Day 81: The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears

Album cover courtesy of Dunhill Records

Remember when air travel used to feel somewhat luxurious? Gone are the days. You’d get served a bit of breakfast, have a nice cup of coffee, land at your destination feeling nice and refreshed. These days you’re lucky if you can buy a cup of coffee, let alone get it for free. If it was both nice and affordable I’d probably fly more often, so I guess this is good for the environment. Anyway, I dislike flying so I needed something nice to listen to, so I thought I’d go for the Mamas & the Papas.

I chose If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, a 1966 release by the classic ‘60s harmonising folk-rock band Mamas & the Papas. The group consisted of Cass Elliott, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and John Phillips.

Interesting band. Even though they’re one of the quintessential ‘60s hippie bands, they somehow sound so strait-laced to me that reading about their escapades is just a touch surprising. First of all, John left his wife for Michelle, but Michelle had an affair with Denny, who Cass was in love with, so they had a bit of a love triangle, or love square if you count the unrequited love. Michelle said that the period the band was together was “two and a half years of total melodrama.”

The second thing I found surprising was that apparently John didn’t want Cass Elliott in the band, as he thought her weight would stop them from being successful. The irony is that she’s now a music legend who forged a successful solo career, while I don’t even know which male voice is John.

I love some of their singles and Cass Elliot’s solo songs so much that frankly I thought this would be a slam-dunk. Instead, it’s just a decent record that I mostly like. Some songs, like “The In Crowd”, come off a little bit corny because of the lyrics. And “I’m a real straight shooter / if you know what I mean” from “Straight Shooter”? No I don’t, actually, when you make it sound a bit weird like that, surely that doesn’t mean what I think it means.

Anyway, I like their version of “Do You Wanna Dance” and “California Dreamin’” is stunning, the harmonies on that are something else. Other than that, I expected a bit better from the whole of it. It’s an alright 7/10.