The Turtles Go Topless by Ann Moses

From the New Musical Express Archives, November 23, 1968

On their appearance at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium the Turtles close their set by dancing along with 12 girls, who were dressed in the original sailor costumes from the old-time flick “Anchors Away,” with fireworks blasting from the stage and the American Flag flashing across the huge white halls as part of the light show.

When they went into the sophisticated Scene club in New York, they finished their show by stripping their shorts off alongside the two topless go-go dancers they hired and dancing around the stage. This is the new Turtles show, which is blowing some dusty minds!

Until most recently, the group was considered by most booking agents to be the typical “happy together” rock ensemble, perfect to book into any teenybopper rock concert. But definitely not apropos to the quote heavy “underground” scenes at the Fillmore or the Scene.

That was the old Turtles. The new Turtles are not only packing teenage concerts, but have been playing many of the “underground” houses throughout the country, with some pretty exciting results.

Reason why

I talked last week with comedian vocalist Mark Volman and lead singer Howard Kaylan and they explain the “why” of their changing image. Howard told me, “There’s a tremendous satirical overtone that comes with everything were doing now. We have changed from being a rock-and-roll group to a parity of a rock-and-roll group!

“The fact is, here’s a group that looks like the Mothers of Invention and their singing a song like ‘Eleanor.’ That’s a parity in itself. Before we were pretty limited in and where we could play, and now everybody is saying ‘there is more to this group than meets the eye.’ Now are getting put on the bill with groups like Blue Cheer.”

Unlike groups like Blue Cheer, though, the Turtles have not changed so drastically musically to fall into the psychedelic bag. Like Mark said “The psychedelic thing isn’t going to last it’s just one of those things. I can listen to it and dig it and I’m interested in all the groups that are doing it.

“But people are finding out more and more that all these imitation Cream groups are just imitation Cream groups and if you’re not going to have a real thing, why have it at all. Obviously, I listen to a group to be entertained. We have our own way of entertaining and it seems to be working.” Working it is!

So far the Turtles have had 11 Top Ten US hits. When it all began four years ago, they never dreamed of such success.

Howie he recalled: “We were very excited when we first started because we thought, wow, we have a chance to do what everybody else has done.”

Easy way

Mark added: “And it was an easy way to make $40 a week and not have to work in a gas station. After ‘You Baby’ is when we all sort of stepped back and said, ‘Wow, were really in this,’ because we hadn’t had a chance to stop.

“We’d had ‘It Ain’t Me Babe,’ ‘Let Me B’ and ‘You Baby’ within eight months and everybody was saying ‘You’re a big group,’ and we’re thinking, ‘Wow, what’s happening?’ It was after ‘You Baby’ that we got the flash of where we were and we crumbled completely. Members split and changed and everyone was freaking out.”

Then there followed a period without hits, a hard blow to any group. They went through an Indian music kick unsuccessfully before realizing it really wasn’t their bag. “We put out ‘Can I Get To Know You Better,’” Mark admitted, “grasping to get back into that commercial thing. We were grasping for a hit because the group was falling apart in front of our faces.”

At the same time they felt the need to break out from the pressures and demands and restrictions of managers, producers, record companies, etc. Little by little, they tried to contribute more as a group to each single and album.

This group of five who have been together for the past two years has finally succeeded, they feel, in their newest jam called “The Turtles – Battle of the Bands.”

‘The Turtles-Battle of the Bands.” The album is their concept totally in which they sing each track is a different band, and each band represents a different musical era or style. My personal favorite is their Beach Boys imitation of a surfing group, which the Beach Boys themselves have raved about.

Mark explained, “The idea for the album started out a year ago as a whole other concept. We thought about it in England last June and decided to call it “The Turtles 25th Album, Picnic and Song Fest.’ The idea was to bring everyone into it. Then from there we came up with a song that had been written by Bonner and Gordon called ‘Dew Drop In’ and we were going to call the album ‘Do Drop In at the Dew Drop In.’

“Everyone was throwing out ideas and we thought since we got our start by being in a battle of the bands, we can plan a whole album around that idea, which we did.”

The whole new image for the Turtles emanates from their basic, but honest belief that, “We enjoy being entertained, so we figure our audiences do too. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do it.

“We have really gotten into our own thing. We are able to take a look at ourselves and laugh and get a big kick out of what we’re doing.

“People who try to put us in a particular bag are having a difficult time now because we are too straight to be hip and too hip to be straight. They just don’t know what to do with us!”

How about a happiness bag.