Search - Turtles :: Present the Battle of the Bands

Epic Battle

Brent Evans | Rockhampton, Australia | 04/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Turtles were a truly underrated 60s group;and this is their magnum opus.The premise of this release is:you are witnessing a huge "Battle Of The Bands" competition and the Turtles portray each and every competing band.Each band has a name(name and photos are on the album cover)and different style parodied to the extreme.For example,SURFER DAN is sung by a group that takes the Beach Boys and amplifies them by ten.BUZZSAW is a parody of instumental hits like TEQUILA or GREEN ONIONS.ELENORE takes every love song cliche in the book and serves it to us on a perfect pop platter.FOOD is a recipe for making brownies, complete with sound effects!This album contains two songs that were rejected by other groups:THE STORY OF ROCK'N'ROLL(The Monkees)and YOU SHOWED ME (The Byrds).The only clear winners of THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS are us.Be prepared to learn how good the Turtles really were."

The American Sergeant Pepper. Really!

Tom Tuerff | That there Phoenix place | 05/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Turtles always wanted to be the American Beatles. They never tried to hide that, and they did their darnedest to succeed at it, even becoming buddies with the Fabs in a friendship that extended into Mark, Howie and Jim's days with Zappa and the Mothers.Here, the Turtles present their Sgt. Pepper-style concept album, a battle of the bands, Southern California style, where every band plays a different kind of music. So you get everything here: The greaser band, the psychedelic band (the audially hilarious "Last Thing I Remember"), the cover band (their version of the Byrds' "You Showed Me" was one of two hits off this album), the hitmakers (Elenore, the huge hit from this record), novelty groups, instrumental bands, etc. Surprisingly, it works like a charm. If you're not laughing your keister off over the sheer audacity and straight-on parody of styles here, then you're appreciating the work that went into this thing. Personal favorite: Bassist Jim Pons sings the country-rock song "Too Much Heartsick Feeling." The lower his voice gets, the more hilarious it is. And how can you not like an album where one of the songs contains a recipe for marijuana brownies? Eat 'em up!"

The Turtles tribute to a 60's phenomona

David Fechtmeyer | Lake Worth, Florida USA | 09/07/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The 60's was a time of garage bands and of a poplular local event called the Battle of the Bands. Local bars and county fairs staged competitions to bring out the "Best of the Best" Prizes varried from recording contracts to cash and this was the Turtles tribute to that phenomona. The Turtles played a variety of music as only they can. The album produced 2 hit singles...Elenore and You Showed Me. The two bonus tracks rounding out this album are nice additions. Sound Asleep was a hit which charted, and The Story of Rock and Roll is an underated tune which should have done better on the charts. The Turtles best album ! ! ! ! !"