Flo & Eddie
The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (1972)
Flo & Eddie (1974)
2008
FloEdCo MFO 48001
2fer - 1st 2 releases
Biography by Stacia Proefrock
Self-described as the Partridge Family and Redd Foxx on one album, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, otherwise known as Flo & Eddie, presented one of the more eclectic duos in the history of rock & roll. Their friendship and musical partnership, which began in their high school choir in Westchester, CA, led at first to a surf band called the Crossfires, which changed its name to the Turtles after its members graduated high school. The Turtles had some of the sweetest, most feel-good sounds in pop music, but underneath the melodic pop there was always an undercurrent of mischief. When the band broke up in 1970, Volman and Kaylan became members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, which provided them a perfect breeding ground for their quirky ways. Performing under the name the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, they eventually shortened their moniker to Flo & Eddie. They recorded seven solo albums, eventually producing inexplicably weird reggae albums, but their real name was made by their radio show, which started out in the mid-'70s in Detroit, but eventually ended up on KROQ in California and was syndicated by nearly 50 stations at its peak. Flo & Eddie scored two low-budget films, Dirty Duck and Texas Detour, and, surreally enough, also worked on music for several kids' television shows, including the animated series Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears.
Review of Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (1972):
Review by Joe Viglione
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan opened for the Alice Cooper Group on the Billion Dollar Babies tour, and the insanity they put on display while performing this album live was controlled insanity, perhaps the best kind. On the back of The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie is a Frank Zappa 200 Motels film poster, the usual mess one would expect from Flo & Eddie, but no Turtles memorabilia. With the solid drumming of Aynsley Dunbar and their incredible harmonies, Flo & Eddie are truly a mixture of the Turtles' pop and the Mothers of Invention's unpredictability. What was so striking about this debut album before Bob Ezrin got ahold of them for the sequel (maybe that's how they got the Cooper tour) is that it is delicious pop music played to perfection -- as melodic as Petula Clark -- just more difficult to grasp. When the boys get to a good hook they let go of it, maybe a mental trigger from all their Turtles hits, a subconscious effort to keep this in the underground, just on the cusp of being commercially viable. What is also striking is that the production work is impeccable. These two guys absolutely ruined whatever chance Mono Mann and his DMZ might've had for stardom when as producers they stripped the essence of that Boston band away from their Sire Records debut. Had they recorded DMZ as perfectly as this album was tracked, who knows how the earth might've shook. "It Never Happened" sounds like Graham Nash's "Chicago" turned upside down, while "Strange Girl" has nothing of the commercial slant that they poured onto the Marc Bolan tunes they performed on. Then there's "Strange Girl," which strangely sounds like the Mothers of Invention going for a hit. The tragedy of it all is that this stuff is so sincerely off the wall while simultaneously being serious that radio should have embraced much of it. The production values here are immense, a thick and deep sound beyond the vocal work we expect from these choir boys. The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie is a glow-in-the-dark album rich with strong compositions, skillful musicianship, and extraordinary vocal work. It is a classic by two true rock & roll geniuses. "Who but I" is a summer song that the Turtles would have killed for. This album is a treasure chest of ideas by journeymen that had a clue; a grasp of what the rock & roll game is really all about. As stated above, it is deliciously brilliant.
Review of Flo & Eddie (1974):
Review by Lindsay Planer
Of all the Mothers of Invention (MOI) alumnae, the Phlorescent Leech (aka Flo) and Eddie remain one of the most musically consistent. Part of the reason could be traced back to Mark Volman (Flo) (vocals/guitar) and Howard Kaylan (Eddie) (vocals) having achieved significant success as the lead vocalists behind '60s folk-rockers the Turtles prior to hooking up with Frank Zappa in 1970. Although rarely mentioned, one-time Leaves' member and longtime Turtles' bassist Jim Pons was also recruited to be a Mother of Invention, where he, Volman, and Kaylan remained until the band was unceremoniously dissolved when Zappa was pushed off stage by unstable audience member Trevor Howell. Zappa landed ten feet below onto a concrete orchestra pit on December 10,, 1971 at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The incident effectively put Zappa out of commission, leaving the Mothers to find work elsewhere. In fairly short order, Volman and Kaylan were signed to Reprise Records as Flo & Eddie where they resurfaced with the excellent, self-titled Phlorescent Leech & Eddie (1972). Their second and final Reprise album -- titled Flo & Eddie (1974) -- was ostensibly created so that the duo would have product to push during their high profile opening slot on Alice Cooper's (then) big-budget Billion Dollar Babies (1974) tour. Primary components of the Cooper production team -- including producer Bob Ezrin, engineers Shelly Yakus and Jack Douglas, as well as Cooper's masterful design and concept team at Pacific Eye & Ear -- collectively updated Flo & Eddie's sound and image. While the results did yield a slicker and less organic product, it is actually what Volman and Kaylan bring to the festivities that arguably makes Flo & Eddie (1973) the better of the two endeavors. At the heart and soul of Flo & Eddie is their vocal blend -- which they can (and occasionally do) turn into a full-blown choir, thanks to a few vocal overdub passes. The hearty syncopated rocker "If We Only Had the Time" provides a great example of this technique. The Kinks' "Days" is the first of several superbly chosen covers. Simply stated, Kaylan and Volman effortlessly embody the song's profound sense of loss and wistful nostalgia as if the tune had been penned for them. The jaunty "You're a Lady" hearkens back to the memorably quirky melodies and catchy choruses that defined the Turtles at their best -- à la "She's My Girl" and "You Showed Me". "The Original Soundtrack from 'Carlos and De Bull'" is an odd tale of a matador that recalls Flo & Eddie's dramatic ventures in 200 Motels, and the brilliant saga of "Billy the Mountain" from their Zappa days. Another grand slam remake follows as they upgrade the Small Faces' "Afterglow" with a slightly metallic tinge -- no doubt thanks to Ezrin's handiwork. Fellow '60s survivor and Reprise recording artist John B. Sebastian lends his dulcet tones to a modern doo wop update of the Ronettes' "Best Part of Breaking Up" that is driven by the same type of hard-hitting rhythm that accompanied Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part One)". A final dip back into their MOI tenure as the "Sanzini Brothers" -- better known as Aldolph, Rip-Off, Rudolph, and Jack -- are heard performing the "horrible sodomy trick". The opening of "Another Pop Star's Life" is clearly inspired by Roger Daltery's blood-curdling wail at the climax of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". The tale of excess and debauchery was later revealed to have been an observation on the lifestyle of Marc Bolan from T Rex. The acoustic "Just Another Town" may well have its subject matter rooted in the 200 Motels motif of "touring can make you go crazy" as they depict a substance-less nomadic existence. The Kaylan-penned seven-plus-minute "Marmendy Mill" is a pastoral epic featuring orchestration by Alan MacMillian -- whose other notable Ezrin productions include Lou Reed's Berlin (1973) and Alice Cooper' sWelcome to My Nightmare (1975). The youthful ode to the freedom and innocence of childhood perfectly caps what is -- by most accounts -- the best of what Flo & Eddie are all about.
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