If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears [Remastered] - Mamas & The Papas (The)

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	This was an amazing time !
Disadvantages:	Didn't seem to matter

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

What an unusual bunch they seemed to be however for just a few short years they were the 60's. Hippy Afghan coats, guitars, long flowing dresses,loons and cowbells. Did I mention free love? That didn't seem to happen to me though. Need a bit of the background history of the band. Most of this is on the liner notes, you'll just have to buy the CD to read it all!

John Phillips is the acknowledged leader, tall and thin, takes everything seriously, played and sang his way round Greenwich village either on his own or with various musical partners. He is unusually creative and has written and co-written many of the songs on the album. Master at musical arrangement and musical harmony. His male counterpart is Canadian Denny Doherty. He supplies the tenor voice in many of the songs. In one way he is the voice of the the Mamas and the Papas having taken the lead vocal in Californian Dreamin' and Monday Monday.

The looks to die for one, is Michelle, a former model, recently starred in films and TV (Valentino, Knots Landing as well as Star Treck!)and was the estranged wife of John. The most interesting one is Cass, she is the other voice of the Mamas and the Papas, She can belt out a song like no other singer. She has appeared on many shows, (Ed Sullivan, Julie Andrews and Andy Williams) Started a very successful single and solo career until she died from a heart attack. Although I have really emphasised the two "voices", the emphasis should be on the mix that John Phillips made and the effect that of the producer Lou Adler had on the finished article. I do not want to dwell on the history of the band this is very well documented on the internet, Wikipedia has a good write up together with links too.

The sad thing for me is the fact that there is now only Michelle left alive out of the original bunch, although John Phillips retained the name and took the "new" Mamas and Papas touring too. There is a CD about, very good too., but somehow lacks just the "thing" that the originals had. The legacy has not died though. Wilson Phillips are made up of John Phillips and Brian Wilson's two daughters. This band appears to have split too.
Did I mention that the Mamas and Papas were the prime movers behind the Monterey festival in 1967.

This was the first Album that the band made. This CD was released in 1966 (40 years ago!) and stayed in the best selling charts for just over 2 years. California Dreamin' had reached number 4 in the American charts and Monday Monday had yet to be released and this was just the USA. The band's English contemparies were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This was the first album that the group had released and signified a major change from the folksy finger in the ear folk music that I was listening to! The interesting thing about the cover that you can see is the obvious toilet on the bottom right hand corner. On the original this was covered up with a sticker mentioning the 2 most popular tracks. Oh how our sensibilities have changed!

Back to the CD. I bought this from an American importer for the princly sum of £4.61 including post and packaging. Absolutely wonderful value 5 days to arrive from California - where else!

The first track "Monday Monday", really need no introduction. This was the groups biggest seller. However Michelle didn't like it, the lyrics seemed so contrived. Both Cass and Michelle hated it. The song earned a Grammy in 1966. The second track "Straight Shooter" I believe was the B side to "Dedicated to the one I love", this is an up tempo tune which was written by John Phillips. "Got a feelin" is slightly slower. The lead is taken by Denny and is clearly a reflection of some of the internal sexual tensions that existed in band at that time. Did I mention that there were several mixed emotional and sexual relationships going on at the same time! Investigate!
"I call your name" is the Lennon and MCartney song. This is slowed down a bit of echo gives it a haunting melodic feel.
"Go where you wanna go" again reflects this tension, when you consider these songs in the context that the group was working and living in. "Do you wanna dance" written by Bobby Freeman is a standard that has been performed by many bands. Fittingly the BeachBoys did a great version too.
The seventh track is "Californian Dreamin'" written by John Phillips, not his first, but was the breakthrough song. It relates to a time that he and Michelle were in New York and she saw snow for the first time and wanted to go back to California. "Spanish Harlem" written by Phil Spector and Jerry Leiber, a slow song, it somehow does not quite fit on this compilation. Wonderfully done of course but I tend to skip it."Somebody Groovy" and "Hey Girl" are both written by John Phillips and are uptempo bouncy tunes, good listening. The eleventh song "You Baby" was written by PF Sloan a staffer on Dunhill records. He also wrote "Eve of Destruction" for Barry Maguire and the "Danger Man" theme. This has been covered as well but I think the Mamas and the Papas must have had first choice.The final track "The In crowd" was written by Billy Page in 1965. Covered by many artists, even Brian Ferry - The same song no less. Even a band was called after this song and if Wikipedia is to be believed, Mods took this song as some sort of anthem!

The first thing that attracted the Mamas and Papas to me all those years ago was the music. It broke the mold. For someone who was quite involved in the British folk music scene, this was really really tearing off the onion skins. The free love concept, the surfing and the American way of life as my perception was! Forty years on the music still occasionally does it for me, but listening properly now and putting the songs in context with the goings on and the tensions of the group brings a whole new feeling there.

This album is absolute magic but dated. Buy it if you are over 50 and you were there! Apparently if you can still remember you probably weren't !