Untitled Document

            That’s right, second of a four-part series. I know I promised a three-part series, but I have decided to extend it in order to pay homage to one of America’s all-time greatest musicians and his passing a few days ago. You may be surprised at the level of greatness that I ascribe to John Phillips; yet this is the case that I hope to make.
            First let me say that I feel extremely fortunate to have a somewhat personal connection to John Phillips’ music. In college in 1998, I was a writer for the campus newspaper and my beat was the University Auditorium and the entertainment events brought in to play. As a matter of course, I was assigned to cover the appearance of The Mamas and the Papas, who were to play our campus in October of that year. I knew precious little about this group, having heard them only occasionally on oldies stations. I felt that the story of a played-out group from the 60s would be of little interest to my readers or to myself, yet I could hardly have been more wrong. As I discovered immediately, the touring group contained no original members. Why, then, was there a group at all? I would soon find out from the groups front man, Scott McKenzie.
            You may know the name Scott McKenzie as the folk singer famous for the song “If You’re Goin’ to San Francisco,” flower child anthem of the 1960’s. McKenzie had been best friends with John Phillips since their grade school days. He had played in the coffeehouse hit folk group The Journeymen with Phillips, and the two also organized the Monterrey Pop Festival together. McKenzie was the namesake of Phillips’ oldest daughter as well. And so, in talking to McKenzie, I could not have possibly found a greater enthusiast of the music of John Phillips. The original Mamas and the Papas had, of course, broken up in the early 1970’s. Any chance of a reunion died with the passing of Mama Cass Elliot in 1974. The Mamas and Papas music, the entire body of which was written and composed by John Phillips, was dismissed by popular and classic rock stations, and was relegated to oldies airplay. McKenzie informed me that his mission in putting together a Mamas and Papas cover band was to bring back, as he called it the “beautiful harmony and poetry” of John Phillips, and to share it with the world. McKenzie was dead-on in his statement about harmony – my research showed that it was Phillips who pioneered and thus popularized the four-part male/female harmony in rock music, a style that enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
            I asked Scott McKenzie what if any role John Phillips was playing in this cover band. McKenzie informed me that Phillips handpicked the singers, arranged the music and helped conduct rehearsals, but that Phillips was in ill health after undergoing a liver transplant in the early 1990s and could not tour with the group. For some reason I’ll always remember that at point McKenzie laughed and bellowed, “yeah, we call him the old mountain man!” To this day I’m not sure what that meant, but it sounded like a fun thing to call him.
            After attending the concert and enjoying the Mamas and the Papas’ popular hits (California Dreamin’, Monday Monday) and many more wonderful tunes I had not heard before (Check out Creeque Alley, if you get a chance), I became an instant and lifelong fan. McKenzie was 100 percent correct – Papa John’s music is greater than the sum of it’s parts – it’s more than poetry, it’s more than harmony, and if you haven’t listened to it, and I mean really listened to it, run out right now and get a Mamas and Papas CD. You won’t regret it.
            I apologize for the lack of controversy in this article, but when a great and historical American passes, I consider it an obligation to stop and pay tribute. And so, Mountain Man, may you and Mama Cass go where you wanna go, and do what you wanna do.

Back Next Week with Part III and far more blazing controversy!!!

Back to: Home \| Archive
Jung On : Music • Part 2 California Dreamin’ Dedicated to Papa John Phillips The Following is the Second in a Four-Part Series on Music in America and it’s importance in American Life	March 19, 2001
That’s right, second of a four-part series. I know I promised a three-part series, but I have decided to extend it in order to pay homage to one of America’s all-time greatest musicians and his passing a few days ago. You may be surprised at the level of greatness that I ascribe to John Phillips; yet this is the case that I hope to make. First let me say that I feel extremely fortunate to have a somewhat personal connection to John Phillips’ music. In college in 1998, I was a writer for the campus newspaper and my beat was the University Auditorium and the entertainment events brought in to play. As a matter of course, I was assigned to cover the appearance of The Mamas and the Papas, who were to play our campus in October of that year. I knew precious little about this group, having heard them only occasionally on oldies stations. I felt that the story of a played-out group from the 60s would be of little interest to my readers or to myself, yet I could hardly have been more wrong. As I discovered immediately, the touring group contained no original members. Why, then, was there a group at all? I would soon find out from the groups front man, Scott McKenzie. You may know the name Scott McKenzie as the folk singer famous for the song “If You’re Goin’ to San Francisco,” flower child anthem of the 1960’s. McKenzie had been best friends with John Phillips since their grade school days. He had played in the coffeehouse hit folk group The Journeymen with Phillips, and the two also organized the Monterrey Pop Festival together. McKenzie was the namesake of Phillips’ oldest daughter as well. And so, in talking to McKenzie, I could not have possibly found a greater enthusiast of the music of John Phillips. The original Mamas and the Papas had, of course, broken up in the early 1970’s. Any chance of a reunion died with the passing of Mama Cass Elliot in 1974. The Mamas and Papas music, the entire body of which was written and composed by John Phillips, was dismissed by popular and classic rock stations, and was relegated to oldies airplay. McKenzie informed me that his mission in putting together a Mamas and Papas cover band was to bring back, as he called it the “beautiful harmony and poetry” of John Phillips, and to share it with the world. McKenzie was dead-on in his statement about harmony – my research showed that it was Phillips who pioneered and thus popularized the four-part male/female harmony in rock music, a style that enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I asked Scott McKenzie what if any role John Phillips was playing in this cover band. McKenzie informed me that Phillips handpicked the singers, arranged the music and helped conduct rehearsals, but that Phillips was in ill health after undergoing a liver transplant in the early 1990s and could not tour with the group. For some reason I’ll always remember that at point McKenzie laughed and bellowed, “yeah, we call him the old mountain man!” To this day I’m not sure what that meant, but it sounded like a fun thing to call him. After attending the concert and enjoying the Mamas and the Papas’ popular hits (California Dreamin’, Monday Monday) and many more wonderful tunes I had not heard before (Check out Creeque Alley, if you get a chance), I became an instant and lifelong fan. McKenzie was 100 percent correct – Papa John’s music is greater than the sum of it’s parts – it’s more than poetry, it’s more than harmony, and if you haven’t listened to it, and I mean really listened to it, run out right now and get a Mamas and Papas CD. You won’t regret it. I apologize for the lack of controversy in this article, but when a great and historical American passes, I consider it an obligation to stop and pay tribute. And so, Mountain Man, may you and Mama Cass go where you wanna go, and do what you wanna do. Back Next Week with Part III and far more blazing controversy!!!