Pride and Joy, et cetera

Sometime in the mid sixties, pop music stopped being about and for teeny boppers, and was raised, as a long line of critics said, to the level of Art.  This is best evidenced in a trio of albums released by the Beatles starting in late 1965.

Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band showed the world that popular music was to be taken seriously, and all other performers of the era quickly fell in line and followed suit.  Almost all, that is.

There is no way to overstate the talent, magic, and influence of The Beatles.  You can’t exaggerate their importance in 20^th Century culture.  But even the Fab Four was guilty of taking themselves too seriously once or twice.  One of their most enduring legacies in the realm of performing arts is their pretentiousness. 

Apparently one group who regularly held a spot or two in the Top 40 didn’t get the memo.

While The Turtles were certainly serious about their craft you can’t help but notice, especially today when viewed through the time machine, the way they seemed to always be winking at the audience.   Howard Kaylan and company left behind some of the most memorable tunage to emerge from the whole 60’s experience.  But in every clip of performing or even in interviews, it’s not difficult to see that they never were doing anything but having a lot of fun, and never lost sight of exactly who and what they were:  A bunch of pretty talented guys who happened to be in the right place at the right time and went for the ride of their life.

Harry Caray once said that the reason for his popularity was that every fan could imagine himself sitting there and doing his job.  The Turtles made it big, and with every appearance, they were stand ins for every garage band that never made it out of the garage.

I’m in no way trying to detract from what they accomplished.  Kaylan’s voice was as good as any that blared out of transistor radios from 1965 to 1970.  A lot of groups caught lightning in a bottle and then disappeared from sight just as quickly as they appeared.  The Turtles were a headline act for many years, and that alone puts them in the top echelon.  They were, in fact a lot more than just lucky.

When it comes to what the 60’s gave us, if you want to see pop music perfection, look up The Beatles.  If you want to see what the California music scene was about, look up The Grateful Dead or The Doors.  But if you want to see what was fun about the 60’s, check out The Turtles.