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Ex Turtles songsters and general madcap fun-boys-two Mark Volman (as Flo) and Howard Kaylan (as Eddie) see their sought after live set "Illegal, Immoral And Fattening" from 1975 teamed up with their follow-up studio outing "Moving Targets" from 1976 on this excellent and timely BGO CD reissue.
"Moving Targets" gets a first time issue on CD here whilst their elusive 1973 debut album "Flo & Eddie" on Reprise Records still remains AWOL on digital even now in late 2020 (maybe this release will prompt movement on that).
Track spotters will notice that their wickedly entitled August 1975 platter (fattening?) has a bizarre version of T. Rex's 1971 monster British hit "Get It On" covered under its US title as "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" and the Turtles megahit "Elenor" gets returned to on the "Moving Targets" album – all of it with a few tongues stuck firmly in a few cheeks. And in these Covid-19 days of permanent bad news, a wee bit of a laugh and a tune is a welcome injection indeed. To the bad and mad boys of American comedy and parody...
UK released Friday, 1 June 2020 - "Illegal, Immoral And Fattening/Moving Targets" by FLO & EDDIE on Beat Goes on BGOCD1418 (Barcode 5017261214188) offers 2LPs from 1975 and 1976 Remastered onto 1CD and plays out as follows (73:18 minutes):
1. Illegal, Immoral And Fattening [Side 1]
2. Rebecca
3. Kama Sutra Time /Bang A Gong (Get It On)
4. The Sanzini Brothers Return (with The Tibetan Memory Trick)
5. Livin' In The Jungle
6. Cheap [Side 2]
7. The Kung Fu Killer
8. Eddie, Are You Kidding?
9. The Pop Star Massage Unit (Live Medley)
10. Let Me Make Love To You
11. There's No Business Like Show Business
Tracks 1 to 11 are their second album "Illegal, Immoral And Fattening" - released August 1975 in the USA on Columbia PC 33554 (no UK release). Produced by JOE WISSERT - it was recorded 'live' at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, USA except "Let Me Make Love To You" which was recorded at the Cherokee Studios.
Band for the live set was Mark Volman (Flo) on Vocals and Guitar, Howard Kaylan (Eddie) on Lead Vocals, Phil Reed on Lead Guitar, Andy Cahan on Keyboards, Erik Scot on Bass and Craig Krampf on Drums. The studio band for "Let Me Make Love To You" was Danny 'Kootch' Kortchmar on Guitar, Ian Underwood on Keyboards, Leland Sklar on Bass and Aynsley Dunbar on Drums
12. Mama, Open Up [Side 1]
13. The Love You Gave Away
14. Hot
15. Best Friends (Theme From The Unsold T.V. Pilot)
16. Best Possible Me
17. Keep It Warm [Side 2]
18. Guns
19. Elenor
20. Sway When You Walk
21. Moving Targets
Tracks 12 to 21 are their third album "Moving Targets" - released October 1976 in the USA on Columbia PC 34262 and November 1976 in the UK on CBS Records S 81509. Produced by RON NEVISON, SKIP TAYLOR, MARK VOLMAN and HOWARD KAYLAN - it didn't chart in either country.
Band was Mark Volman (Flo) on Vocals and Guitar, Howard Kaylan (Eddie) on Lead Vocals, Phil Reed on Lead Guitar, Andy Cahan on Keyboards, Erik Scot on Bass and Craig Krampf on Drums. Guests included Donnie Dacus on "Hot" (Slide Guitar), Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers also on "Hot" (Slide Guitar), Graeme "Shirley" Strachan did Chorus Vocals on "Guns" and Ian Underwood played Saxophone on "Moving Targets".
The card slipcase lends these BGO reissues a touch of class and the chunky 20-page booklet features all artwork, lyrics, musician credits and insightful new liner notes from one of Mojo Magazine's regular contributors - CHARLES WARING. Their notoriously lurid stage shows that produced the likes of "Illegal, Immoral And Fattening" are discussed and giggled with and Waring points out that this kind of punchy irreverent satire (especially in music) whilst common in the Seventies with like contemporaries Cheech & Chong, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart - is something of a dying breed in these ludicrously over-policed PC-times.
By the time Flo & Eddie had gotten to the "Moving Targets" album (released in the autumn of 1976 and ignored like the two albums that preceded it), a certain world-weariness too had crept into their writing - "Mama, Open Up" pining for the days when it was just a laugh. Audio is courtesy of long-time Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON and their great. It's been decades since I listened to this stuff and I absolutely don't remember it sounding or looking 'this good'. To the breach my naked bedfellows...
The "Illegal..." album contains naughtiness and grooves aplenty - hilarity at tangled Sanskrit moves in "Kama Sutra Time", the barely hidden Blaxploitation Sly & The Family Stone funk of "Livin' In The Jungle" whilst the almost a proper song "Rebecca" was backed with the album's title track and issued as a song-45 in December 1975 but Columbia 3-10246 didn't make it. Anyone with a Bruce Lee or Carl Douglas fixation had his or her cages rattled by "The Kung Fu Killer" - an almighty razz on the martial arts craze sweeping the world at that time.
The laughter seemed to have temporarily at least evaporated by the time they made "Moving Targets" - "...it started out so simple and got so far out of hand, making showbiz out of what was fun..." they sang on the autobiographical "Mama, Open Up". Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers stalwart Jeff "Skunk" Baxter provides Slide Guitar on "Hot" and fans count "Keep It Warm" has always been something of a mantra for them and fans - a song about the demands on artists to write that 'hit' but they are drawn (like their listeners) to parody of the money men instead. And as if to stick it in the eye of the oppressor, Flo & Eddie did a sort of "Happy Together" Turtles variant on "Elenor" - a direct jab at the White Whale label that had contained their previous life and chartings.
For sure this is an acquired taste - and bad taste in my book is actually something that made us bellyache back in the day precisely because it was sticking it to the man. A smart reissue from those astute men over at England's BGO...
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