\u2019 next record would represent the band\u2019s crowning achievement.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands<\/b><\/i> (originally released November 1968)<\/b>
\nBy 1968, the concept album had come into its own as a viable means of creative expression. The Who Sell Out<\/i> found the British rockers applying their talents to the creation of a complete radio program with (faux) commercials. The Moody Blues combined rock, light classical and a day-in-the-life song suite into Days of Future Passed<\/i>. Van Dyke Parks made Song Cycle<\/i>, and Brian Wilson led The Beach Boys (and Wrecking Crew) on a journey through Pet Sounds<\/i>. And on Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/i>, The Beatles assumed the guise of a fictitious band.<\/p>\n

On their concept record, The Turtles would attempt to go not one better, but eleven better. For each of the songs on The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands<\/i>, the self-contained group (aided by producer and creative collaborator Chip Douglas) reinvented itself as a different band.<\/p>\n

Battle<\/i> is a bouquet of musical styles, from Bakersfield country (\u201cToo Much Heartsick Feeling\u201d as Quad City Ramblers) to Strawberry Alarm Clock-style pop-psychedelia (\u201cThe Last Thing I Remember\u201d as the Atomic Enchilada) to ersatz Simon and Garfunkel (\u201cEarth Anthem\u201d by those global hit-makers All).<\/p>\n

With three exceptions \u2013 a title track written by Douglas with band friend Harry Nilsson, \u201cEarth Anthem\u201d and a better-than-the-original cover of The Byrds\u2019 \u201cYou Showed Me\u201d \u2013 Battle<\/i> featured all original material. And the unquestioned spotlight tune on the album was written in response to White Whale\u2019s insistence on more sunshine pop hits like \u201cHappy Together.\u201d<\/p>\n

With its intentionally offhand lyrics (\u201cYou\u2019re my pride and joy, etcetera,\u201d sang Kaylan and Volman, the sarcasm all but dripping from the mics), \u201cElenore\u201d was conceived as a parody of a mindless pop song. Instead it became The Turtles\u2019 fourth Top Ten hit single.<\/p>\n

The idea of a concept album came before the songs. \u201cWe knew we wanted to do something as a whole, and we didn’t know what it really was going to fashion itself to be, but once we realized it, we already had it,\u201d Volman says. He considers Battle<\/i> and its follow-up, Turtle Soup<\/i>, his favorite Turtles albums. \u201cThose two records cover a part of our history that\u2019s kind of overlooked,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Even though Battle of the Bands<\/i> wasn\u2019t a hit LP on the scale of Happy Together<\/i> \u2013 it only reached the #128 spot on Billboard<\/i>\u2019s album chart \u2013 it has worn exceedingly well for its ambitious scope and on-target humor. And one of its deep tracks found a new life in the decades to come. \u201c\u2019Buzzsaw\u2019 became important to the continuation of the ownership of our recordings,\u201d Volman says. \u201cBecause we had a couple of hip hop artists take our songs and make us relevant again.\u201d The mostly-instrumental track has been sampled by X-Clan, Insane Clown Posse and several other acts.<\/p>\n

Many of the tracks on the second LP in the new Battle<\/i> reissue were first released on the (now long out-of-print) 1987 Rhino LP Chalon Road<\/i>. And a hidden bonus track featuring outtakes from a vocal session is a vivid reminder \u2013 should one be needed \u2013 of Howard and Mark\u2019s peerless vocal prowess.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a> \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One \u2026 Happy Together (originally released April 1967) Only four of the 11 songs on Happy Together would be written by group members, but once again, superb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,51,62,64,73],"tags":[4181,1408,3739],"class_list":["post-19595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-pop","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-vinyl","tag-manifesto-records","tag-mark-volman","tag-the-turtles","cat-41-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19595"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19833,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19595\/revisions\/19833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}