I Saw Her Again Lat Night Cass Elliot

"I guess no thing what else nosotros do, we'll ever be part of this thing chosen The Mamas & the Papas, with all its intense dear-detest relationships."  So once admitted "Papa" John Phillips, and by all accounts, those familiar relationships flared up in 1971 when John, ex-wife Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot reunited for what would turn out to be their terminal album together, People Like Us.  Still despite existence a contractual obligation for the group, the LP turned out to be a work of great beauty - if a commercially unsuccessful one.  More than forty years on, Cerise Scarlet's Now Sounds characterization is revisiting the formerly out-of-print People Like The states in an expanded edition, part of the (ongoing) Papa John Phillips Presents reissue series.  The sepia-toned embrace photograph of the group takes on even more of a wistful hue.  "Mama" Michelle is the last living fellow member, with Cass having died in 1974, John in 2001 and Denny in 2007.

Upon its release in 1971, People Like Us was probable jarring to listeners who still had "I Saw Her Again (Final Nighttime)" (1966) and "California Dreamin'" (1965) in their recent memories.  The urgency of those hits was replaced by liquid, languid grooves.  The smooth of the Wrecking Crew session pros was absent, replaced with Motown stalwarts and jazz players.  Fifty-fifty the vocal blend of the group sounded different, with "Mama" Cass no longer so out forepart in the mix.  The boisterousness of "Words of Honey" or "Mon, Mon" was all simply absent-minded.  Withal today, People Like Us, produced and written almost entirely by John Phillips, can be viewed an extension of Phillips' own, early on solo work, and an honest, natural updating of the Mamas & Papas' sound for a new decade.  Information technology's somewhere between funk and cosmic state, and the perfect soundtrack to a lazy, hazy day of summer deep in Laurel Canyon.

The California feeling was different than in the by, but still evident on songs like "Pacific Coast Highway," with its chugging vanquish, funky guitar and wailing saxophone weaving through.  The newly-assembled ring (including famed keyboardist Joe Sample of The Jazz Crusaders, percussionist Gary Coleman, drummer Ed Greene, saxophonist/flutist Jim Horn plus Motown vets Tony Newton on bass, Clarence McDonald on keyboards, Bobbye Hall on percussion and David T. Walker and Louie Shelton on guitar) adjusted well to the group'due south vocal sound. The title track "People Like Us" is every bit as lovely every bit any of their past hits, espousing sentiments that may or may not have been true ("People like the states/So much in dearest/People who just trust/One another…") in closely-blended harmony.  The tone of the spellbinding song is hushed and intimate, with Phillips reflecting on the Mamas & the Papas' early days in New York in a poetic, even sweet and rose-colored fashion that'south far removed from the acerbic "Creeque Aisle": "Ooh, what a dump/Now information technology's a palace/Where a Dixie cup becomes a beaker."

The mid-tempo "Step Out" was chosen as the album's single; information technology only reached No. 81 on the Billboard nautical chart.  "Shooting star," the unmarried B-side, is one of the more rocking tracks on a largely mellow set of songs, and boasts a typically intricate song arrangement by Phillips, equally well as subtle orchestration from Gene Folio which adds tension to the mix.  Steel drums add a unique character to the impressionistic, evocative "European Blueboy."  Cass Elliot sounds content on these tracks to be part of the group, rather than out front with her commanding voice and vaudevillian, coquettish and charismatic persona.

Despite any conflicts between the members, the sounds on the surface of People Like Us are filled with practiced vibrations and great spirits.  The harmonies on "No Dough" are fittingly shimmering, with vivid imagery from Phillips imagining dialogue between a young couple in bed equally the Mamas and Papas trade off each line: "Pass the fries, you've got common salt on your lips/Non the news, it gives y'all the dejection/Help you lot off with your shoes/And then I'll scratch your back/Then I'll practise the same to you."  That'south non the but element of whimsy on the album; "Blueberries for Breakfast" ("Dearest in the afternoon/Collywobbles in my trousers/Under the August moon") begins humorously plenty before veering into eccentric territory: "I'1000 gonna have to phone call the cops, if y'all don't go out me alone/Stop waiting at the passenger vehicle stop, trying to walk me home/The FBI, the CIA, you lot know they'll never leave you alone/And I will cut y'all to the bone!"

Phillips drew on personal experiences and relationships for many of the anthology'south songs, turning some into story songs and others into grapheme studies.  "Pacific Coast Highway" drew inspiration from a hitchhiker he met at a gild, and "I Wanna Be a Star" depicts a young actress anxious for her big intermission ("I don't want to go along house for a spouse/I'd much rather exist the girl, I demand much more to be the pearl of the movies") as well as the comments of those around her!  The wistful "Pearl" was a tribute to Janis Joplin (who else?), built around "Twinkle Twinkle Petty Star," and wishing for the departed vocalist that she "finds someplace out of this world where she feels at home."  The lovely "Lady Genevieve" was written for Phillips' hereafter wife Genevieve Waite, "Snowqueen of Texas" was based on model Deborah Dixon, and "Grasshopper" fifty-fifty recounted Michelle's marriage to Dennis Hopper!

What will you find on this expanded edition?  Hitting the spring for that, plus the track listing and order links!

Nine bonus tracks (all previously released on other volumes in the Papa John Presents series, to our knowledge; alas, no discographical information is provided) offer a well-nigh-complete portrait of John Phillips' musical experimentation during the period in which People Like Us was created.  A freewheeling tardily-night session sans Cass just plus Terry Melcher yielded the satiric "Fantastic Four," and a spare guitar-and-voice demo of "Lady Genevieve" is even more than touching than the finished track.  "No Dough (Honeymoon)" offers unlike vocals than the finished album version.  The full-diddled country rave-upwardly "Mississippi" features Wrecking Coiffure vets Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel and Hal Blaine, plus renowned guitarist James Burton and singers including Darlene Love.  "Apr Anne," some other personal song populated by Phillips' friends and acquaintances, is in the aforementioned countrified vein which Phillips continued to explore post-People Similar U.s. in songs like "Revolution on Vacation," heard here in a mix distinct from its original Columbia single release.

"Jack of Diamonds" is better known as "Me and My Uncle" in the Grateful Dead's version; John'due south own, raw version included here features different lyrics.  The most atypical bonus runway might be "Andy'due south Talkin' Blues" from Man on the Moon, the Phillips-penned musical that played Broadway's Fiddling Theatre (today the Helen Hayes Theatre and habitation to Rock of Ages) for 42 previews and just 10 performances per Playbill Vault.  Other accounts state the testify ran for anywhere from 2 to 5 performances!  Ironically, some of the songs on People Like Us ("No Dough," "I Wanna Be a Star") are far more theatrical than "Talkin' Blues."

The bonny 16-folio booklet features notes from Richard B. Campbell and the reissue'due south co-producer, Jeffrey A. Greenberg.  Now Sounds' Steve Stanley co-produced the set, and designed the impressive package.  Alan Brownstein has wonderfully remastered the album from the original chief tapes.  Now Sounds has previously brought the Phillips-produced Jamme to CD as part of the Papa John Presents series, picking up where Varese Sarabande left off.  (Varese's titles included John, the Wolfking of Fifty.A., Jack of Diamonds, Pussy Cat, Man on the Moon, and Many Mamas, Many Papas.)  Future volumes are eagerly predictable.

Resplendent though its harmonies are, the primal failing of People Like The states may take been that information technology but didn't sound shut plenty to the Mamas & the Papas' past records for tape buyers of the time.  Cass Elliot'due south tragic death, of course, closed the door on whatever true Mamas & the Papas reunion.  Phillips and Doherty reformed the grouping as the 1980s began, notwithstanding, under the name of The New Mamas & The Papas.  Only viewed through the lens simply decades tin afford, People Like Us offers a rare risk to hear the true "fantastic four" in a unlike setting than their classic material.  It's another kind of California dreamin', for sure.

You tin guild People Like United states at the link beneath via Amazon U.Southward. (currently only through third-party sellers) and hither at Amazon U.K.!

The Mamas & The Papas, People Like Us: Palatial Expanded Edition (Dunhill DSX-10106, 1971 – reissued Now Sounds CRNOW37, 2012)

1. People Like Us
2. Pacific Declension Highway
3. Snowqueen of Texas
4. Falling star
5. Pace Out
6. Lady Genevieve
7. No Dough
8. European Blueboy
9. Pearl
10. I Wanna Be a Star
11. Grasshopper
12. Blueberries for Breakfast
13. Fantastic Four (Outtake) – The Mamas & the Papas
14. Lady Genevieve (Outtake from John, the Wolfking of L.A.) – John Phillips
15. No Dough (Honeymoon) (Alternate Mix) – The Mamas & the Papas
16. Mississippi (Album Version from John, the Wolfking of Fifty.A.) – John Phillips
17. April Anne – John Phillips
18. Revolution on Holiday (Alternate Mix) – John Phillips
19. Cup of Tea (Skyjacked) (Alternate Mix) – John Phillips
20. Me and My Uncle (Jack of Diamonds) – John Phillips
21. Andy's Talkin' Dejection – John Phillips

Tracks 1-12 from People Like Usa, Dunhill DSX-10106, 1971
Tracks thirteen, 15 & 20 from John Phillips, Jack of Diamonds, Varese Sarabande 302 066 819-ii, 2007
Rail 14 from John Phillips, John the Wolfking of Fifty.A., Varese Sarabande 302 066 752-ii, 2006
Rail 16 from John Phillips, John the Wolfking of L.A., Dunhill DS-50077, 1970
Track 17 from Dunhill single 4236-B, 1970
Tracks 18 & 19 alternate mixes of Columbia single 45737, 1972, also on Jack of Diamonds (see higher up)
Track 21 from Man on the Moon, Varese Sarabande 302 066 965-2, 2009

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The 2nd Disc shortly later on its launch in early on 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, amongst them Nat "Rex" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past ii decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway likewise as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Manufactory Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions aslope artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Light-green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about moving picture and boob tube on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

gunterandise.blogspot.com

Source: https://theseconddisc.com/2012/08/30/go-where-you-wanna-go-the-mamas-the-papas-farewell-people-like-us-expanded-by-now-sounds/

Share this post