Turtles All the Way Down

My Dinner with Jimi (2003) is a cute, funny memoir of the 1970. Howard Kaylan, one of the singers for the Turtles had a time, and wrote this movie about it.

Basically, the Turtles were a slightly bubblegum pop rock band from LA. They gigged at the Troubador and the Whiskey a Go-Go, with the Doors opening for them. They are doing pretty good, but due to the ugliness of the front men (Howard and the fat and goofy Mark Vollman), they wonder if they can make the big time. There’s a cute scene of an after-gig trip to a deli where Frank Zappa is holding forth to an audience of Mama Cass, when Jim Morrison comes in and doesn’t leave until he has to go “drain the lizard”. Then there’s an extended “fool the draft board” scene that was done better in Big Wednesday, and for that matter, “Alice’s Restaurant”.

But after that, their hit “Happy Together” replaces “Penny Lane”  as the No. 1 hit, and they go on a tour of England. Graham Nash invites them to listen to a pre-release tape of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and then to go to a hot club. They actually meet the Beatles there, and Paul is a sweetheart - but John is as total dick to them. So everyone leaves but Kaylan, who meets Brian Jones, who introduces him to Jimi Hendrix. Now, Hendrix is a god in the UK, but still unknown in the US. But in the course of the conversion, Howard learns... well, something.

This movie is a lot like listening to Kaylan tell some stories, with exaggerations and punchlines well-honed from the telling. You aren’t likely to mistake the actors playing the various celebrities for the real thing - Zappa’s beard looks like it was cut out of construction paper, and the Beatles can be identified by facial hair only. But they do seem to convey the essence in a certain way - at least in the way the Kaylan saw them. And he really did see them, meet them, work with some of them and party with others. There’s even a little tidbit about Jane Asher, if you like obscure rock references.

Plus, they really are a fun band.