Posted on 09/05/2025 4:50:51 PM PDT by Morgana
The Turtles co-founder Mark Volman has died aged 78.
Guitarist and vocalist Volman passed away on September 5 after a 'brief, unexpected illness' in Nashville, Tennessee, his representative confirmed in a statement to People.
The Turtles were known for hits including Billboard number one single Happy Together in 1967 and Elenore in 1968.
Volman joined The Turtles - then known as the Nightriders and later the Crossfires - in 1963 when he was a student at Westchester High School in California with fellow founding member Howard Kaylan.
While Volman first started out as a saxophonist in the surf music band, he and Kaylan became lead vocalists when the group switched to folk rock.
The founding line-up of The Turtles became Volman, Kaylan, Don Murray, Al Nichol, Jim Tucker and Chuck Portz.
The band's later members were bassists Chip Douglas and Jim Pons, and drummers Joel Larson, Johnny Barbata, and John Seiter.
Their breakthrough single, a cover of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe was released in 1965 and reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This was followed by singles Let Me Be and You Baby. Tracks Grim Reaper of Love and Can I Get To Know You Better bombed in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I remember playing a tape of Zappa / Mothers Just Another Band from LA (with Flo & Eddie) in the car while driving some work colleagues to a golf outing. None of these guys were shrinking violets, but the bad language and weirdness got to them - they asked me to pull the tape during Magdalena (a song about a guy lusting after his slutty teenage daughter). Too bad you couldn’t select songs on a cassette tape back then - I think they would have liked Billy the Mountain.
Also - back in the college days when we wrote and ran Fortran programs using punch cards and a card reader, I wrote a program using the Mothers’ names as my variables. Programming TA gave me extra credit for it.
Golden Bear -best place to see a band in the history of the universe from the beginning of time until the present day. I lived around the corner above the Infinity surf shop on Main Street- Evy Pratt’s “Avalon Hotel” 35.00 a week. 17 years old
I actually met him briefly once. I forgot to ask for his autograph.
I’m still kicking myself for that.
L
They would do commentary of the Rose Parade using the KTLA feed. It was hilarious.
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