Customer Reviews

Present the Battle of the Bands

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Turtles were a truly underrated 60s group;and this is their magnum opus.The premise of this release is:you are witnessing a huge "Battle Of The Bands" competition and the Turtles portray each and every competing band.Each band has a name(name and photos are on the album cover)and different style parodied to the extreme.For example,SURFER DAN is sung by a group that takes the Beach Boys and amplifies them by ten.BUZZSAW is a parody of instumental hits like TEQUILA or GREEN ONIONS.ELENORE takes every love song cliche in the book and serves it to us on a perfect pop platter.FOOD is a recipe for making brownies, complete with sound effects!This album contains two songs that were rejected by other groups:THE STORY OF ROCK'N'ROLL(The Monkees)and YOU SHOWED ME (The Byrds).The only clear winners of THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS are us.Be prepared to learn how good the Turtles really were.

The Turtles always wanted to be the American Beatles. They never tried to hide that, and they did their darnedest to succeed at it, even becoming buddies with the Fabs in a friendship that extended into Mark, Howie and Jim's days with Zappa and the Mothers.

Here, the Turtles present their Sgt. Pepper-style concept album, a battle of the bands, Southern California style, where every band plays a different kind of music.

So you get everything here: The greaser band, the psychedelic band (the audially hilarious "Last Thing I Remember"), the cover band (their version of the Byrds' "You Showed Me" was one of two hits off this album), the hitmakers (Elenore, the huge hit from this record), novelty groups, instrumental bands, etc.

Surprisingly, it works like a charm. If you're not laughing your keister off over the sheer audacity and straight-on parody of styles here, then you're appreciating the work that went into this thing.

Personal favorite: Bassist Jim Pons sings the country-rock song "Too Much Heartsick Feeling." The lower his voice gets, the more hilarious it is.

And how can you not like an album where one of the songs contains a recipe for marijuana brownies? Eat 'em up!

The 60's was a time of garage bands and of a poplular local event called the Battle of the Bands. Local bars and county fairs staged competitions to bring out the "Best of the Best" Prizes varried from recording contracts to cash and this was the Turtles tribute to that phenomona. The Turtles played a variety of music as only they can. The album produced 2 hit singles...Elenore and You Showed Me. The two bonus tracks rounding out this album are nice additions. Sound Asleep was a hit which charted, and The Story of Rock and Roll is an underated tune which should have done better on the charts. The Turtles best album ! ! ! ! !

This is a concept album by The Turtles. On each of the songs here, The Turtles take on the guise of a different group. Somewhat surpisingly, the whole thing works. The Turtles get a chance to play several different styles of music that they like, plus they get to display their wacky sense of humor on many of the tracks. In my opinion, this is the definitive Turtles album. The CD re-issue includes as bonus tracks the non-hit (but great) singles, "Sound Asleep" and "The Story of Rock and Roll".

I remember first hearing this album in the late 70's, and from the very beginning I knew I was hooked.

12 songs, 12 different artists, all performed by The Turtles.

This band had such a diverse lineup of singers and creative forces that an album like this had to happen for them.

Too bad the mindset at the label was hostile, demanding results and hits, but meanwhile there was internal band/manager problems and with that pressure, this was the result, and as another Amazon reviewer said perfectly, it's the American version of both The Beatles' "White Album" & "Sgt. Peppers'" as they were both concept albums and very musically forward.

Here's the 12 tracks:
1. The Battle of the Bands, by 'The U.S. Teens featuring Raoul' - very introductory, lets the listener know he or she is in for a big treat, kinda like the opening of Sgt. Pepper's, but not as noisy

2. The Last Thing I Remember, the First Thing I Knew, by 'The Atomic Enchilada' - very trippy, very sixties, but I think this was the intention, to let everyone know they are part of that whole hip stuff, too

3. Elenore by 'Howie, Mark, Johny, Jim & Al' - the anchor song of the whole album. A bit of history first: their label, White Whale, wanted another hit record like "Happy Together" a year back, so to get the label off their backs, Howard Kaylan wrote a novelty song he knew they wouldn't like - he wrote it as a joke expecting them to immediately reject it, and to add insult to injury , he deliberately reversed the chord progressions of "Happy Together" and then added dumb lyrics like "you're my pride and joy, et cetera" and "gee I think you're swell," even rhyming "groovy" with "movie". However, even the band was surprised that the label loved it so much it was released as a single and it went to #6. Strange...

4. Too Much Heartsick Feeling by the 'Quad City Ramblers' - Some good old-fashioned Austin Texas country music here, complete with drippy corny lyrics, slide guitar and a spoken solo in the middle of the song - "honey, I want you, and I believe you want me toooooo"... perfect.

5. Oh, Daddy! by "The L.A. Bust '66" - progressive rich White boy blues, with Chippy asking Daddy to bail him out of the joint on a "trumped-up" drug charge. The song is actually pretty good lyrically and is one of the better upbeat drug tunes out there, complete with an New Orleans jazz band celebrating his release at the 1:46 mark.

6. Buzzsaw by 'The Fabulous Dawgs' - Heavy guitar fuzz and a Hammond organ scream throughout this slow burner - then the chorus - "Buzzzzzzz sawwwww..." - a quick song, complete with a DJ screaming that after a "pause for the cause" there'll be more.

7. Surfer Dan by 'The Cross Fires' (actually the name of the band is a tip of their hats to their past, as Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman from The Turtles' first started in a surf band in the early 60's as "The Crossfires from The Planet Mars") - as The Beatles had their tribute song to the Beach Boys with "Back In The USSR", so The Turtles paid tribute to not only their past but to the whole surf rock genre with what has to be the ultimate surf rock song! It has cool cars, cool kids, cool lyrics, with the music and singing and the spirit all just right. One of the best tracks on the album.

8. I'm Chief Kamanawanalea (We're the Royal Macadamia Nuts) by 'Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts' - his has got to be one of the strangest yet most put together jam songs ever constructed. The title alone is a pun, a dirty joke and a come on all at the same time! It's one of the strange songs that segue to another song, kinda like they way The Beatles "Revolution #9" did.

9. You Showed Me by 'Nature's Children' - very sixties, with a very well created mellow vibe. You can hear violins and cellos and electronic organs all meshing and mixing together. This song was a follow-up hit for them after the monster of 'Elenore'. It's actually very sensual, lyrically too.

10. Food by 'The Bigg Brothers' - It seems more like a grocery list of everything the band had eaten until a sudden break in the music, and then a recipe for pot brownies is introduced! It seems that the lists of bookend the pot brownie only let us know they had the munchies before and after, and the sound of Alka-Seltzer takes us home!

11. Chicken Little Was Right by 'Fats Mallard and the Bluegrass Fireball' - very sunny bluegrass country music indeed, but with strange sinister undertones about the actual kidnapping of the sky. Very wild.

12. Earth Anthem by 'All' - according to an Wikipedia entry, "The final song, "Earth Anthem", was notably recorded at 3:00 A.M. by candlelight, to capture the exact mood the Turtles wanted." I have to admit, it seems as if the band, instruments and all, were drifting off into space as they floated above us and everyone else's problems.

The album is short at under 45 minutes, but it's cohesive, fun, and thought-prevoking on some levels.

Even though many bands were trying to re-create the sound of the very first REAL original concept album, 1966's "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys (and a year later the formentioned Beatles albums), this album comes the closest to being that answer from another room, and if you've heard "Pet Sounds," too you know that I'm right!

(Now if you want to go way back, if you listen to the inspiration for "Pet Sounds" - The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" - then you'll get where I'm coming from as far as REAL musical progression, not just one-upmanship on the Beatles part in 1967 and '68.)

In the final analysis, if you gave me a choice for something that challenges me versus something that has been listened to over and over and over until the meaning behind it is lost, I say give me the Turtles and give me "The Battle of The Bands."

I've been a fan of this for over 30 years, and I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Enjoy!

(p.s. - for this remastered release, they have included two additional bonus tracks that were never part of the original album - "Sound Asleep" and "The Story of Rock and Roll". They're okay-sounding enough, but as they are nothing to me more than fluff tacked onto a CD to increase the sales, they're nothing to crow about.)

This is an album I originally bought in the 60's. I've just reacquired it in CD format. I would recommend this wonderful collection of songs to anyone interested in listening to a real "fun band" of the period. The guys do all the pop music genres of the 50's and 60's and do it well. The musicianship of this band is first-rate.

This is probably one of the single greatest albums ever from beginning like abbey road by the BEATLES it tells the songs with as much love and humor that one can imagine and has a full orchestra sound and many various ranges of musical style . IF YOU GOT THIS YOU HAVE A GEM .

I have to admit that not every song on here is my favorite from this band, however they are fun and are from various types of music. This one is in some ways a comedy disc but that's ok because they parody different musical styles and do it with affection! And , There is of course the megahit 'elenore' on here and the supercool 'buzzsaw' etc, but the whole endeavor is worth adding to your melodic pop rock collection. The extra tracks are a welcome bonus too because they are good songs mostly. The turtles were one of the best groups of their type ever and probably could still release some great music if they so desired. This was the band at their peak though. This one wasn't the straight classic pop rockin like 'happy together' was or their many bouncy songs from discs like 'you baby' , 'wooden head' and others but it's a interesting concept done quite well by the harmonizing wonderful totally titanic turtles and that's good enough for me.

I love all the Turtles' albums, but, this one is definitely my favorite. The concept behind Battle Of The Bands really allows the Turtles to showcase their unique talents and diversity. Ridiculously addictive arrangements and melodies combined with a healthy mix of sarcasm and comedy makes for a very memorable listen. You can really hear Kaylan and Vroman's Mother's Era vocal stylings coming into shape on this album (like the high pitched swells at the end of Elenore... goood stuff).

It truly is a rare record that can capture the feeling and sound of a genre(s) whilst simultaneously poking fun at that same sound. You can really enjoy these songs and appreciate them at face value before even getting into the sarcasm and comedy of it all. Zappa and Ween are probably the only other artists I can think of that truly pull this off like the Turtles do here.

I'm disappointed that the Turtles broke up soon after, but, am also grateful for Flo & Eddie's Mother's years as well as their solo work.

I take it that this was the last Turtles album. In a sense I found it refreshing to see the group take on many different forms of music. After all L.A. groups from the 60's can't live on the sunny pop sounds, psychedlia, and folk-rock alone. However, this may have sounded a little too bizarre. Maybe a way to cheese off record executives who wanted the group in a box, or maybe some political groups who wanted to persecute the group( Remember, Flo & Eddie had to go underground from 1972-1983, and not perform with the Turtles, or sing thier songs). After a hot start it was a shame to see them implode here, but all was not lost. I happen to like 4 out of the 5 samples heard here, and if given a chance to hear "Buzzsaw" I may have like that also as I dream of it chock full of fuzz guitars. "Eleanor" was overplayed, and "You Showed Me" you guessed it "Another Rock and Roll Suicide". I feel with Flo & Eddie it may have been a way to just be themselves, and have fun with the music that this would be thier last album. I did hear them do a solo piece I guess around 1970-71 called "Keep It Warm". I found it rather good, and hope to hear more from them besides on everyone from Frank Zappa to T-Rex. The Turtles were one of the groups that showed a rare creative side of rock and roll, and that's the ability to make people laugh while rocking and rolling, but for some that may have been thier death warrant, but they have risen again, and have been playing together again for 21 years. Keep it warm and funny.