The Mamas & the Papas Album: “All the Leaves Are Brown: The Golden Era Collection”

This fabulous 2-CD set consisting of the Mamas & the Papas digitally re-mastered first four albums is a big bonanza for fans! John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, and Michelle Phillips' beautiful vocals JUMP RIGHT OUT AT YOU !!! These songs with their poignant lyrics, exquisite harmonies and lovely melodies show why the group has transgenerational appeal.

The primary musical creative force of the Mamas & the Papas was John Phillips. He was a solid songwriter who put his pain to pretty music. But John Phillips' true brilliance was in arranging vocals. You'd get a "high" from the Mamas & the Papas' soaring harmonies. When the foursome sang AT THE VERY TOP OF THEIR RANGE, it was instant magic. Phantom overtones!

Here are gems that show that Denny Doherty's one of the greatest singers of the rock era! His voice is clear, rich and effortless, and his beautiful lead vocals are showcased on killer tracks as "Do You Wanna Dance" "Twist and Shout," "My Girl," "Dancing Bear" (a Cass Elliot favorite), "Spanish Harlem," "You Baby," "Too Late" and not to exclude the sweet 'n hummable, "Nothing's Too Good For My Little Girl."

Denny sang lead on two of the Mamas and the Papas biggest hits; the chart-topper, "Monday, Monday" and the infinitely popular "California Dreamin." If you love his singing as much as I do on these tunes, you must get his two solo CDs: "Waiting For a Song" features romantic Denny in fine voice as well as Cass and Michelle on backing vocals. "Watcha Gonna Do," has a country-folk-rock favor, supreme musical arrangements and some of Denny's best songwriting. In addition, check out Denny's peerless work as lead vocalist on pre-Mamas & Papas' "The Complete Halifax Three."

No one sang like Cass Elliot! She was "a big girl who could sing her tail off." Cass had a rich timbre in her voice and would belt her heart out on every number. Elliot shines on the Vaudevillian, "Words of Love." Also great is her straight-from-the-heart, "Sing for Your Supper." Cass' super lung work on Lennon-McCartney's "I Call Your Name" exposes her "lust" for Beatle John, and she does a superb salute to Motown with "Dancing in the Streets."

"Glad to Be Unhappy" sings of unrequited love, where Cass Elliot can be heard singing "and I got it pretty bad," about her crush on Denny, perhaps? Some rumblings between John and Michelle surprisingly interject Cass' pretty "Midnight Voyage" lead on this number, and Elliot shows why "Dream A Little Dream" was the launching pad to her successful solo career.

You've never heard a soprano so pretty and pure as Michelle Phillips' on "Dedicated to the One I Love." Michelle also plays the ultimate rock fan with her lead vocal on "String Man." I enjoy Michelle's ethereal intro on the tune, "Got a Feelin.'" [Denny performs this number again on his great "Watcha Gonna Do" solo CD]

Both "Got A Feelin' and the Ms and Ps' classic, "I Saw Her Again" were written by Denny Doherty (melody) and John Phillips (words) about Michelle Phillips & Denny's love affair. They are two of my favorite songs. Doherty performs both these numbers in his current musical "Dream a Little Dream - the Nearly True Story of the Mamas and the Papas," along with other Mamas & Papas' hits. P>"Straight Shooter" is a great rocker, as is "That Kind of Girl" ("�.you're on your first, and she's on her twelfth.!" "�that kind of girl's the kind that makes you dizzy�you'll always ask and wonder who is he?!).

"Go Where You Wanna Go's" harmonies are stellar. "No Salt On Her Tail" (another Cass Elliot favorite) has the "boys and girls" echo each other. I love the guys' lower range here! And "Trip, Stumble and Fall" is�well�really cool!

"Strange Young Girls" is hauntingly beautiful, with nice solos from Cass and Denny. The duos' duet on "Safe In My Garden" is lovely, as well.

The surreal ending of "Even If I Could" may have put ideas in the heads of Lennon-McCartney for their "Strawberry Field's Forever" finish.

The climatic ending of "My Heart Stood Still" (Michelle Phillips' favorite) will take your breath away. And "Once Was A Time I Thought" is done acappella. No other pop foursome could sing together without accompaniment this well!

"For the Love of Ivy" was a D.Doherty/J. Phillips composition that almost made the theme song for a Sidney Poitier movie, immediately after Sidney's huge success with "To Sir With Love." The rhythmic changes will blow you away.

Also included, the awesome 1967 hits, "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To the Canyon)," and Creeque Alley" (pronounced "Creaky"), the semiautobiographical story about how the Mamas & the Papas got their start.

Witness rare lead vocal by John Phillips on the peaceful, "Meditation Mama." And for a change of pace, "Mansions" a song about the group's lavish living, is worth a few listens.

You'll never hear voices this clear and beautiful together again!

This collection is and always will be the best Mamas and Papas CD anyone could ever want to own. Why? Because it contains EVERY MAJOR RECORDING THEY MADE IN THE EXACT ORDER THEY MADE THEM. Nothing is missing!! Of course, I'm dismissing the half-hearted "People Like Us" contractual-obligation album recorded four years after their break-up. That one sounds like it came from another band (and Cass barely appears on it). No, these are the songs to have, and this is the place to get them. It's not just the overly familiar hits that make this indispensible. One after another, the unique album cuts reinforce why the Mamas and the Papas were so special. Songs like "No Salt On Her Tail", "Dancing Bear", the exquisite "Strange Young Girls", and the almost overwhelming "My Heart Stood Still" display the legendary harmonies of this group in all their splendor. No one was ever remotely able to duplicate what this bunch did in a few short years. It's interesting that the Mamas and the Papas were so embraced by teenagers in the 60s, because this is rather adult music, in theme and approach. Of course, no one looked or sounded like them, and the accompanying essay and photos give the uninitiated an idea of how striking and unique they truly were. Hipsters, yes. Musicians, without doubt. Listen and learn.

Those who are looking for a "favorable, but.." review or more crass and cruel jokes about ham sandwiches, look elsewhere.

For us hippies in the 1960's, there were two songs that made us realize that moment when we looked up when everyone else looked down: If You're Going To San Francisco and California Dreamin'. We realized that it had nothing to do with actually GOING to San Francisco or LIVING in California - it was the idea that things would be approached differently from then on.

John Philips wrote both songs. We knew he understood something deeper about a vibe that was in the country but had not been codified - and he wasn't even a hippie himself. Funny about that.

What he did was to select the finest voices he could find among the end of the popular folk music era and bring them together to perform a new kind of music. People who mistakenly lump his work in with The Association have ears of tin (though I like their work). This is instead the crossroads of The Hi-lo's, the Weavers and a kind of unabashedly romantic soft rock (before that was a pejorative term)that has not been performed since.

This collection comprises some of the finest pure SINGING of the decade of the Sixties, and that was my revelation from it. I had not properly remembered just how good a singer Cass Elliott was. Her voice is just magnificent. Denny Doherty, as one of the two great classic voices to come out of California in the Sixties ( the other being Marty Balin) is just breathtaking in both his approach and his mastery of the material. John's backup singing and his incredible vocal arrangements just lead me to wonder what he could have done with a modern studio with 128 vocal tracks. And as for Michelle, aside from being the absoulute pinnacle of attractive female rock singers then or now, I only wish the interior relationships would have permitted her to sing more leads. The great thing about this collection though is that you can hear EACH VOICE in EACH SONG to the extent that you can follow just John's voice in I Saw Her Again or just Denny in Stumble and Fall. Every lyric in every song can be clearly heard. Imagine that today!

There is more to this collection than just music - it contains artistry. If you like SINGING, even if you aren't sure about the material, BUY THIS SET. If you like the Mamas and Papas, YOU NEED THIS SET. If you want a quick Cliff's Notes on what late 60's music was really supposed to be all about YOU WANT THIS SET.

PS: Make absolutely sure you listen to the "studio chat" piece on the end of Disc 2...it'll clean your ears.

And by the way, speaking as a hippie - Cass died from a heart attack, not from a ham sandwich. Please don't defame her memory any longer with that sad-a**ed urban legend..

"All the Leaves Are Brown" trumps all previous collections of because the tainted mix of the orginal masters have been given a loving digital facelift. This remastering of the four Mama's and Papa's albums is not high tech sleight of hand, but an enhancement of what fans knew was hidden in Lou Adler's atrocious rendering of the masters. John Phillips is arguably one of the great songwritters of the 20th century and it is a pleasure to hear all of the shimmering melancoly and double edged power of his lyrics. Now I finally know that it was "McGuinn and McGuire" that were getting higher in the autobiographical "Creeque Alley". It's startling to discover that Michelle Phillips actually doing something besides being the "blond hippie chick" as a counterpoint to Mama Cass' Rubenesque, earth mother beauty. The remastering has leveled the volume mix of each voice and we discover that each of the four members as equal collaborators in the intricate vocal arrangements. Free from the upper and lower register distortion, the vocals initailly startle the listener with their intimacy. In opening song, "Monday Monday", Mama Cass, Denny and Michelle weave their intricate operatic vocal lines around the John's plantive lead vocals. Denny and Cass' rendering of "I Call Your Name" will break your heart with the voluptous beauty of the vocals. Denny's gorgeous tenor and Cass' muli-octave wonder voice are so well blended that sometimes it's impossible to tell who's singing what.

It's hard to beleive that the Mamas and Papas existed only two and half years, because their musical legacy is so rich. One wonders what they could have accomplished over ten or fifteen years. Unfortunately the demands of musical stardom laid claim to the Mamas and Papas,prematurely. The years passed... Cass died, Denny retreated from from the spotlight, and Michelle's photogenic beauty lead to a respectable acting career. I hope John finally found some peace of mind in ensuing 30 years. Many point to John Phillips as an object lesson in the excesses of fame, but I'm greatful that for a fleeting moment, John was able to share his brillance with us.

Upon listening to the full panoply of their music after years of neglect, I was astounded at how fresh The Mamas & The Papas music had remained. I can still remember seeing their farewell appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and not quite understanding what the big deal was. Now I understand! Nearly all of their music has aged well. In the brief 36 months in which they recorded, they produced an amazing catalog that matched vocals and instruments so well, that, indeed their voices were the instruments. While I have had my favorites tunes, I was surprised by how many songs I had never heard before from the first two albums that resonated so well, even in 2003.

My only quibbles are that three really pretty good tunes from their highly disrepected (deservedly so) final album "People Like Us" ("People Like Us," "Pacific Coast Highway," and "Snowqueen of Texas") were left out as well as no representation of the Mugwumps, to which Denny and Cass belonged -- which also produced beautiful blends of voice and instrument. The Mugwumps were a great precursor to the M&Ps. But that's a quibble. I doesn't diminish the pure pleasure you will experience listneing to this CD.

Strangely, shortly after John Philips died, one of the co-authors of a book I published in early 2004, "Dream It, Do It: Inspiring Stories of Dreams Come True," told me that she was stunned to learn that the fellow named "John" in her Alcoholics Anonymous group was indeed John Philips of The Mamas & The Papas. She learned it from the photos in the newspaper following his death. Not once, in all the years they were members of this AA group, did he tell anyone about his glorious musical past. Very interesting.... Says something about the guy (although I'm not quite sure what).