The Mamas and the Papas

John Phillips was, by many accounts, a reprehensible human being. But he was a genius in one area--harmonic arrangements. For the three years he was the creative force behind The Mamas and the Papas, he and his band mates crafted some of the best pop of the already rich 1960s.

The band formed when Phillips and his wife, Michelle, teamed up with two members of a band called The Mugwumps, Cass Elliot and Dennie Doherty. They all came out of the folk-rock scene, the same DNA pool from whence The Byrds and The Lovin' Spoonful were born. The group, backed by Lou Adler, made their debut in 1965, and ended up producing six albums. They had two masterpieces: California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday, plus a number of other hits, both written internally and covers of other songs.

The group lasted for three acrimonious years, and has one of the most lurid Behind the Music stories of any rock band. Phillips, after Michelle had an affair with Doherty, fired her from the group (while they were still married). Elliott was in love with Doherty. Like Fleetwood Mac, who has the second-best Behind the Music episode, they wrote songs about the in-fighting.

The sound is unique in rock history. The harmonies are exquisite, and the lyrics, while not brilliant, have their moments. "California Dreamin'" starts with "All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. I've been on a walk, on a winter's day. I'd be safe and warm, if I was in L.A. California dreamin', on such a winter's day." The song is rendered in a minor key, making the whole thing sound almost like a requiem, and it casts the singer's longing for warmer weather as en existential crisis.

"Monday, Monday" is also something of a crisis song. Mondays, of course, have been disparaged in groups ranging from The Carpenters to The Boomtown Rats, but the way Doherty, who also sings "California Dreamin'," gives the song a quality that makes us think he may be on the edge of suicide.

"Monday, Monday
Can't trust that day
Monday, Monday
Sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh, Monday morning
You gave me no warning
Of what was to be."

The group's other standouts include some of the songs written about their various affairs. Go Where You Wanna Go. now used as a theme for allergy medication, is like Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way," with two band mates singing to each other--one of them saying "hit the bricks" while the other makes excuses for her adultery. It's a terrific song, with a great string opening. I Saw Her Again Last Night. while appearing to be about a guy not wanting to lead a girl on, is instead about when Phillips saw Michelle sneaking into Doherty's hotel room. The song has a happy accident, at one point Doherty appears to stop and start his vocals, which was an engineering error. It was kept in because it gives the song an added frisson of improvisation.

They even had a song about their own history, Creeque Alley;

John and Mitchie were gettin' kind of itchy
Just to leave the folk music behind;
Zal and Denny workin' for a penny
Tryin' to get a fish on the line.
In a coffee house Sebastian sat,
And after every number they'd pass the hat.
McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin' higher in L.A.,
You know where that's at.
And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass.

Zallie said, "Denny, you know there aren't many
Who can sing a song the way that you do; let's go south."
Denny said, Zallie, golly, don't you think that I wish
I could play guitar like you."
Zal, Denny, and Sebastian sat (at the Night Owl)
And after every number they'd pass the hat.
McGuinn and McGuire still a-gettin higher in L.A.,
You know where that's at.
And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass.

When Cass was a sophomore, planned to go to Swarthmore
But she changed her mind one day.
Standin' on the turnpike, thumb out to hitchhike,
"Take me to New York right away."
When Denny met Cass he gave her love bumps;
Called John and Zal and that was the Mugwumps.
McGuinn and McGuire couldn't get no higher
But that's what they were aimin' at.
And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass.

Mugwumps, high jumps, low slumps, big bumps -
Don't you work as hard as you play.
Make up, break up, everything is shake up;
Guess it had to be that way.
Sebastian and Zal formed the 'Spoonful;
Michelle, John, and Denny gettin' very tuneful.
McGuinn and McGuire just a-catchin' fire in L.A.,
You know where that's at.
And everybody's gettin' fat except Mama Cass.

Broke, busted, disgusted, agents can't be trusted,
And Mitchie wants to go to the sea.
Cass can't make it; she says we'll have to fake it -
We knew she'd come eventually.
Greasin' on American Express cards;
Tents low rent, but keeping out the heat's hard.
Duffy's good vibrations and our imaginations
Can't go on indefinitely.
And California dreamin' is becomin' a reality...

Some of the covers the band did showed off the group's wonderful voices. Cass Elliot had a hit with "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Dancin' in the Street," while Doherty performed "My Girl." All of the group teamed up for "Dedicated to the One I Love."

The Mamas and the Papas were a vocal group--only Phillips played an instrument, usually strumming a guitar during performances, often wearing a ridiculous fur hat. The other musicians weren't part of the "group."

Michelle Phillips is the only one left. Elliott died first, of heart failure when she was just 33. For years it has been erroneously described that she died choking on a ham sandwich, a cruel joke since she was a large woman. Phillips, a heroin addict and lover of underage women (according to his daughter McKenzie, that included her), received a liver transplant and died in 2001. He also wrote the hits "San Franciso (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) and The neo-Beach Boys hit, "Kokomo." Doherty died in 2007.

The Mamas and the Papas are perhaps the best example of the notion that beautiful things don't necessarily come from the most ideal circumstances. But their music, particularly the golden four-part harmony, is still eminently listenable today.