Howard Kaylan

As a founding member of 60s rock greats, the Turtles ("Happy Together") who moved on the be a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention during their most outrageous and entertaining period, later toured as an opening act for Alice Cooper, wrote music for Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears, Howard Kaylan and seen and done it all (and pretty much done every female he came across as well.) This is an entertaining, name-dropping, occasionally jaw-dropping look at the excesses of rock star life in the 60s and 70s. Kaylan draws upon his diary to keep track of the dates of his constant travels (and travails), but the narrative often lacks a depth of details, other than the types of drugs Howard is taking at the time. There are some good insights into Frank Zappa and Marc Bolan, but there are no real insights into the mind of Howard's musical and business partner for over close to 50 years, Mark Volman, nor any explanation about why they have been so close and so successful over the years. This book really needs to be about twice as long. Given some of the cruel judgments Howard makes about himself, his first four wives, and a few other people who have passed through his life, there is certainly no indication he was holding anything back. It's just a shame that there aren't more of those scenes that really illuminate character, such as John Lennon's merciless putdown of the Turtles' rhythm guitarist that drove him out of a London bar, back to the United States, and out of the music business entirely.

As seems to be the case with all rock star biographies, there are a few lawsuits along the way, but thankfully Kaylan doesn't dwell too much on them. In fact, in the end he and Volman come out ahead, getting back the right to call themselves the Turtles and even control of their song catalog, resulting in untold royalties from its use in advertisements! There's a lot to learn in this book about the music business. I just wish it were as entertaining as I expected it to be. Maybe he should write a sequel?… (más)