# Find of a lifetime: vintage Zager & Evans "Mr. Turnkey" poster **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573 "2012-01-15T04:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/1 "2012-01-15T04:48:13Z")
Talk about the find of a lifetime! On eBay, while searching for a copy of Zager & Evans’ _Hydra 15000_, I found an incredible 10x14 poster advertising Z&E’s single “Mr. Turnkey,” which was a follow-up to “In The Year 2525”. The poster, I guess, was intended for distribution at record stores or kiosks, and, in hindsight, is woefully optimistic. For only ten dollars, I _had_ to bite - a small price to pay for such a great piece of music memorabilia. [Here](http://postimage.org/image/fj8gu8gef/) is my photo of the poster (scaled down, of course.) “Will lightning strike twice?”, it asks - referring, obviously, to the hope that “Mr. Turnkey” would be as big of a hit as the _immensely_ popular “2525”. But, alas, “Turnkey” didn’t even _chart_. Perhaps the most striking thing about the poster is how _young_ Denny Zager looks. He looks like he’s barely out of high school. Zager was always the driving force behind the music (he wrote the majority of the arrangements, and was a better guitarist than Evans). Its subject matter - a rapist in Wichita Falls who is imprisoned for his crime and subsequently nails his own wrist to the wall in a perverse form of self-punishment - was probably too cerebral and morbid for general audiences, explaining why the single was such a flop. (And where did he get a hammer and a nail in a prison cell?) You can listen to the song [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgBMrTSh2nE), but for some reason, the single version (which is the only one available on Youtube as far as I know) lacks the Moog synthesizer riffs that are on the album version. Pity. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/2 "2012-01-15T05:10:51Z")
Grats! That’s an awesome find, and a terrific price as well. I hope it shows up in as good shape as it looks in that picture. Frame it as soon as you get it, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/3 "2012-01-15T05:14:06Z")
The poster is already here (it only took about 2 days to arrive) - I took that photo. I’ll get a frame for it tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/4 "2012-01-15T06:09:20Z")
Oh God, I can’t believe I overlooked the B-side of “Turnkey” - which is only very cursorily mentioned on the poster. [Cary Lynn Javes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSDgEr1em6M&feature=related) is the song, and it’s definitely among Z&E’s best. Actually, it’s probably their most “accessible” song (well, this and “Bayonne”), and I’m surprised it didn’t chart. There’s no political message and no psychedelic or surreal references - it’s just an upbeat love song with fantastic vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar. Also used the penny-whistle and string arrangements to great effect. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/5 "2012-01-15T06:46:40Z")
It gets a bit much when that trumpet kicks in, but the lyrics are pretty damn funny. I like the two verses about the fountain and wondering where the water was coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/6 "2012-01-15T06:54:25Z")
Yeah, sometimes they went over the top with the orchestration. I think they did it right in [“Fred”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1KEOLCMXo) - the epic scope of the lyrics matches the bombastic instrumental arrangements. But “Cary Lynn Javes” would have benefitted from lack of the horn session and string riffs. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/7 "2012-01-15T07:11:13Z")
Are you a fan of this particular style of music, or just this band? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/8 "2012-01-15T07:17:03Z")
Mostly just a fan of the band; their style is pretty wide-ranging, actually. And on the very few songs - like [Reginald Ludwig](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8P6srNT6IU) - where Zager’s voice is the dominant one, you get a totally different sound. (And they were rocking the square-wave synth long before Snoop Dogg!) Quite hard to describe or define exactly what the style of that song is. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/9 "2012-01-15T07:25:42Z")
You may wish to get a copy of Dave Marsh’s [The New Book of Rock Lists](http://www.amazon.com/Book-Rock-Lists-Dave-Marsh/dp/0671787004#reader_0671787004) as it appears in Chapter 12: **20 Tragic Tales**. It’s a fun read. Unfortunately my copy seems to have grown wings and flown away so I can’t quote it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/10 "2012-01-15T08:18:35Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Mostly just a fan of the band; their style is pretty wide-ranging, actually. And on the very few songs - like [Reginald Ludwig](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8P6srNT6IU) - where Zager’s voice is the dominant one, you get a totally different sound. (And they were rocking the square-wave synth long before Snoop Dogg!) Quite hard to describe or define exactly what the style of that song is. What a strange voice he had. I really hadn’t heard much of their music before tonight, other than _2525_ of course. Thanks for the links. I checked them out on AMG, and was kind of surprised that they only had 2 albums. And was even more surprised by [how savage the review of their first album was](http://www.allmusic.com/album/zager-evans-r53103/review). ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/11 "2012-01-15T08:31:17Z")
That review is indeed pretty harsh, and it also makes the mistake of claiming that Rick Evans wrote the lyrics _and_ the music. This is untrue. Evans did write the lyrics, and did the majority of the lead vocals - but it was Zager who wrote all the melodies and arrangements. That review is written from the perspective of “a good song = an accessible radio hit.” I think there are a lot of good songs on _2525_, but many of them are too weird to have ever been mainstream radio hits. Yeah, obviously _Reginald Ludwig_ isn’t going to make the “BMI Top 100.” But it’s still a wonderfully quirky gem of a song - all the more so because of its near-total obscurity. [In My House](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_Tsj--uN4) is another good one. Musically, it is awesome. The lyrics, though, are not going to be most peoples’ idea of great lyrics: “In my house I ain’t got but a chair and a shelf If you don’t like that, you can go somewhere else In my house I like to sit with my curtains all drawn Cause I ain’t got no windows and I ain’t got no lawn” I find them endearingly bizarre, but most people would just consider them “bad”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/12 "2012-01-15T08:44:10Z")
I could tell a long story here, but yeah, I’ve had a similar experience of having my songs reviewed by people who simply weren’t familiar with the genre or expected something radically different than what they heard, and so they wrote extremely unfavorable reviews. From what I heard in your links, none of their songs were near bad enough as that review made them out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/13 "2012-01-16T03:43:02Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What a strange voice he had. Has. He’s still around; you can see/hear him promoting his guitar system in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5ncvQ-68L5g#t=203s) video, among others. While there seems to be some debate as to the efficacy of his “E-Z Play” guitars versus any decent acoustic guitar with a shop setup, there’s no doubt that he’s promoted himself pretty successfully. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-of-a-lifetime-vintage-zager-evans-mr-turnkey-poster/609573/14 "2012-01-16T03:48:02Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Has. He’s still around; you can see/hear him promoting his guitar system in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5ncvQ-68L5g#t=203s) video, among others. While there seems to be some debate as to the efficacy of his “E-Z Play” guitars versus any decent acoustic guitar with a shop setup, there’s no doubt that he’s promoted himself pretty successfully. His speaking voice just sounds vaguely youthful. His singing voice was… odd.