From Turtle to Zappa

This was going to be a simple and straight forward little story about a movie that I watched recently on Netflix. But...one thing lead to another...and down the rabbit whole I went.

The movie is "My Dinner with Jimi". It's a dramatic re-enactment of the 60's band TheTurtles, early days and first trip to London, England. I never really put too much thought in to this particular group, I enjoyed their signature song " Happy Together "...and marked them down as a one hit wonder...sometimes wondering "what ever happened to?"...

The movie....I give it a B overall.  The film does a fairly good job at recreating 1960's look a like musicians (Except for Mama Cass Elliot )...but oddly enough misses big time on getting the look of the lead singer Howard Kaylan. The film version of this story was Kaylan's idea and personal project.

The fun parts..
The scenes where Howard and other Turtle, Mark Volman  miserably fail at their tests for military service are hilarious. Should the draft ever be re-instated where you live, watch these scenes and get schooled.

In London, we get to meet reasonable facsimiles of the Beatles out for a night on the town, ( Lennon being a prick )...Graham Nash ( the Hollies ), Brian Jones ( the Rolling Stones ) and then of course...a fantastically played Jimi Hendrix.
The movie "Jimi" is right on the mark...and absolute magic to watch and listen to. Sitting through the rest of the movie is all worth it, just for that.

After watching the movie and the extended "info" at the end of the film..I had questions and curiosity in spades. So....
After the Turtles broke up, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman joined up with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Because of multi-year legal battles, the two are required to perform under new stage names "Flo and Eddie" ...
They also sang and performed with the likes of Alice Cooper and Bruce Springsteen ( see my other blog post on Steven Van Zandt )
This lead me on a trip to do a bit of research on Frank Zappa.

Now ...let me stray a bit here. In one of my early posts, there is a story called "The Davis Bay Sea Serpent". The guy that I rented the house from...and smashed his canoe...was a buddy named Phil Makow. Phil was older than me by a few years and totally immersed in the world of the coolest music of the day. He was always inviting me to concerts in Vancouver or Washington state to go and see Zappa, John Lee Hooker and others...I always turn him down. I just didn't have the musical sophistication at the time. Dumb, Dumb,Dumb..

Ok ...back to the other story.
Frank Zappa's Wiki page is huge. I highly recommend that you brew up a coffee, add the appropriate amount of spiced rum.... get some yummy cookies and sit down one day to read about this creative genius.

Now...here is my discovery of the day. I had completely forgotten about his...if YOU know this, give yourself a gold star. If you didn't know this next tidbit...here's the deal.
If you use this factoid at a party, or to impress your date into bed, mail me a cheque for twenty bucks, Canadian funds. Please and thank-you.
Drum roll please...
The iconic rock anthem, Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"....was the story of a Frank Zappa concert gone bad.
While performing at the Casino Montreux, in Switzerland in December of 1971, an audience member set off a flare that ended up burning down the casino and destroying all of the bands gear. Had I actually listened to the lyrics or read the album liner notes recently...I would have been up to speed on that one.
***After a weeks break, while playing in London, with rented gear.... another "fan" pushes Frank Zappa off the stage and nearly kills him ...breaking many bones and leaving him wheelchair bound during his long recovery...during which, one of his legs healed up shorter than the other.

In the 80's, Frank battled against the censorship rules being proposed by Tipper Gore's ( Al Gore's wife ) Parents Music Resource Center...on song lyrics..

Twenty years before digital music took off, Frank worked on digitizing his music and selling it over the phone lines and TV cable systems. At the time, the idea was premature and branded by Frank.."a dismal failure"

Prodigiously productive for his entire life, Frank died from prostate cancer on December 4, 1993.

So there you are...Turtle to Zappa. And a happy note, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman bought the rights to the Turtles music at an auction. They now enjoy the profits from owning the fruits of their own work.

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