Flo and Eddie — Illegal, Immoral and Fattening/ Moving Targets

After the Turtles split in 1970 from their label White Whale in acrimonious fashion, vocalist/ keyboard player Mark Volman and vocalist/guitarist Howard Kaylan, who had been prevented from using their real names due to the ongoing contractual restrictions that also prevented the duo from using The Turtles name, adopted the monikers of Phlorescent Leech or Flo (Volman) for short and Eddie (Kaylan). New pseudonyms in place the pair would go on to record as members of Frank Zappa’s backing band, The Mothers of Invention between 1970 and 72 before eventually going on to record as the duo Flo and Eddie. This CD compiles the duo’s 3rd and 4th albums, Illegal, Immoral and Fattening and Moving Targets.

Illegal, Immoral and Fattening is a 1975 comedy album, opening with the title track, a solid punchy uptempo rocker that gets things underway in fine style. "Rebecca" is next and takes the tempo down a notch, however, it’s a fun catchy number that you find yourself singing along to after a couple of listens. The great thing is that whilst the lyrics may have a satirical bent, the music is deadly serious, featuring some fine songwriting and vocal harmonies. A live version of "Karma Sutra Time/Bang A Gong", takes things in a very different direction, sounding more like one of  Zappa’s novelty tunes, before it eventually ends up in an impression of Marc Bolan and T-Rex, which opens the way for them to head down a rabbit hole of musical impressions. "The Sanzini Brothers Return" continues in a similar vein, whereas "Livin’ in a Jungle" is a rather un-pc slice of funk rock, musically very good, but lyrically a little cringey. "Cheap" on the other hand sounds like 1970s Beach Boys performing a Frank Zappa track. "The Kung-Fu Killer" is another live comedy section that pokes fun at both The Doors and Carl Douglas. The rest of the album follows the same vein mixing Zappaesque live recordings with solid studio rock songs, the album closer is a fairly pointless rendition of "There’s No Business Like Show Business".

Moving Targets, gets underway with one of the better tracks across the two albums, "Mama, Open Up", another uptempo rocker that is not too dissimilar in style to the earlier Illegal, Immoral and Fattening. "The Love You Gave Away" is up next, and is typical 1970s singer-songwriter fare, all sweet harmonies and smooth orchestration. Recorded a years after Illegal, Immoral and Fattening, Moving Targets feels a lot more focused without the live comedy sections that seemed to prevent the previous title from getting into any sort of flow. The rest of the album is signified by more rocky numbers, "Hot", "Best Possible Me", and "Sway When You Walk" and more infectious power pop, "Best Friends", and The Turtles classic "Elenore", as well as the Beach Boys inflected "Keep It Warm", a cynical worldview outlined in under 5 minutes. 

Overall, the set is quite patchy ranging from some fairly contentious comedy missteps to some robust driving rock and some catchy power-pop goodness. If you were to remove all of the filler from the disc, you would probably be left with a fairly solid single album’s worth of material, perhaps something slightly better than that. Standout tracks for me include "Illegal, Immoral and Fattening", "Rebecca", "Mama", "Open Up", "Best Possible Me", "Sway When We Walk" and "Elenore". This latest release from BGO Records is a well put together set, featuring both digitally remastered albums, good liner notes including full lyrics for both albums and some great photos and analysis of the band’s output.