The Mamas & the Papas

I dig the Mamas and the Papas at ‘The Trip,’ Sunset Strip in L.A.
And they got a good thing goin’ when the words don’t get in the way
And when they’re really wailing, Michelle and Cass are sailin’
Hey, they really nail me to the wall!

If I thought really hard, I could remember the name of that girl who sang in the assembly at Andrew Warde.

You see every Wednesday, we had an assembly, it was built into the schedule.  One half the high school, then the other.

But this week, instead of taking place in the auditorium, the assembly was in the gym.  For what reason, I’ll never remember.  Maybe it was a pep rally of some sort.  But, at one point a group took the stage, two girls and two guys, and they sang "California Dreamin’".  The star was this lithe junior with long blonde hair whose visage has never left my mind’s eye.

You never knew whether the debut portended further success.  Could an act entitled Simon & Garfunkel ever follow up "Sounds Of Silence"?  Same deal with the Mamas & the Papas and "California Dreamin’".  Both had the character of novelty hits, who knew there would be more?

Although "Monday Monday" was the biggest follow-up, and I preferred it to "California Dreamin’", my favorite was "I Saw Her Again", with its swooping Fifth Dimension intro and jangly Donovan sound.  And the emotive vocal of one Denny Doherty.

There was one certified genius in the Mamas & the Papas, John Phillips.  He wrote the songs.  But it took all four of them to make the group work.  Oh, maybe Michelle could have been replaced, vocally, anyway.  But if she hadn’t been in the act, how could this song have been written?  Michelle was the kind of girl we idolized back before we heard everybody talk, back before everybody was perfected by plastic surgery.

And how could a song with such pain sound so JOYFUL?

These Mamas & the Papas songs somehow had a way of penetrating you without being saccharine.  They contained all the emotion of the sixties.  The exploration, the wide-eyed eating up of the world.

I used to live in New York City
Everything there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said 12:30

Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking

My fascination with California began  with TV.  This was before there was production in Canada, when every show seemed to be shot in Southern California.  And that was the California of my dreams, not San Francisco.  Rather, I wanted to go where the sun always shined, where it was always warm, where you could always wear a t-shirt.

But although television hipped me, it was music that sealed the deal.  And it all started with the Mamas & the Papas.  They’d moved, and they sang of this fantastic land.  God, there’s still magic in Laurel Canyon.  Isn’t that where Rick Rubin set down roots?  A winding street in the hills, with houses set right next door to each other.  In a place that would be uninhabitable on the east coast, snow making such residences impossible.  And, everybody in the rock and roll business LIVED there.  Everybody in the same place.  And there were all these beautiful lasses at the Country Store.  Where do I sign up?

The Mamas & the Papas had many hits.  But their success has no context today.  After all, they’re not on the road, they’re not appearing during halftime at the Super Bowl.  And they weren’t the ONLY act with success.  Imagine if Kurt Cobain had compatriots JUST as talented.  Not the inferior Pearl Jam, but a bunch of acts challenging him to write even better songs.  Just like the Beatles challenged the Beach Boys, and vice versa.  Maybe that’s why the Mamas & the Papas don’t get their due.  There were TOO many acts hitting at the time!

Cass gets whatever attention there is today.   Maybe because of the ham sandwich story, maybe because  she sang some of the hits solo, like "Words Of Love", a circusy number that sounded completely different from the rest of the canon, but hit nonetheless.

But it was a group.  Comprised of four volatile egos.  Which couldn’t stay together as a result.

Only Michelle Phillips is still walking the planet.  Even though she’s been neutered by TV, even though she has succumbed to the knife, whenever you see her you get a jolt, because you remember all those years ago, when every girl grew their hair long and straight, to be just like her.

The memories are not far below the surface.  Just like that girl singing her song at my high school back in ’66.

We lost a Papa last week.  He got a pretty big obituary in the "New York Times".  Someone still remembers.  But in a world where those in power are doing their best to eviscerate the memory of the sixties, his death didn’t have that great an impact.  Gerald Ford gets five days of national mourning, when the songs cut in the sixties and seventies mean more than he, more than any President.  God was literally dead, MUSIC was our religion!

We lost someone important.  I’ll just leave you with his message, his group’s message.

You gotta go where you wanna go
Do what you wanna do
With whoever you wanna do it with

Freedom.  Choice.  These are two of the main tenets of the sixties philosophy.  Life is about possibilities.  I’m not telling you to drop out of college, or get a divorce.  Education and commitment are important.  But you mustn’t sacrifice your inner spark.  You’ve got to take chances.  You’ve got to break the rules.  You’ve got to listen to your heart, do more of what you WANT to do than what you SHOULD do.  That’s the road to happiness.  And, if you ever become confused, unsure if you’ve taken the right direction, fearful of the future, just put on some Mamas & the Papas music, it will inspire you, it will get you through.  Hell, it helped birth an entire GENERATION of truth and joy seekers.  And truth and joy are a whole hell of a lot more important to the core of man than the uptight bellicose practices of those in power today.

26 Responses to The Mamas & the Papas »»


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  1. Comment by Harvey Kubernik | 2007/01/23 at 16:30:35

    I know these are memories you chronicle, and are time-specific, well understood, but try, once in a while, when you do these sad/happy reflections to cite the producer, a la Lou Adler, or a songwriter, Jimmy Webb, since you now know all the other elements, besides the record label, management etc., that informed the sounds you worship. You are an educator and even your list needs to be reminded who did the chance-taking to even get it recorded so you could hear it as a teenager. You don’t have to mention engineer Bones Howe.

    The audio brought you to California. Let the team get a taste.

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  3. Comment by James Lee Stanley | 2007/01/23 at 16:30:51

    bob, i met denny when he came to the shadows in va beach as part of the halifax three. they came in a day early and played the hoot. we hung out all week, singing, smoking and laughing. i was sixteen and thought this was the coolest guy i ever met. i rarely saw him thru the years but whenever i did come in contact with him he was warm and gracious and funny. and his vocal ability to slip from chest voice to head voice is something i practiced for years to get. an example of it is in tag of "do you wanna dance" he sings "will you hold my hand?" and on hold, does this effortless and invisible glide from one voice to the other. he will be missed. and you’re right about them not getting their due, and john phillips’ abilities as a song writer. he was for a while there, an incredible songwriter. at a time when the bar was a lot higher than last year’s academy award winner…something about a pimp.

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  5. Comment by Eric Carmen | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:14

    Damn, Bob,

    We’re two for two this week. "I Saw Her Again" is my favorite Mamas and Papas song as well! And the very best moment of that track (which I have attempted to re-create, many times on record) is the little spot toward the end where the drummer (probably Hal Blaine) rides the cymbal bell for an extra measure and John Phillips sings.."I saw her…(cymbal bell)…..I saw her again last night." That’s the "goosebumps" moment. It appears at first as if John has come in singing too early, sings the first couple of words, stops, and then picks up the vocal in the right spot after the little drum fill. I don’t know if it was an accident or if John planned it that way, but that’s exactly the sort of magic that can never happen when you program a track. It’s the little mistakes that give the track its "humanity" and make it so much more endearing. They’re all over the early Beatles records, too. John and Paul singing the wrong words together, guitars not quite in tune, a sloppy double tracked vocal. That’s why we love those records so much. They’re so human! The mistakes give ’em "charm."

    Last week when I wrote you about "Beatles For Sale" being my favorite Beatle album, I somehow left out why. It’s because after that album they lost the "joy." Each album got a little darker, and you could hear the drugs. And then by the" White Album" you could hear them growing apart, sidemen, just playing on each other’s songs. That’s why "No Reply" and "Baby’s In Black" and "Eight Days A Week" were so special to me. It was the joy of being a Beatle, in 1964, captured on record. The end of innocence, before the fame and the money and the business and the wives took their inevitable toll. That was the album, and the moment, that inspired me to start a band. I can’t imagine where any fourteen year old would find that inspiration today.

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  7. Comment by John Brodey | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:30

    I never saw the Mamas and Popas live, I don’t know too many people who did, but I saw the next best thing. Despite my steadfast love of real R&B with groups like the 5 Dutones, Daryl Banks etc, folk music had started to appeal to my ‘Emo’ side by the early sixties. Washington D.C. had its own cluster of coffee houses, not unlike the scene in Cambridge where Tom Rush and the Farinas were regulars..

    I remember the excitement of getting to see the Mugwumps live at a little place on M St. in Georgetown. A 200 seat club, this is how we were used to seeing Joan Baez and Ian and Sylvia, up close and personal. The Mugwumps were a different animal all together. An early incarnation of the Ms&Ps, they included the aforementioned Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot and the soon to be Spoonful, Zal Yanovsky. They had some good tunes, a semi hit on WB with Leiber & Stoller’s "Searchin’" with a great vocal arrangement. Other songs were penned by Cass and another group member and people like Felix Pappalardi. What really got you was the vocal energy. It was almost as though the instruments didn’t matter. They had such power it just rolled over you in waves. The vocals not only had soul but interwined in such an elaborate and exciting way. The combined effect was not that far removed from those great black groups I had been weaned on. They were there for the usual Thrs-Sat. booking and I didn’t miss a show. By the time the M&P’s rolled around a year later, I pinched myself at the thought that I had seen something akin to the Quarrymen, an evolutionary watermark. I think what was most amazing is how many of these bands that did make a mark with a string of hits did so in a span of only two or three years. An amazing creative output when you consider the amount of time it takes a group to amass anything approaching a real greatest hits album today. That fat girl sure could sing.

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  9. Comment by Stacie Griffin | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:53

    I was glad to see your kind words regarding the Mamas & Papas. I have to admit I was nervous opening up your e:mail…

    Michelle Phillips is an amazing woman and friend. We have been the best of friends for over 16 years. I don’t mean Hollywood "best friend", I mean true girlfriends.

    We have traveled the world together, laughed, loved, cried and enjoyed life. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding, hosted my bridal shower, baby shower, and we supported each other through ups and downs of life. She is a down to earth person who has lived many lives and still looks great doing it!

    She was every bit a part of the lifestyle and music of Mama & Papas. While she would agree that John was the genius (mix in the brilliance of Lou Adler), I would also say that the group would never had been the group without all 4. The dynamic, the friendship, the betrayals, the lifelong connection, and true harmony on many levels.

    One of my favorite of many Mamas & Papas stories is the one when John woke her up in the middle of the night to help him write a song. He had been up most of the night working on it and a reluctant Michelle (in full slumber) whined about getting up. He insisted and said to her, "Trust me, you will thank me for this someday." She got up and helped him write the song.

    The song was California Dreamin’, and trust me when I say, she thanks him for that everyday!

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  11. Comment by Bruce Dickinson | 2007/01/23 at 16:33:12

    If the Mamas and Papas were looking for a deal today, today’s record company heads would be telling John Phillips to "lose the fat chick". The group would be so much poorer for that and so would the company that would sign them. You see, they just wouldn’t have been the same, with one of those four integral parts missing, and they just wouldn’t have sold the way they did, and, the execs (short for executioners?) would be wondering why sales are down. Hmmm. Michele actually WAS replaced, briefly, by a near look-alike and sound-alike named Jill Gibson. Jill sang with many LA artists of the day, including your beloved Jan & Dean. She also had her own record or two.

    Denny Doherty’s mistake on "I Saw Her Again" (when he comes in too early with "I saw her") is, perhaps, the most brilliant mistake moment on a record, rivaling the mistake in The Beatles’ "Please Please Me". It just adds so much pathos.

    As for Rick Rubin and Laurel Canyon, there may be magic in them thar hills, but, try to remember, Rick was making hits before he moved there. He made them here in New York. Not EVERYTHING happens in the land of "hey, I’ll call you". In fact, Rick Rubin could make hits anywhere.

    Gerald Ford? He stood for corruption and cover-ups (see his role on The Warren Commission and his pardoning Nixon, effectively burying further investigation into Watergate). Denny Doherty and his band mates stood for openness, honesty, acceptance, and love. In my world, Denny would have gotten more obit space and proper attention by the corporate media hacks. Ford would have been on a wanted poster in the fuckin’ post office.

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  13. Comment by Gary Theroux | 2007/01/23 at 16:33:51

    (This) is probably the best piece you have ever written, Bob, on ANY subject. It was very moving and really nailed the magic inherent in the Mamas & The Papas and all they represented.

    Gary Theroux

    writer-producer of "The History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll" and the 60-track 3 CD box set "The Mamas &The Papas: Their Greatest Hits & Finest Performances"

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  15. Comment by Chris Apostle | 2007/01/23 at 16:34:41

    see Bob..This is worthy of Hall of Fame mention. You for better or worse will hear M’s & P’s songs for years. I toured with them on the Fishof package tours with Flo & Eddie and The Byrds or Bryd etc. There songs still stand up just like some of the old Tommy James classics. everyone covers those songs. Not Patti Smith. If she is in, every shit ass band that played at CB’s deserves a shot, what’s next Television. I listened to a Tom Verlaine record recently and to be honest it was not very good. I also vote on the Grammys every year and you know what….sometimes I cannot find the proper amount of "artists" to vote for so often I will vote for only 1 or 2 in a category that asks for 5. But what the hell…let’s have a watered down yearly event so we can jerk each other off and think how important we all are. And we wonder why the music business is in such a tired ol retread executive situation. Let the kids run it…they certainly can’t do any worse. The only way is up. Oh yes…..dying to hear the next Ashlee record…..Shoot me

    Has anyone bothered to listen to the springsteen seeger LP? Just for all the industry idiots who know nothing…listen to John Henry sometime and realize what it’s all about. wait until you hear the new mellencamp if any of you know how to or care to listen to actual music and songwriting. But, you’ll all be at the HOF dinner pretending a jam with a bunch of tired old ass NYC musicians is the place to be. You morons….a jam was a Dead concert, Jeff Beck at his best, the Allman Brothers..not Letterman’s band…I’ve been to the HOF and it’s not so cool, trust me…

    Can’t wait to see next year’s nominees.. I believe we are getting into the Thompson Twins, Ultravox era…Oh goody for us..did anyone say it’s…..Bananarama time…….

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  17. Comment by Jim McKeon | 2007/01/23 at 16:34:59

    I was born in Massachusetts but was raised in Detroit in the 60s and 70s.

    One of my most vivid memories EVER is a frigid though sunny day in 1966, inching up our iced-over street in Rosedale Park, trying to keep Mom’s Plymouth Fury with the push button transmission on the two bare ruts on the road – the only safe path for the car to follow. I was peering through the small little spot on the windshield that just de-iced as I slipped and slid up Penrod. We were in a Midwest deep freeze and spring was never to return.

    And then "California Dreamin’" spoke to me for the first time over the air on my beloved CKLW. AN unforgettably powerful force reached through the radio and grabbed me by the Pea Coat. It was the very moment and that was the very spot that California revealed itself.

    It took about 8 years but when I was offered a program director’s job in 1974 to start KWST, I accepted instantly. They wanted to fly me out and check out California but it wasn’t necessary. I had never been there before but in some ways I had. Of course I was going…I had grown up in Detroit and it was just time to go. The Mamas and Papas had already shown me the way.

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  19. Comment by Mark Cope | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:17

    The Mamas & Papas story exudes what the 60’s were all about. They were love, peace, and let’s get stoned and go to California all wrapped together. Hell, their story typified the Fleetwood Mac soap opera/love triangle before Buckingham & Nicks ever wrote a song.

    The Mama & Papas played a major role in the soundtrack of my life. Even today when I hear "Monday Monday," "California Dreamin’," "I Saw Her Again," and Michelle’s whispering voice on "Dedicated To The One I Love," this group blows me away! Their songs are so real and so personal that my brain can’t help but to climb back into the time machine and set the controls for 1965.

    They played Ed Sullivan as much as any group did and they rivaled the best vocals of their time. John, Denny, Cass, and Michelle had a magic about them. Their music was hip for its time and remains some of the best vocals ever recorded. It’s unfortunate that the Mamas & Papas don’t get the recognition that they deserve and an even bigger crime that Denny NEVER got the recognition he so rightly deserved. Without each distinct member of this group, the Mamas & Papas just don’t exist. One doesn’t replace Mama Cass, John, Denny, or Michelle. They were one complete sound that rivaled the most beautiful songbird that one can imagine. The Beach Boys were always the quintessential group for harmonies for me, but the Mamas & Papas were right in the same wheelhouse.

    I miss the kind of music that makes you listen, think, feel, and ultimately moves me in a way that nothing else can. In fact, the music of the aforementioned moved me from Colorado to California. Ah yes, the power of music is what’s always been important. Somewhere along the line that message has gotten lost…Clive!

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  21. Comment by Kaitlin McGaw | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:37

    My parents luckily shared their love of the Mamas & the Papas with me in the late 70s, giving me a great foundation of harmonies and groovy california music. It’s strange to realize these fundamental people are passing on… and a reminder that recording music is the way to keep your legacy alive and share with generations to follow.

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  23. Comment by David Munk | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:55

    I still love their music. Would anyone care about a harmony group with a fat lead singer today?

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  25. Comment by David Vawter | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:10

    It is hard today to imagine how big they were, for a time. I saw Michelle Phillips on my local PBS affiliate about a year ago, hawking some repackaged "best of" box during a PLEDGE DRIVE! And to think this was the woman that nearly drove Dennis Hopper to suicide (at her suggestion, if you believe the story). How time marches on …

    What’s even harder to imagine is how such twisted, pathological personalities created such beautiful, guilelessly optimistic music. But then, that’s the Laurel Canyon legacy. Judee Sill, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Jackson Browne et al. Is there something in that canyon air?

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  27. Comment by Val Garay | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:27

    I did the last album they did as a group and got to experience it all first hand.

    Although the album didn’t have the impact the others did (People Like Us) it was a long, arduous, sleepless experience.

    I can remember leaving the Sound Factory with the sun coming up often and John and Denny rolling out the door with a couple of bottles of Galliano under their arms going who knows where.

    What I figured out though, which most people don’t know is, Michelle played a very important part in the M & P’s sound.
    I watched intently because I knew I was in the presence of genius (John) and wanted to learn everything I could before it was over.
    Anyway, John used to have Mitch double every part Cass sang as it softened her very edgy vocal sound and that was the sound of the girl’s side believe it or not!

    Very saddened to hear Denny is gone from the planet!

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  29. Comment by Michael Witthaus | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:46

    One word comes to mind reading your Mamas & Papas missive – STEREO. "I Saw Her Again," "Go Where You Wanna Go" and "California Dreamin’" leveraged left/right channel separation like nothing I’d ever heard, at a time when every family on my block was buying components and color TVs.

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  31. Comment by Joseph | 2007/01/23 at 16:37:21

    "If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears" was the first non-British Invasion LP I ever bought. I wheedled the cash out of my mom at Gramophone Records in SF, while we were walking to the Chinese New Year parade.
    I still have it.

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  33. Comment by Mark Fried | 2007/01/23 at 16:37:36

    I had the privilege of working with John Phillips and the re-constituted Mamas and Papas (Denny or ocasionally Scott MacKenzie, Spanky McFarlane of Spanky and Our Gang and John’s daughter Mackenzie Phillips) in the early 90’s when I was at BMI and later as his publisher.

    In fact, he is largely responsible for pushing me to ‘do what you wanna do’ and create an indie music pubco that would act and feel more like the creative publishers of his early days.

    No doubt John was in his twilight years and the new band couldn’t match the emotional power of the original (fueled as much by the internal psycho-sexual dramas as sheer talent, not to mention mind altering drugs). But the harmonies were still magical and, even with new Mamas, John’s gritty intensity and Denny’s almost unearthly tenor let the songs do their thing, lifting everything to a powerful place.

    I agree wholeheartedly that the Mamas and Papas, as uniquely great as they were, are seen by many as more of a footnote than a defining moment. Perhaps it was all the top flight competition at the time, maybe because their active wriiting and recording career lasted a very few years or maybe because their post-fame rollercoaster lives somehow eclipsed the music.

    Regardless, they made a string of evocative, brilliantly arranged (John was a genius of vocal arrangement, second only to Brian Wilson), shimmeringly produced (kudos to Lou Adler) albums that still sound larger- than-life – even on earbuds (?).

    We lost John six years ago. He was writing and recording to the end – and still getting together with Scott and Denny whenever he could and coercing some vocals out of them. Now both Papas are gone, but their music should be mentoring every musician kid who has even the slighest ear for the power of the jangly guitar, a multi-part vocal harmony and (sometimes painfully) honest lyrics.

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  35. Comment by Larry LeBlanc | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:01

    I knew Denny Doherty fairly well from back in his days with the Halifax 3 and then a bit with the Mamas & Papas and more recently after he moved back to Canada. Look at that TV footage of the Mamas and Papas and see how joyous they were and how Denny really took those lead vocals on songs like California Dreamin’ and Monday Monday. Yet, he was often overlooked in the group dynamic because John wrote the songs; Cass was Cass and colorful (of course the sandwich story is BS but the myth contiunes); and everybody wanted to nail Michelle. Denny? Jeez, he just sang. What’s really interesting is that the Mamas and Papas rarely performed live. There were only a couple of tours. Like ABBA–they are best remembered on TV and in the Monterey Pop film.

    I had lunch with Denny down in Sydney, Nova Scotia two years ago and he was such a joy that day…one of the great raconteurs with terrific stories. And he did get to nail Michelle leading to the breakup of the original group. He was a wonderful guy and should be missed.

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  37. Comment by Sid Stephen | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:22

    Denny Doherty – he was from Halifax, same as me, and since we’re in the same age group and it was a small town then, I knew him slightly, though he went to the "in" school and ran with a cooler crowd. When we were little kids, we both were on the local CBC live kid’s talent show a few times, where the top prize each week was a box of assorted spices from the show’s sponsor, H. Shwartz and Sons.

    The late ’50s produced a new music scene in Halifax. The local radio was mostly country and western and the Canadian Broadcasting Company would only play rock and roll a couple of times a week. Yeah, you could buy records in one or two places on Robie Street, but not the good stuff. For that, you had to string up a wire from your bedroom window to the eve of the garage or a tree in the yard, and late at night you would lug the old tube radio upstairs and lock the door, patch it to the antenna and fuck with the dial – the clear plastic dial with the orange light shining thru it – and holy shit, there’s Alan Freed in New York, clear as a bell! The father of one of the guys I hung around with, Ken Kerr from Bedford, had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and Ken talked his Dad into letting him hook that up, and ripped stuff off the late-nite radio. So we had the jump on the juke boxes at the drive-ins in Bedford, we heard the great songs before everyone else, and of course lots of us got beatup old guitars and drum sets and bands started to form called the Rockabillies and the Jets and Bill and the Busters and so on. We were mostly just kids, but we still played the high school auditoriums and the local church halls (on nights when the old guys weren’t there doing Hank Snow and Hank Williams stuff), three chord rock and roll and covers of Elvis and Bill Haley and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Richie Havens and the Coasters and on and on.

    Denny was a couple of years older than me and was influenced by The Kingston Trio and the folk scene, and the same year I joined the Canadian air force to get out of town, he took off for Montreal and met Zal Yanofsky and formed a group called Colonials, later The Halifax Three. Denny had a pretty good voice, and the kind of personality that just stood out, and I don’t think anyone who knew him in those days was surprised that he ended up in R&R Hall of Fame – for what that’s worth. I met him again once, in the mid-70s in Toronto where my brother was running a music store; and Zal I knew from when I lived in Kingston, Ontario where he eventually ran aground in the late ’70s and opened a great restaurant, Chez Piggy. It’s still there – though it’s not the same without Zal at the bar.

    We were kind of out there on the front end of the music, I guess, surfing down the leading edge of the baby boom. But of course, it wasn’t just the music, I know that now, it was the whole deal – what came out of those pathetic little plastic radios in the middle of the night was the gut knowledge that places like New York existed, that the music was real and mattered, that there was a whole lot more out there to run after than a job driving a dump truck in Halifax. Denny was one of those who ran further and more elegantly than most of us. But we all ran.

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  39. Comment by Danny Zelisko | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:42

    Thanks for remembering a truly good guy. And part of one of the best groups of it’s era.

    No one in that group could have been replaced, they were what they were.

    Especially Michelle. Her perfection rounded out that great foursome.

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  41. Comment by Steve McLean | 2007/01/23 at 16:39:47

    more great facts Bob

    http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2007/01/2210.cfm

    Ten Reasons Why Denny Doherty Was Cool
    Monday January 22, 2007 @ 05:00 PM
    By: ChartAttack.com Staff

    Denny Doherty

    Denny Doherty, the Halifax-born member of The Mamas & The Papas, passed away at his Mississauga, Ontario home on Friday from an abdomen aneurysm at age 66. Rather than dwell on the tragic passing of this important musical figure, we here at ChartAttack want to celebrate the great moments of this man’s career. Without further ado, here are 10 reasons why Denny Doherty was cool:

    1. Before joining The Mamas & The Papas, he cut his musical teeth with the Colonials and the Halifax Three and helped popularize folk music in Canada before moving to New York City and forming the folk-rock group, the Mugwumps.

    2. The Mamas & The Papas came up with their name while watching a television interview with a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang while they were living in the Laurel Canyon area near Los Angeles that also spawned The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and other influential groups of the ’60s.

    3. He was a great harmony vocalist and sang the male lead part on such classic hits as "California Dreamin’," and "Monday, Monday."

    4. He co-wrote "I Saw Her Again Last Night."

    5. Despite heavy drinking and drug use, he outlived bandmates John Phillips (whose drug use was even heavier), who died in 2001, and "Mama" Cass Elliott, who passed away in 1974.

    6. He had sex with bandmate Michelle Phillips on the night that The Mamas & The Papas signed their record contract. Sure, she was married to John Phillips, and their ongoing affair led to a lot of tension and her eventually being kicked out of the group for a while, but she was still smokin’ hot.

    7. He appeared on stage in a number of plays after embarking on an acting career in the ’70s following his band’s break-up, he played the harbour master in the popular children’s TV series, Theodore Tugboat, in the ’90s and had various other TV roles.

    8. He was the co-writer, producer and star of Dream A Little Dream, a musical theatre production that told the story of The Mamas & The Papas and received favourable reviews in the late ’90s.

    9. I had friends in the Needfire theatre production that Doherty starred in at Toronto’s Princess Of Wales Theatre in 1998, and got to spend time with him. I found him to be a charming and engaging guy who was full of great stories.

    10. Despite being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1996 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame two years later, he was a down-to-earth guy whose name and number were listed in the Mississauga phone book.

    Steve McLean

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  43. Comment by Jeff Laufer | 2007/01/23 at 16:40:04

    Re: "California Dreamin’"

    this song is why i moved to laurel cyn!. i think a lot has to be given to their producer….

    i can’t remember his name but he always sits next to jack nicholson at the laker games.???

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  45. Comment by RS45 | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:08

    Thank you, thank you, thank you Bob,

    Well done, a great read…just think about it, only maybe 5…6 more years into the future and Fleetwood Mac would do the same thing of giving the public a view of the inner soap opera of a rock band, it seems the public loves a good soap operas…

    The Mamas & Papas were a great band if you think about the impact they had in such a short time, with top flight musicians and a great production team and although to me it was not only the great music that they made it was also the way they looked, I remember thinking as a kid that Mama Cass made it cool for the heavy set girls in school to hang out with my group of friends and knowing that no one would say a word about their weight. I think we were all trying to look like one or another rock stars in those hippy days during the 60’s at Fairfax High here in L.A..

    Denny was a great vocalist with great range all you have to do is the next time you’re taking a shower, try and sing the words "well I got down on my kneeeeeeeees and began to pray" if you can do it with half as much soul as Denny did than thats saying a lot for yourself….RIP Denny, I will always think about you Papa John and the great Mama Cass and all your contributions to music every time I hear one of your songs played.
    Love Ya Guys Truly…

    P.S. Sorry Michelle for not including you but you’re the last Mama standing…..make the movie you always said you would do "California Dreamin".

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  47. Comment by Steven Ehrlick | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:28

    I saw Denny speak a few months ago at a Beatles convention in Toronto. He told a hilarious story of arriving late to the Monterey Pop Festival, trying to get back stage while The Who were destroying their equipment, and he had no idea who they were, had never heard of them. Then this guy, Hendrix, comes on stage and lights his guitar on fire and smashes it. Again, he has no idea who the guy is. And he’s thinking, we have to follow these two acts and headline the festival? Are you kidding? We’re folk singers! I’m not doing justice to the story, in part because Denny was an amazing story teller.

    I remember being a CIT at camp in 1967 and someone put on a copy of the Deliver album on after we were all in bed. I remember that night so well, String Man, Creeque Alley and then the last song, John’s Music Box, it came out of left field, someone calling "Greta" I think, and when the door slammed, we all just about jumped out of our bunks. The Mamas and Papas are easy to dismiss now but for a time there, they ruled the roost.

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  49. Comment by Owen Kugell | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:46

    Hello, Bob..

    I’m Owen Elliot, Cass Elliot’s daughter, and longtime fan of your musings..

    I am writing this to you late tonight from Mississauga, Ontario. I flew in last night from Burbank on the red-eye…Denny Doherty made his home and his family here, and his friends and family, including Michelle Phillips, are gathering tomorrow and through the weekend to remember him.

    It was a wonderful piece you wrote about the M’s and P’s today, and how amazing it was for me to be able to share your words with the family. It’s been an incredibly difficult time for all of us who loved Denny. He will be missed…sorely.

    Thanks for your words.

    Best-

    Owen Elliot-Kugell

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  51. […] it again. At least once a week, Bob Lefsetz writes something that really hits home for me. Yesterday’s post about the death of Denny Doherty (The Mama […]


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  1. Comment by Harvey Kubernik | 2007/01/23 at 16:30:35

    I know these are memories you chronicle, and are time-specific, well understood, but try, once in a while, when you do these sad/happy reflections to cite the producer, a la Lou Adler, or a songwriter, Jimmy Webb, since you now know all the other elements, besides the record label, management etc., that informed the sounds you worship. You are an educator and even your list needs to be reminded who did the chance-taking to even get it recorded so you could hear it as a teenager. You don’t have to mention engineer Bones Howe.

    The audio brought you to California. Let the team get a taste.

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    1. Comment by James Lee Stanley | 2007/01/23 at 16:30:51

      bob, i met denny when he came to the shadows in va beach as part of the halifax three. they came in a day early and played the hoot. we hung out all week, singing, smoking and laughing. i was sixteen and thought this was the coolest guy i ever met. i rarely saw him thru the years but whenever i did come in contact with him he was warm and gracious and funny. and his vocal ability to slip from chest voice to head voice is something i practiced for years to get. an example of it is in tag of "do you wanna dance" he sings "will you hold my hand?" and on hold, does this effortless and invisible glide from one voice to the other. he will be missed. and you’re right about them not getting their due, and john phillips’ abilities as a song writer. he was for a while there, an incredible songwriter. at a time when the bar was a lot higher than last year’s academy award winner…something about a pimp.

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      1. Comment by Eric Carmen | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:14

        Damn, Bob,

        We’re two for two this week. "I Saw Her Again" is my favorite Mamas and Papas song as well! And the very best moment of that track (which I have attempted to re-create, many times on record) is the little spot toward the end where the drummer (probably Hal Blaine) rides the cymbal bell for an extra measure and John Phillips sings.."I saw her…(cymbal bell)…..I saw her again last night." That’s the "goosebumps" moment. It appears at first as if John has come in singing too early, sings the first couple of words, stops, and then picks up the vocal in the right spot after the little drum fill. I don’t know if it was an accident or if John planned it that way, but that’s exactly the sort of magic that can never happen when you program a track. It’s the little mistakes that give the track its "humanity" and make it so much more endearing. They’re all over the early Beatles records, too. John and Paul singing the wrong words together, guitars not quite in tune, a sloppy double tracked vocal. That’s why we love those records so much. They’re so human! The mistakes give ’em "charm."

        Last week when I wrote you about "Beatles For Sale" being my favorite Beatle album, I somehow left out why. It’s because after that album they lost the "joy." Each album got a little darker, and you could hear the drugs. And then by the" White Album" you could hear them growing apart, sidemen, just playing on each other’s songs. That’s why "No Reply" and "Baby’s In Black" and "Eight Days A Week" were so special to me. It was the joy of being a Beatle, in 1964, captured on record. The end of innocence, before the fame and the money and the business and the wives took their inevitable toll. That was the album, and the moment, that inspired me to start a band. I can’t imagine where any fourteen year old would find that inspiration today.

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        1. Comment by John Brodey | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:30

          I never saw the Mamas and Popas live, I don’t know too many people who did, but I saw the next best thing. Despite my steadfast love of real R&B with groups like the 5 Dutones, Daryl Banks etc, folk music had started to appeal to my ‘Emo’ side by the early sixties. Washington D.C. had its own cluster of coffee houses, not unlike the scene in Cambridge where Tom Rush and the Farinas were regulars..

          I remember the excitement of getting to see the Mugwumps live at a little place on M St. in Georgetown. A 200 seat club, this is how we were used to seeing Joan Baez and Ian and Sylvia, up close and personal. The Mugwumps were a different animal all together. An early incarnation of the Ms&Ps, they included the aforementioned Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot and the soon to be Spoonful, Zal Yanovsky. They had some good tunes, a semi hit on WB with Leiber & Stoller’s "Searchin’" with a great vocal arrangement. Other songs were penned by Cass and another group member and people like Felix Pappalardi. What really got you was the vocal energy. It was almost as though the instruments didn’t matter. They had such power it just rolled over you in waves. The vocals not only had soul but interwined in such an elaborate and exciting way. The combined effect was not that far removed from those great black groups I had been weaned on. They were there for the usual Thrs-Sat. booking and I didn’t miss a show. By the time the M&P’s rolled around a year later, I pinched myself at the thought that I had seen something akin to the Quarrymen, an evolutionary watermark. I think what was most amazing is how many of these bands that did make a mark with a string of hits did so in a span of only two or three years. An amazing creative output when you consider the amount of time it takes a group to amass anything approaching a real greatest hits album today. That fat girl sure could sing.

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          1. Comment by Stacie Griffin | 2007/01/23 at 16:32:53

            I was glad to see your kind words regarding the Mamas & Papas. I have to admit I was nervous opening up your e:mail…

            Michelle Phillips is an amazing woman and friend. We have been the best of friends for over 16 years. I don’t mean Hollywood "best friend", I mean true girlfriends.

            We have traveled the world together, laughed, loved, cried and enjoyed life. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding, hosted my bridal shower, baby shower, and we supported each other through ups and downs of life. She is a down to earth person who has lived many lives and still looks great doing it!

            She was every bit a part of the lifestyle and music of Mama & Papas. While she would agree that John was the genius (mix in the brilliance of Lou Adler), I would also say that the group would never had been the group without all 4. The dynamic, the friendship, the betrayals, the lifelong connection, and true harmony on many levels.

            One of my favorite of many Mamas & Papas stories is the one when John woke her up in the middle of the night to help him write a song. He had been up most of the night working on it and a reluctant Michelle (in full slumber) whined about getting up. He insisted and said to her, "Trust me, you will thank me for this someday." She got up and helped him write the song.

            The song was California Dreamin’, and trust me when I say, she thanks him for that everyday!

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            1. Comment by Bruce Dickinson | 2007/01/23 at 16:33:12

              If the Mamas and Papas were looking for a deal today, today’s record company heads would be telling John Phillips to "lose the fat chick". The group would be so much poorer for that and so would the company that would sign them. You see, they just wouldn’t have been the same, with one of those four integral parts missing, and they just wouldn’t have sold the way they did, and, the execs (short for executioners?) would be wondering why sales are down. Hmmm. Michele actually WAS replaced, briefly, by a near look-alike and sound-alike named Jill Gibson. Jill sang with many LA artists of the day, including your beloved Jan & Dean. She also had her own record or two.

              Denny Doherty’s mistake on "I Saw Her Again" (when he comes in too early with "I saw her") is, perhaps, the most brilliant mistake moment on a record, rivaling the mistake in The Beatles’ "Please Please Me". It just adds so much pathos.

              As for Rick Rubin and Laurel Canyon, there may be magic in them thar hills, but, try to remember, Rick was making hits before he moved there. He made them here in New York. Not EVERYTHING happens in the land of "hey, I’ll call you". In fact, Rick Rubin could make hits anywhere.

              Gerald Ford? He stood for corruption and cover-ups (see his role on The Warren Commission and his pardoning Nixon, effectively burying further investigation into Watergate). Denny Doherty and his band mates stood for openness, honesty, acceptance, and love. In my world, Denny would have gotten more obit space and proper attention by the corporate media hacks. Ford would have been on a wanted poster in the fuckin’ post office.

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              1. Comment by Gary Theroux | 2007/01/23 at 16:33:51

                (This) is probably the best piece you have ever written, Bob, on ANY subject. It was very moving and really nailed the magic inherent in the Mamas & The Papas and all they represented.

                Gary Theroux

                writer-producer of "The History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll" and the 60-track 3 CD box set "The Mamas &The Papas: Their Greatest Hits & Finest Performances"

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                1. Comment by Chris Apostle | 2007/01/23 at 16:34:41

                  see Bob..This is worthy of Hall of Fame mention. You for better or worse will hear M’s & P’s songs for years. I toured with them on the Fishof package tours with Flo & Eddie and The Byrds or Bryd etc. There songs still stand up just like some of the old Tommy James classics. everyone covers those songs. Not Patti Smith. If she is in, every shit ass band that played at CB’s deserves a shot, what’s next Television. I listened to a Tom Verlaine record recently and to be honest it was not very good. I also vote on the Grammys every year and you know what….sometimes I cannot find the proper amount of "artists" to vote for so often I will vote for only 1 or 2 in a category that asks for 5. But what the hell…let’s have a watered down yearly event so we can jerk each other off and think how important we all are. And we wonder why the music business is in such a tired ol retread executive situation. Let the kids run it…they certainly can’t do any worse. The only way is up. Oh yes…..dying to hear the next Ashlee record…..Shoot me

                  Has anyone bothered to listen to the springsteen seeger LP? Just for all the industry idiots who know nothing…listen to John Henry sometime and realize what it’s all about. wait until you hear the new mellencamp if any of you know how to or care to listen to actual music and songwriting. But, you’ll all be at the HOF dinner pretending a jam with a bunch of tired old ass NYC musicians is the place to be. You morons….a jam was a Dead concert, Jeff Beck at his best, the Allman Brothers..not Letterman’s band…I’ve been to the HOF and it’s not so cool, trust me…

                  Can’t wait to see next year’s nominees.. I believe we are getting into the Thompson Twins, Ultravox era…Oh goody for us..did anyone say it’s…..Bananarama time…….

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                  1. Comment by Jim McKeon | 2007/01/23 at 16:34:59

                    I was born in Massachusetts but was raised in Detroit in the 60s and 70s.

                    One of my most vivid memories EVER is a frigid though sunny day in 1966, inching up our iced-over street in Rosedale Park, trying to keep Mom’s Plymouth Fury with the push button transmission on the two bare ruts on the road – the only safe path for the car to follow. I was peering through the small little spot on the windshield that just de-iced as I slipped and slid up Penrod. We were in a Midwest deep freeze and spring was never to return.

                    And then "California Dreamin’" spoke to me for the first time over the air on my beloved CKLW. AN unforgettably powerful force reached through the radio and grabbed me by the Pea Coat. It was the very moment and that was the very spot that California revealed itself.

                    It took about 8 years but when I was offered a program director’s job in 1974 to start KWST, I accepted instantly. They wanted to fly me out and check out California but it wasn’t necessary. I had never been there before but in some ways I had. Of course I was going…I had grown up in Detroit and it was just time to go. The Mamas and Papas had already shown me the way.

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                    1. Comment by Mark Cope | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:17

                      The Mamas & Papas story exudes what the 60’s were all about. They were love, peace, and let’s get stoned and go to California all wrapped together. Hell, their story typified the Fleetwood Mac soap opera/love triangle before Buckingham & Nicks ever wrote a song.

                      The Mama & Papas played a major role in the soundtrack of my life. Even today when I hear "Monday Monday," "California Dreamin’," "I Saw Her Again," and Michelle’s whispering voice on "Dedicated To The One I Love," this group blows me away! Their songs are so real and so personal that my brain can’t help but to climb back into the time machine and set the controls for 1965.

                      They played Ed Sullivan as much as any group did and they rivaled the best vocals of their time. John, Denny, Cass, and Michelle had a magic about them. Their music was hip for its time and remains some of the best vocals ever recorded. It’s unfortunate that the Mamas & Papas don’t get the recognition that they deserve and an even bigger crime that Denny NEVER got the recognition he so rightly deserved. Without each distinct member of this group, the Mamas & Papas just don’t exist. One doesn’t replace Mama Cass, John, Denny, or Michelle. They were one complete sound that rivaled the most beautiful songbird that one can imagine. The Beach Boys were always the quintessential group for harmonies for me, but the Mamas & Papas were right in the same wheelhouse.

                      I miss the kind of music that makes you listen, think, feel, and ultimately moves me in a way that nothing else can. In fact, the music of the aforementioned moved me from Colorado to California. Ah yes, the power of music is what’s always been important. Somewhere along the line that message has gotten lost…Clive!

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                      1. Comment by Kaitlin McGaw | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:37

                        My parents luckily shared their love of the Mamas & the Papas with me in the late 70s, giving me a great foundation of harmonies and groovy california music. It’s strange to realize these fundamental people are passing on… and a reminder that recording music is the way to keep your legacy alive and share with generations to follow.

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                        1. Comment by David Munk | 2007/01/23 at 16:35:55

                          I still love their music. Would anyone care about a harmony group with a fat lead singer today?

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                          1. Comment by David Vawter | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:10

                            It is hard today to imagine how big they were, for a time. I saw Michelle Phillips on my local PBS affiliate about a year ago, hawking some repackaged "best of" box during a PLEDGE DRIVE! And to think this was the woman that nearly drove Dennis Hopper to suicide (at her suggestion, if you believe the story). How time marches on …

                            What’s even harder to imagine is how such twisted, pathological personalities created such beautiful, guilelessly optimistic music. But then, that’s the Laurel Canyon legacy. Judee Sill, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Jackson Browne et al. Is there something in that canyon air?

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                            1. Comment by Val Garay | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:27

                              I did the last album they did as a group and got to experience it all first hand.

                              Although the album didn’t have the impact the others did (People Like Us) it was a long, arduous, sleepless experience.

                              I can remember leaving the Sound Factory with the sun coming up often and John and Denny rolling out the door with a couple of bottles of Galliano under their arms going who knows where.

                              What I figured out though, which most people don’t know is, Michelle played a very important part in the M & P’s sound.
                              I watched intently because I knew I was in the presence of genius (John) and wanted to learn everything I could before it was over.
                              Anyway, John used to have Mitch double every part Cass sang as it softened her very edgy vocal sound and that was the sound of the girl’s side believe it or not!

                              Very saddened to hear Denny is gone from the planet!

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                              1. Comment by Michael Witthaus | 2007/01/23 at 16:36:46

                                One word comes to mind reading your Mamas & Papas missive – STEREO. "I Saw Her Again," "Go Where You Wanna Go" and "California Dreamin’" leveraged left/right channel separation like nothing I’d ever heard, at a time when every family on my block was buying components and color TVs.

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                                1. Comment by Joseph | 2007/01/23 at 16:37:21

                                  "If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears" was the first non-British Invasion LP I ever bought. I wheedled the cash out of my mom at Gramophone Records in SF, while we were walking to the Chinese New Year parade.
                                  I still have it.

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                                  1. Comment by Mark Fried | 2007/01/23 at 16:37:36

                                    I had the privilege of working with John Phillips and the re-constituted Mamas and Papas (Denny or ocasionally Scott MacKenzie, Spanky McFarlane of Spanky and Our Gang and John’s daughter Mackenzie Phillips) in the early 90’s when I was at BMI and later as his publisher.

                                    In fact, he is largely responsible for pushing me to ‘do what you wanna do’ and create an indie music pubco that would act and feel more like the creative publishers of his early days.

                                    No doubt John was in his twilight years and the new band couldn’t match the emotional power of the original (fueled as much by the internal psycho-sexual dramas as sheer talent, not to mention mind altering drugs). But the harmonies were still magical and, even with new Mamas, John’s gritty intensity and Denny’s almost unearthly tenor let the songs do their thing, lifting everything to a powerful place.

                                    I agree wholeheartedly that the Mamas and Papas, as uniquely great as they were, are seen by many as more of a footnote than a defining moment. Perhaps it was all the top flight competition at the time, maybe because their active wriiting and recording career lasted a very few years or maybe because their post-fame rollercoaster lives somehow eclipsed the music.

                                    Regardless, they made a string of evocative, brilliantly arranged (John was a genius of vocal arrangement, second only to Brian Wilson), shimmeringly produced (kudos to Lou Adler) albums that still sound larger- than-life – even on earbuds (?).

                                    We lost John six years ago. He was writing and recording to the end – and still getting together with Scott and Denny whenever he could and coercing some vocals out of them. Now both Papas are gone, but their music should be mentoring every musician kid who has even the slighest ear for the power of the jangly guitar, a multi-part vocal harmony and (sometimes painfully) honest lyrics.

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                                    1. Comment by Larry LeBlanc | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:01

                                      I knew Denny Doherty fairly well from back in his days with the Halifax 3 and then a bit with the Mamas & Papas and more recently after he moved back to Canada. Look at that TV footage of the Mamas and Papas and see how joyous they were and how Denny really took those lead vocals on songs like California Dreamin’ and Monday Monday. Yet, he was often overlooked in the group dynamic because John wrote the songs; Cass was Cass and colorful (of course the sandwich story is BS but the myth contiunes); and everybody wanted to nail Michelle. Denny? Jeez, he just sang. What’s really interesting is that the Mamas and Papas rarely performed live. There were only a couple of tours. Like ABBA–they are best remembered on TV and in the Monterey Pop film.

                                      I had lunch with Denny down in Sydney, Nova Scotia two years ago and he was such a joy that day…one of the great raconteurs with terrific stories. And he did get to nail Michelle leading to the breakup of the original group. He was a wonderful guy and should be missed.

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                                      1. Comment by Sid Stephen | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:22

                                        Denny Doherty – he was from Halifax, same as me, and since we’re in the same age group and it was a small town then, I knew him slightly, though he went to the "in" school and ran with a cooler crowd. When we were little kids, we both were on the local CBC live kid’s talent show a few times, where the top prize each week was a box of assorted spices from the show’s sponsor, H. Shwartz and Sons.

                                        The late ’50s produced a new music scene in Halifax. The local radio was mostly country and western and the Canadian Broadcasting Company would only play rock and roll a couple of times a week. Yeah, you could buy records in one or two places on Robie Street, but not the good stuff. For that, you had to string up a wire from your bedroom window to the eve of the garage or a tree in the yard, and late at night you would lug the old tube radio upstairs and lock the door, patch it to the antenna and fuck with the dial – the clear plastic dial with the orange light shining thru it – and holy shit, there’s Alan Freed in New York, clear as a bell! The father of one of the guys I hung around with, Ken Kerr from Bedford, had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and Ken talked his Dad into letting him hook that up, and ripped stuff off the late-nite radio. So we had the jump on the juke boxes at the drive-ins in Bedford, we heard the great songs before everyone else, and of course lots of us got beatup old guitars and drum sets and bands started to form called the Rockabillies and the Jets and Bill and the Busters and so on. We were mostly just kids, but we still played the high school auditoriums and the local church halls (on nights when the old guys weren’t there doing Hank Snow and Hank Williams stuff), three chord rock and roll and covers of Elvis and Bill Haley and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Richie Havens and the Coasters and on and on.

                                        Denny was a couple of years older than me and was influenced by The Kingston Trio and the folk scene, and the same year I joined the Canadian air force to get out of town, he took off for Montreal and met Zal Yanofsky and formed a group called Colonials, later The Halifax Three. Denny had a pretty good voice, and the kind of personality that just stood out, and I don’t think anyone who knew him in those days was surprised that he ended up in R&R Hall of Fame – for what that’s worth. I met him again once, in the mid-70s in Toronto where my brother was running a music store; and Zal I knew from when I lived in Kingston, Ontario where he eventually ran aground in the late ’70s and opened a great restaurant, Chez Piggy. It’s still there – though it’s not the same without Zal at the bar.

                                        We were kind of out there on the front end of the music, I guess, surfing down the leading edge of the baby boom. But of course, it wasn’t just the music, I know that now, it was the whole deal – what came out of those pathetic little plastic radios in the middle of the night was the gut knowledge that places like New York existed, that the music was real and mattered, that there was a whole lot more out there to run after than a job driving a dump truck in Halifax. Denny was one of those who ran further and more elegantly than most of us. But we all ran.

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                                        1. Comment by Danny Zelisko | 2007/01/23 at 16:38:42

                                          Thanks for remembering a truly good guy. And part of one of the best groups of it’s era.

                                          No one in that group could have been replaced, they were what they were.

                                          Especially Michelle. Her perfection rounded out that great foursome.

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                                          1. Comment by Steve McLean | 2007/01/23 at 16:39:47

                                            more great facts Bob

                                            http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2007/01/2210.cfm

                                            Ten Reasons Why Denny Doherty Was Cool
                                            Monday January 22, 2007 @ 05:00 PM
                                            By: ChartAttack.com Staff

                                            Denny Doherty

                                            Denny Doherty, the Halifax-born member of The Mamas & The Papas, passed away at his Mississauga, Ontario home on Friday from an abdomen aneurysm at age 66. Rather than dwell on the tragic passing of this important musical figure, we here at ChartAttack want to celebrate the great moments of this man’s career. Without further ado, here are 10 reasons why Denny Doherty was cool:

                                            1. Before joining The Mamas & The Papas, he cut his musical teeth with the Colonials and the Halifax Three and helped popularize folk music in Canada before moving to New York City and forming the folk-rock group, the Mugwumps.

                                            2. The Mamas & The Papas came up with their name while watching a television interview with a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang while they were living in the Laurel Canyon area near Los Angeles that also spawned The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and other influential groups of the ’60s.

                                            3. He was a great harmony vocalist and sang the male lead part on such classic hits as "California Dreamin’," and "Monday, Monday."

                                            4. He co-wrote "I Saw Her Again Last Night."

                                            5. Despite heavy drinking and drug use, he outlived bandmates John Phillips (whose drug use was even heavier), who died in 2001, and "Mama" Cass Elliott, who passed away in 1974.

                                            6. He had sex with bandmate Michelle Phillips on the night that The Mamas & The Papas signed their record contract. Sure, she was married to John Phillips, and their ongoing affair led to a lot of tension and her eventually being kicked out of the group for a while, but she was still smokin’ hot.

                                            7. He appeared on stage in a number of plays after embarking on an acting career in the ’70s following his band’s break-up, he played the harbour master in the popular children’s TV series, Theodore Tugboat, in the ’90s and had various other TV roles.

                                            8. He was the co-writer, producer and star of Dream A Little Dream, a musical theatre production that told the story of The Mamas & The Papas and received favourable reviews in the late ’90s.

                                            9. I had friends in the Needfire theatre production that Doherty starred in at Toronto’s Princess Of Wales Theatre in 1998, and got to spend time with him. I found him to be a charming and engaging guy who was full of great stories.

                                            10. Despite being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1996 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame two years later, he was a down-to-earth guy whose name and number were listed in the Mississauga phone book.

                                            Steve McLean

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                                            1. Comment by Jeff Laufer | 2007/01/23 at 16:40:04

                                              Re: "California Dreamin’"

                                              this song is why i moved to laurel cyn!. i think a lot has to be given to their producer….

                                              i can’t remember his name but he always sits next to jack nicholson at the laker games.???

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                                              1. Comment by RS45 | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:08

                                                Thank you, thank you, thank you Bob,

                                                Well done, a great read…just think about it, only maybe 5…6 more years into the future and Fleetwood Mac would do the same thing of giving the public a view of the inner soap opera of a rock band, it seems the public loves a good soap operas…

                                                The Mamas & Papas were a great band if you think about the impact they had in such a short time, with top flight musicians and a great production team and although to me it was not only the great music that they made it was also the way they looked, I remember thinking as a kid that Mama Cass made it cool for the heavy set girls in school to hang out with my group of friends and knowing that no one would say a word about their weight. I think we were all trying to look like one or another rock stars in those hippy days during the 60’s at Fairfax High here in L.A..

                                                Denny was a great vocalist with great range all you have to do is the next time you’re taking a shower, try and sing the words "well I got down on my kneeeeeeeees and began to pray" if you can do it with half as much soul as Denny did than thats saying a lot for yourself….RIP Denny, I will always think about you Papa John and the great Mama Cass and all your contributions to music every time I hear one of your songs played.
                                                Love Ya Guys Truly…

                                                P.S. Sorry Michelle for not including you but you’re the last Mama standing…..make the movie you always said you would do "California Dreamin".

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                                                1. Comment by Steven Ehrlick | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:28

                                                  I saw Denny speak a few months ago at a Beatles convention in Toronto. He told a hilarious story of arriving late to the Monterey Pop Festival, trying to get back stage while The Who were destroying their equipment, and he had no idea who they were, had never heard of them. Then this guy, Hendrix, comes on stage and lights his guitar on fire and smashes it. Again, he has no idea who the guy is. And he’s thinking, we have to follow these two acts and headline the festival? Are you kidding? We’re folk singers! I’m not doing justice to the story, in part because Denny was an amazing story teller.

                                                  I remember being a CIT at camp in 1967 and someone put on a copy of the Deliver album on after we were all in bed. I remember that night so well, String Man, Creeque Alley and then the last song, John’s Music Box, it came out of left field, someone calling "Greta" I think, and when the door slammed, we all just about jumped out of our bunks. The Mamas and Papas are easy to dismiss now but for a time there, they ruled the roost.

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                                                  1. Comment by Owen Kugell | 2007/01/23 at 16:41:46

                                                    Hello, Bob..

                                                    I’m Owen Elliot, Cass Elliot’s daughter, and longtime fan of your musings..

                                                    I am writing this to you late tonight from Mississauga, Ontario. I flew in last night from Burbank on the red-eye…Denny Doherty made his home and his family here, and his friends and family, including Michelle Phillips, are gathering tomorrow and through the weekend to remember him.

                                                    It was a wonderful piece you wrote about the M’s and P’s today, and how amazing it was for me to be able to share your words with the family. It’s been an incredibly difficult time for all of us who loved Denny. He will be missed…sorely.

                                                    Thanks for your words.

                                                    Best-

                                                    Owen Elliot-Kugell

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                                                    1. […] it again. At least once a week, Bob Lefsetz writes something that really hits home for me. Yesterday’s post about the death of Denny Doherty (The Mama […]

                                                    This is a read-only blog. E-mail comments directly to Bob.