Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The Turtles - Shell Shock (upgrade)


The Turtles – Shell Shock
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)
September 2018 Upgrade

Side A:
1.  Goodbye Surprise
2.  Like It or Not
3.  There You Sit Lonely
4.  We Ain’t Gonna Party No More
5.  Lady-O

Side B: 
6.  Gas Money
7.  Can I Go On
8.  You Want To Be A Woman
9.  If We Only Had The Time
10.  Who Would Ever Think That I Would Mary Margaret?
11.  Teardrops


This is a reconstruction of what was intended to be The Turtles final album Shell Shock.  Produced by Jerry Yester for a 1970 release, the band envisioned Shell Shock as their masterpiece and career coda but it remained unfinished due to extreme meddling from their record label.  White Whale Records went back on their word to fund the album and entrapped frontmen Flo and Eddie to bend to their corporate wishes.  After dissolving the band, White Whale trickled out the Shell Shock material, in various forms of completeness, on various compilation releases until the label themselves dissolved as well.  This reconstruction attempts to cull all the material originally recorded and meant to be a part of the Shell Shock project into a finished, cohesive album, utilizing the best possible masters of each track.

Upgrades to this September 2018 edition are: 
  • Upgraded sources from  All The Singles and the  Turtle Soup remaster


An extreme example of the commercial world destroying the artistic: quite simply, The Turtles are martyrs.  Locked into a record contract so rigid that frontmen Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman were not even allowed to use their actual names after the break-up of The Turtles, much of their career in the 60s were spent fighting the industry that restrained them.  Miraculously, many of their successes were an embodiment of this—most notably their hit song “Elenore”, a sarcastic response to their label’s request to write an assembly-line pop hit in the fashion of their signature hit “Happy Together”.  That friction climaxed in 1970 as the band began winding down after years of biting the hands that barely fed them as well as the commercial let-down of their previous album, the Ray Davies-produced Turtle Soup.

In an attempt for a final bravado, the quintet assembled at Sunset Sound studios in January 1970 and began recording their usual mix of originals and outside-written tracks.  Produced by Jerry Yester, the band again sought to record another intelligent and musically diverse album as Turtle Soup, this time a bit more commercial.  At least seven songs are known to have been recorded during these Yester sessions including: original compositions “Can I Go On”, “If We Only Had The Time”, “There You Sit Lonely”, “We Ain’t Gonna Party No More”; guitarist Al Nichol’s “You Want To Be A Woman”; and the Bonner/Gordon leftovers “Goodbye Surprise” & “Like It Or Not”.   The Turtles also recorded a pair of ridiculous songs as: an authentic cover of Jan & Arnie’s “Gas Money” and a cover of the band's live staple, Lee Andrews & The Hearts’ “Teardrops”.  It was released as a very rare, promo-only single in February 1970, credited to The Dedications. 

But midway through the Yester sessions, White Whale desired The Turtles to have a hit single after being dismayed by the lackluster sales of Turtle Soup.  They suggested that Kaylan and Volman fly to Memphis and record vocal overdubs on a pre-recorded backing track for the ridiculously corny song “Who Would Ever Thought That I Would Marry Margaret?”, penned by professional songwriters Ralph Dino and John Sembello.  Kaylan and Volman refused, claiming this transgression would reduce their rock band into transparent pop idols.  In retaliation for their refusal to turn their band into a pair of fake pop singers, White Whale chained the doors to their studio at Sunset Sound and even posted guards outside the door, not allowing The Turtles to even retrieve their own gear, let alone finish the album!

In a desperate attempt to save the Shell Shock recordings and the hope to somehow finish the album, Kaylan and Volman agreed to record “Margaret”, although they refused to add anything other than their necessary lead and backing vocals.  This ‘unfinished’ mix was released to dismal critical and commercial attention—just as the pair had predicted—and the single was a flop.  Despite Kaylan and Volman’s participation, White Whale still refused to let The Turtles finish Shell Shock and both parties sued each other: White Whale sued The Turtles for a breach of contract and The Turtles sued White Whale for a missing $2,500,000 that was owed to them. The band soon called it quits amidst litigation.  In one final plea to salvage the band’s reputation, White Whale allowed Kaylan, Volman and Nichol to record vocals for a final Turtles single, the beautiful “Lady-O”.  Written and performed acoustically by Judee Sill, it was a gentle goodbye to the band.   

Shell Shock remained in the vaults and as Kaylan and Volman regrouped as Flo and Eddie and were absorbed into Frank Zappa’s reformed Mothers of Invention, White Whale continued to exploit The Turtles name, the label’s only charting act.  After re-releasing some of their mid-60s singles, White Whale released the more completed Shell Shock material on the compilation More Golden Hits in 1970.  After the the collapse of the reformed Mothers of Invention, Flo & Eddie recorded their first solo album The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie in 1972, which contained new recordings of "Goodbye Surprise" and "There You Sit Lonely", as well as other tracks that would have been originally meant for Shell Shock, had they been recorded.  Eventually, time would prove our protagonists as victors, as White Whale went bankrupt and their assets auctioned off in 1974.  Who was it that bought The Turtles back-catalog?  Two gentlemen by the name of Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan!

As “Happy Together” proved to be a timeless classic, the legacy of The Turtles seemed profitable enough for re-releases, this time controlled by the actual founders of The Turtles.  Notable from this first reissue campaign on Rhino Records was an official reconstruction of Shell Shock released in 1987, attempting to match what the band might have released in 1970 had the album been finished!  Unfortunately, Flo and Eddie’s own official Shell Shock reconstruction is long out-of-print and is not even mentioned in the band’s own online discography.  Luckily for us, all of the songs trickled out as bonus tracks on The Turtles reissues on the Repertoire and Sundazed labels in the 90s.  The most recently, all the material, remastered from the original mastertapes, appeared on the anthology All The Singles and as bonus tracks on Turtle Soup.  Even though the band’s own take on Shell Shock is long forgotten, we have no trouble replicating it… or rather, making our own take on it, an album that never was!

My reconstruction of Shell Shock begins similarly to The Turtles' own out-of-print reconstruction from 1987, with the bombastic rocker “Goodbye Surprise”, taken from the Turtle Soup remaster.  Following is “Like it Or Not” and “There You Sit Lonely”, also taken from the Turtle Soup remaster.  The twin-singles “We Ain’t Gonna Party No More” and “Lady-O” conclude Side A, both in their original stereo single mixes, taken from All The Singles.  Unlike the band’s official reconstruction, I am excluding “Cat In The Window”, it being an outtake from 1967 and not from the 1970 Yester and related singles sessions.   

Side B deviates a bit from the band’s own reconstruction, as my version opens with the ruckus of “Gas Money”, taken from All The Singles.  Following is “Can I Go On”, taken from the Turtle Soup remaster.  Another deviation from the official Shell Shock is my exclusion of “Dance This Dance”, another track misappropriated to Shell Shock by Rhino, it being from the Turtle Soup demo sessions a year prior.  Instead is “You Want To Be a Woman” and “If We Only Had The Time”, both from the Turtle Soup remaster.  While many feel that the atrocious “Who Would Ever Think That I Would Marry Margaret?” was never truly intended to be on the album, I propose it probably would have been White Whale's condition for the album's release and it is included here as a historical curiosity at the very least, in it’s true stereo mix from All The Singles.  My reconstruction ends with “Teardrops”, also taken from All The Singles.   



Sources used:
All The Singles (Manifesto, 2016)
Turtle Soup (Manifesto, 2016 remaster)


flac --> wav --> editing in Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8
* md5 files, track notes and artwork included

31 comments:

  1. Cool, thanks for the upgrade. Hard to believe it's been 4 years since you put the original version up. Thanks again.

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  3. Thank you for the reconstruction of the album. It's very interesting and exciting.

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  4. Awesome work, as usual! Have you ever thought to share this one with Flo or Eddie? Howard Kaylan is actually active on Twitter (@howardkaylan) and I'm sure he'd love that people are still appreciating the Turtles and their more creative work in 2018. For you to take the time to lovingly and painstakingly craft these pieces together and help make their dream album a reality... it's just so awesome. Thank you!

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  5. Thanks very much for the upgrade!

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  6. There are two different versions of Dance This Dance, the one added to a deluxe version of Turtle Soup, which is the demo, and the later, completed production version (which could well have been recorded during the Shell Shock sessions), that belongs on this album. It's certainly a much more appropriate inclusion than "Margaret", and it's a bit baffling why you chose to omit it!

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    Replies
    1. Because... it was on Turtle Soup?

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    2. Fair enough. Looking on discogs, there appears to be three versions - 4:25, 3:30/31, and 3:17/18. Unless my iTunes timings are screwed, I don't have the 4:25 version. No wonder I'm confused.

      Incidentally, many years ago I asked Howard Kaylan about the "The Owl" and "To See The Sun", and he told me they were demos recorded in Chicago. Which was a surprise to me, and may be to you!

      A truly great group.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. I always wondered about "Cat In The Window". I always thought it was for Petula Clark (who released it as a single). Seems out of place that a 1967 outtake would be placed on a 1970 album. I am assuming Rhino put it on its reconstruction since it was first released on More Golden Hits and assumed it was a 1970, not 1967, track.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, in Kaylan's book, he was sort of gloating that they got the song first and recorded it, but shelved it because they didn't think it was a hit. Then Petula Clark's version came out and they were proved right. Since Clark's version was released in August 1967, The Turlte's version must have been recorded prior to that.

      I'm assuming it was recorded as a stopgap single inbetween Happy Together and Battle of The Bands, around the time of "She's My Girl and "You Know What I Mean".

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  9. Have you considered any projects involving The Byrds? Such as the 20c double album, or Gere Tryp? It would be a fun thing to look into, I reckon, and wouls make for great listens!

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  10. I use Audacity to make my mixes but I feel it has a lot of limitations. I've been following your blog for what... 4 years? Not sure why I've never asked you what software you use. Hence, what software do you use?

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    Replies
    1. I use Cakewalk SONAR Pro for any mixing, syncing, editing, etc. I use Goldwave as a simple wav editor

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  12. Hello, have you heard of the proposed Rock is Dead album of the Doors, which could have potentially taken place of The Soft Parade? It's really interesting, and I think would make a neat addition to this blog:

    http://www.bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=ACE860

    https://www.thefreedomman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6187&p=97376&hilit=rock+is+dead#p97376

    http://www.thefreedomman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6087&p=95933


    My guess is that we'd see some of the Morrison tracks from TSP and Morrison Hotel (Shaman Blues, Wild Child, Soft Parade, Queen of the Highway). The rest would probably have their bluesy jams I Will Never Be Untrue, Woman is a Devil, Rock Me, and Whiskey Mystics.

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  13. Thanks for this from a longtime Turtle fan.

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  14. great blog, thanks. met kaylan and volman last year after a happy together show , which i highly recommend, nice guys and so glad they won there royalty lawsuits recently.

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  15. empty3
    https://mega.nz/file/74pxnAwL#gt3mqUkfwba67AA-X5U84SruNzHA6TzL35a3P46QRz4

    listless
    https://mega.nz/file/f0hHkQIK#11Xi5541rCjpjIII9UGImFSnm9cS_4X9UlqLYCBX5pI

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  16. I cannot find a way to download any more ??

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  17. xACT throws up a couple of md5 checksum errors on the FLAC version:

    01 - Goodbye Surprise.flac: ERROR while decoding metadata state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM

    03 - There You Sit Lonely.flac: ERROR while decoding data state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM

    Thanks for all your hard work, really enjoyed the 7 Skies edit...

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    Replies
    1. That probably happened because I changed the filename *after* I created the checksum

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  18. Great work, thank you. Track one 'Goodbye Surprise' appears to be missing though! Zero bytes on the FLAC file.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, me too - zero bytes for Goodbye Surprise

      Delete
  19. For those of you who do the Spotify thing:
    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4KQU8YpHLkrDchoSxqu7qP

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  20. 3olUEarD#MuBFCpK5c1-oGtmwJ7eBslcgWPIHh7dHPYxIaFJJeKI

    HhlWiYzC#7MOGf0jb3dxD7GG59d1nHFHhpXuYm_vjKUFi199ikIY

    ReplyDelete