Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 61

Record label: RCA

Produced: Lou Adler

Recorded: Western Recording Studios, Hollywood; late summer–autumn 1965

Released: March 1966

Chart peaks: 3 (UK) 1 (US)

Personnel: John Phillips (v, g); Denny Doherty (v); Cass Elliot (v); Michelle Phillips (v)

Track listing: Monday Monday (S); Straight Shooter; Got A Feelin’; I Call Your Name; Do You Wanna Dance; Go Where You Wanna Go (S); California Dreamin’ (S); Spanish Harlem; Somebody Groovy; Hey Girl; You Baby; The ‘In’ Crowd

Running time: 34.58

Current CD: AAMCAD11739

Further listening: Creeque Alley – The History Of The Mamas And The Papas (1991)

Further reading: Papa John (John Phillips with Jim Jerome, 1987); www.mamasandpapas.com

Download: iTunes

In his book Papa John, John Phillips described how he, Cass, Denny and Michelle auditioned for producer Lou Adler at Western Recording Studios in Hollywood while singing back-up vocals for Barry McGuire’s This Precious Time. McGuire was an old pal from the group’s Greenwich Village folk beginnings who was enjoying huge success with the protest pop of Eve Of Destruction. This was the summer of 1965 and the group was still using the name The New Journeymen. They sang California Dreamin’ and Monday Monday for Adler, and he reputedly raved: ‘Wow, I can’t believe my eyes and ears.’

Within a month they were signed, had become The Mamas And The Papas and were back recording in the same studio. They looked and sounded like nothing else before or since. Along with The Byrds and The Lovin’ Spoonful, also former folkies, The Mamas And The Papas were among the first American groups to present a challenge to the English Invasion: a year later, the whole California revival came along. By January 1966, California Dreamin’ was all over the airwaves, anticipating the Summer of Love; Phillips also wrote that other Flower Power anthem, Scott McKenzie’s San Francisco.

The Mamas And The Papas were the first public manifestation of hippiedom: their physical appearance, their flamboyant dress sense and their moral stance anticipated the climate; outlandish rich kids living in Bel Air. All four of their albums are as strong as their debut, and each one maintained the high standard of John Phillips’ songwriting. Cass usually pulled a favourite cover version out of her repertoire (Dedicated To The One I Love is, perhaps, the best known), but the crowning glory was the finest production that Los Angeles could offer, a clear and warm sound played by the same team of top-flight sessionmen on each record.

That The Mamas And The Papas’ story ended in turmoil, strife and eventually the death of Cass Elliot, after the group split in 1968, was almost inevitable given the love/hate tensions between them and an extraordinary drug intake. As is often the way, the sweetest music sprang from the darkest circumstances.