The untold prequel to The Mamas & The Papas. Before soundtracking the Summer of Love as The Mamas & The Papas, musicians John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty honed their talents in groups like The Smoothies, The Journeymen, The Halifax Three, The Big 3, and The Mugwumps. In Gettin' Kinda Itchie, author Richard Campbell traces the circuitous lives of these groups and individualsâfeaturing secret marriages, hilarious hijinks, and FBI investigationsâas they each contributed to the sound, style, and persona that set the foundation of American folk rock. The groups may now be answers to trivia questions, but they each contributed to the sound, style, and persona that became the bedrock of American folk rock. Along the way they intersected the circles of artists like David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, John Sebastian and Scott McKenzie. This is four musicians' journey from coffeehouses to nightclubs and gymnasiums, before leaving folk music behind and taking flight.
"In Gettinâ Kinda Itchie, Richard Campbell meticulously reconstructs the puzzle of how The Mamas & The Papas were made, and he gets it exactly right." - Michelle Phillips. Original Member of The Mamas & The Papas, Actress and Songwriter.
The untold prequel to The Mamas & The Papas. Before soundtracking the Summer of Love as The Mamas & The Papas, musicians John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty honed their talents in groups like The Smoothies, The Journeymen, The Halifax Three, The Big 3, and The Mugwumps. In Gettin' Kinda Itchie, author Richard Campbell traces the circuitous lives of these groups and individualsâfeaturing secret marriages, hilarious hijinks, and FBI investigationsâas they each contributed to the sound, style, and persona that set the foundation of American folk rock. The groups may now be answers to trivia questions, but they each contributed to the sound, style, and persona that became the bedrock of American folk rock. Along the way they intersected the circles of artists like David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, John Sebastian and Scott McKenzie. This is four musicians' journey from coffeehouses to nightclubs and gymnasiums, before leaving folk music behind and taking flight.
"In Gettinâ Kinda Itchie, Richard Campbell meticulously reconstructs the puzzle of how The Mamas & The Papas were made, and he gets it exactly right." - Michelle Phillips. Original Member of The Mamas & The Papas, Actress and Songwriter.
Preface
Come and look, see what I have found...
I remember the fi rst time I heard the opening verse to âCome Away Melindaâ by The Big 3.1 It was 1983, I was fifteen years old, and I had just landed the 7-inch white label promotional single at a record collectorâs show in Richmond, Virginia. I knew, with this 1964 radio station copy, I had found a rarity. As I placed the 45 on my bedroom turntable, I heard a clarion call: the childlike voice of a young Cass Elliot, plaintively singing over sparse, plucking guitar: âMommy, Mommy, come and look, see what I have found.â The heartbreaking ballad went on to tell a story of girls and fathers who had died in war. I was captivated. In my hunt, I had also found an album featuring the song. The color photograph on its cover showed Cass between two tuxedoed men, laughing in a black dress with a white lace collar. She looked far older than her 22 years, and a bit matronly, but appearance aside, the LP showcased that incredible voice, which I knew from The Mamas & The Papas.
Around that same time, I heard The Journeymenâs fi rst album at a friendâs house. Again, the voices. Such harmony and such arrangements. Studying the record cover, I wondered if the debonair fellow in the carriage in Central Park was really the same John Phillips who, just a few years later, would be pictured in a bathtub with The Mamas & The Papas. Was this the same complex and brilliant man who eschewed the traditional and, in keeping with his Cherokee heritage, made his home in a wilder frontier? In addition to Cass and John there was Denny Doherty, with his sunny affect and quick as-lightning wit, and mysterious Michelle, who seemed to take everything in stride and in whom still waters ran deep. These four peopleâthe Jewish songstress from Baltimore who was huge in every way, the ruminative rhapsodist from Virginia who wove the most beautiful song stories, the charming Irish Canadian who always looked amused, and the fetching blonde bombshell from California (with a Mexican twist) who had a lot to say if you asked herâbecame The Mamas & The Papas. Four people on a trip together.
My forty-year fascination with these individuals has yielded friendships with them and their families, and a collection of records, photographs, sheet music, trade ads, character dolls and film that overtook much of my house. Through hobby and study, entertainment and analysis, and eventually firsthand interviews with the surviving members and those in their orbit, my passion transformed into expertise. In the 1990s I was approached by a
record label to write liner notes for a reissue CD associated with the group, and that task led to two dozen more sets of liner notes, most oriented around The Mamas & The Papas. I was contacted by television, stage productions and print media for help regarding the history of the group, assistance in reaching certain individuals as sources, or for the loan of an item from my collection.
Having read, and to a lesser extent written, much of what has been said about this seminal group that bridged the gap between the folk revival of the early â60s and the psychedelic explosion of the late â60s, I have long noticed how much less attention has been paid to the careers of Cass, John, Denny and Michelle before they came together as one unit. To fully appreciate their complexities and beautiful harmonies, as well as their social and interpersonal bedrock, I believe one has to consider the musically hybridized folk tableau out of which they were born. As John Phillips said in 1968, âThe Mamas & The Papas were sort of a culmination of seven or eight years work of an arranging style that came together with these particular voices and particular people who were able to execute this style in the proper way.â2
More specifically, that culmination was the result of various trios, quartets, and ensembles John, Cass, Denny and Michelle formed and reformed between 1959 and 1965. On college campuses, in coff eehouses, and at nightclubs that paid $500 a week, the four paid their musical dues in a number of groups that led to their harmonic convergence. âWeâd all had so much experience in live performance through the folk music and years of playingâ John continued. âIt was really an inbred societyâno one made a move without someone else knowing about it and everyone was on tour together continually and working the same circuit of coffee houses. You kept going and going and going.â3 Cass Elliot remembered in 1973, âThose places were at that time what they used to call basket houses. You would sing, and maybe a couple of other performers would sing also, and then they would pass the basket around and people would put in money and then you would split it up. If you made $6 that was a big night.â4
Lifelong friendships were struck, rings were exchanged, partners were traded, and their paths constantly crossed. And as the country was fast approaching a cultural tipping point, they and other artists in their orbit galvanized, amalgamated, and sharpened the cutting edge of their musical prowess.
âAnd then suddenly,â John explained, âa lot of them switched over to what the media termed folk rock. There was a mass infl ux suddenly of intelligent musicians and writers into the pop fi eld.â5 He and his group helped lead the way.
Before they became The Mamas & The Papas, Cass Elliot, John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, and Denny Doherty toyed with the idea of calling themselves The Magic Circle. The name never took but it aptly captured their circuitous turns in and out of the 1960s folk scene.
The results were harmonies that soothed and satisfi ed millions amid the reverberating cacophony of the times. Social upheaval, riots, and the war in Vietnam were largely quelled with dreams of California and a song about the common reality of the first day of the week. The Mamas & The Papas stood as troubadours of a generation and a powerful American answer to the British Invasion. Between 1965 and 1968 the group garnered top ten hits like âMonday Monday,â âCreeque Alley,â âDedicated To The One I Love,â âI Saw Her Againâ and âCalifornia Dreaminâ,â which would ultimately go on to sell tens of millions of records. They broke new ground as architects of the historic 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, which kicked off the Summer of Love and the next wave of popular music. It was the end of a long pathâa magic circle.
This book is about that magic and that circle. It is about the groups, music, and experiences that created The Mamas & The Papas. It is the account of The Smoothies carrying spears in costume, and of the FBI tracking The Mugwumps in Cold War Washington, D.C., and secret marriages to avoid the Draft and keep on singing. This is four musiciansâ journey from coffeehouses to nightclubs and gymnasiums, before leaving folk music behind and taking flight. âWe started off at our peak,â Cass once explained. âWe had all been singing for some time. We were the accumulation of all the years of practice on an individual level and experience on an individual level⌠collectively. When we got together it was a compositeof all the things that we had learned.â6
Most folks nowadays do not know what good music sounds like. Or, at least that is my opinion. Quite frankly I believe it to be a true statement. Many groups sound so similar and I am convinced there is an algebraic formula for writing hit songs for the radio. Rather than trying to express themselves as they see fit, most musicians are only in it for the money. If you are like me and like more refined, raw music, then you will enjoy this book.
I venture to say that The Mamas & The Papas are a fairly unknown group. Sure, some folks may know of their existence and be familiar with their catalog, but they are not as well-known as other "vintage" groups. This does not mean that their influence is not felt. If you have ever wondered what it was like to be a musician during the 1950s and 1960s then you should consider picking up this book.
The book is laid out in a manner that allows the reader to follow along and not only learn a bit of the chronological order of the band, but we are also given the background. It is one thing to know how things simply played out in the public eye, but it is another to know how the various events played into the making of the band. Is this the correct way everything happened? Were there other events that should have been included, but were not for whatever reason? I do not know. I am sure that there is more to the entire story than just what is recorded in this work, but for the most part, I would say this includes most of the events. Things are always more complicated than one would think, but this includes a lot of information that seems to make sense.
Given the endorsements of the book, I would lean toward this being the quintessential work on the making of The Mamas & The Papas. Overall, I really enjoyed the telling of the story and the images that were included of this often overlooked band of a bygone era.