Howard Kaylan
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Howard Kaylan (born Howard Kaplan, 22 June 1947[1], New York) is an American rock and roll musician, best known as a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s band, The Turtles.
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[edit] Early days
Kaylan grew up in Westchester, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. He studied choral music and clarinet, and won a Bank of America Fine Arts Award at the age of 16. He graduated early (as valedictorian) from Westchester High School, and briefly attended UCLA on a scholarship.
[edit] Music career
Kaylan and Mark Volman founded The Turtles, a popular band of the late 1960s. After that band folded, at the end of 1970, Kaylan and Volman signed on as members of Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention. Five albums and the film, 200 Motels came from that partnership, as did the nom de plume, "Flo & Eddie". The duo were not allowed legal use of their own names until multiple Turtle lawsuits were settled.
Four albums followed on Warner Bros. Records and Columbia Records in music; in film they provided music and voices for animated films like Down and Dirty Duck; and they appeared in radio broadcasting.
In the 1980s, "Rock Steady With Flo and Eddie" was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, and the partners began writing comedy and script with Chris Bearde, Larry Gelbart and Carl Gotleib. Simultaneously, they began writing regularly featured columns for Creem, Phonograph Record Magazine and the L.A. Free Press.
They also produced many albums for other bands and artists, as well as singing backing vocals on over 100 albums.[citation needed] Flo and Eddie can be heard singing with John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, The Ramones, Blondie, Duran Duran, The Psychedelic Furs, T. Rex, Alice Cooper and many more.
In 1983, Kaylan appeared in the rock and roll comedy Get Crazy, starring Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Stern. Kaylan played the part of Captain Cloud, a spiritual guru type of character, leader of a caravan of time lost gypsy-like hippies. In 1987, Kaylan and Volman appeared in a new music video of the song "Happy Together", made in order to promote the romantic comedy Making Mr. Right, which featured the song during its end credits.
In 1985, the old lawsuits were finally settled and the name, "The Turtles" reverted to Kaylan and his partner after fifteen years in litigation, as well as all of the master recordings they made. Thanks to Burger King, the NFL, Sony Playstation, and countless other television advertisements and motion pictures, the Turtles' catalog remains a staple for licensing and reproduction in the twenty-first century.
[edit] Literature
In the mid 1990s, Kaylan turned his attention to the collecting and writing of dark fantasy literature and science fiction. He scribed two short stories, by way of experimentation, and both were published in the best-selling anthologies, "Phantoms of the Night" and "Forbidden Acts." He also currently pens the widely read "Eddie's Media Corner" on the official website [2].
[edit] Media appearances
He portrayed an orthodox minister who "married" Laura to Stavros in a dream sequence on General Hospital, an old hippie on Suddenly Susan and a younger one on the Garry Shandling Show.
In 2001, Kaylan wrote a treatment for a very short film about his first night on tour in London. After bringing it to his friend (and Rhino Records president) Harold Bronson for input, the project was lengthened and shot as a one-hour movie. The following year, scenes were added and it was back into the movie studio once again to complete what would now be a full-length feature. My Dinner With Jimi thus became the first film written by Kaylan. It was produced by Bronson for Rhino Entertainment, and directed by Bill Fishman (Tapeheads, Car 54, Where Are You?) for Fallout Films. In 2005, Kaylan appeared in a featured role in Stephen King's Riding The Bullet.
[edit] Recent times
As of 2005, Kaylan and Volman still appear occasionally as "The Turtles ... featuring Flo & Eddie".
In 2006 Kaylan released his first solo album, Dust Bunnies[3]. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
On December 11, 2007, he performed with Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman appeared on January 13, 2008 as the Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie at an almost rained-out appearance at Cypress Gardens, Florida.
On April 4, 2008 Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman appeared as "The Turtles ... featuring Flo & Eddie" along with "Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone" at the Paramount Theater in Aurora, IL.
