Obituaries: John Phillips 1935 – 2001

John Phillips, 65, founder and songwriter of the Mamas and the Papas, died of heart failure on Sunday March 18th at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

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The year 1965, when the Mama’s and the Papas released their first single, was a magical time for music. Rock ‘n’ roll was just reaching its adolescence and everything was new and exciting. Each new release promised to bring the genre to new heights, each new artist arrived with the potential of being better and bigger than the Beatles or Elvis. This was the year when Eric Clapton led the Yardbirds in For Your Love and when the Stones proved that they could produce more than copycat blues with (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. In 1965, the Beach Boys were hitting their stride with Help Me Rhonda, new groups like the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Byrds were popping up all over the place, and Bob Dylan abandoned his acoustic guitar to offer Like A Rolling Stone, his first electric release.

Given this climate, it’s a wonder that we even noticed the Mama’s and the Papa’s and that they didn’t become just another good group in an era oversupplied with great music. To be sure, their music was notable for outstanding vocal arrangements, but the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons and countless do-wop groups had already done that. True too, their lyrics sometimes contained a hint of protest and dissatisfaction, but Barry McGuire and Bob Dylan already owned that genre. Actually, the only thing that was totally unique about the group was the fact that their line-up contained both women and men, in an age when rock groups were either all male or all female.

There was something else unique about the Mamas and the Papas, having nothing to do with their music, and that was their cover art. In the mid-sixties, the major record companies were insisting that their artists present an appropriately “clean” image that echoed the perceived values of suburban America. Except for Dylan, who’d already gained a godlike status and could call his own shots, rock groups were always presented as well dressed young lads and lasses, the type of folks you could invite to a church social. The Mamas and the Papas broke this mold. The photograph that adorned the cover of their first album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, pictured them piled into an old-fashioned footed bathtub in a run down bathroom.

This would be tame stuff today, but I remember that as a fifteen year old in 1966, the year the album was released, I was confused by the gritty and grimy photo didn’t seem to fit the sweet harmonies and plaintive lyrics of California Dreamin’ or Monday, Monday. Certainly, a successful group like the Mamas and the Papas were making enough money to enjoy the good life and didn’t need to be hanging-out in what looked like a transient hotel for skid row bums. Year’s later, I would realize that this photo had given me my first glimpse of the bohemian lifestyle.

As it turned-out, the Mamas and the Papas were an extremely talented line-up of folks. After the group broke-up, Cass Elloit enjoyed a successful solo career until she died several years later, and Michelle Phillips remains a successful actress to this day. But, by all accounts, John Phillips was the guiding force behind the group. All of their incredible harmonies were from his arrangements, and nearly all of their original lyrics came from his pen. It was Phillips who put together the recording contract with Dunhill records and developed the band’s unique persona. No doubt, it was also Phillips who came up with the idea for the eclectic bathroom photo.

The Mamas and the Papas were not his first turn as a professional recording artist. He began his recording career in 1960 as the member of a pop group, the Smoothies. A year later, he found a degree of real success when he formed a folk group, the Journeymen, with Scott McKenzie and Dick Weissman, which released three popular albums. During this period, Phillips began developing his skills as a songwriter and his material was recorded by such vanguards of the folk movement as the Kingston Trio.

During his stint with the Mamas and the Papas, he penned the anthem-like hit San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) for his old colleague Scott McKenzie. At about the same time, in 1967, he was the chief organizer for the Monterey Pop Festival, which is noted for being both the first rock festival (two years before Woodstock) and for launching the careers of Janis Joplin, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Who.

After the Mamas and the Papas’ demise in 1968, Phillips fell into heavy heroin, cocaine and alcohol abuse, which resulted in his arrest for trafficking in 1981. After serving a one month sentence, he entered a drug treatment program and cleaned-up, but the damage had already been done. As a result of his drug and alcohol abuse, his liver gave out in the 1990s and he received a transplant.

After becoming sober, Phillips reformed the Mamas and the Papas with a line-up that eventually included his daughter MacKenzie Phillips as well as Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane of the sixties group Spanky and Our Gang. In 1989, with daughter MacKenzie, he penned the song Kokomo, which became the first number one hit for the Beach Boys since the 1960s.

At the time of his death, he had recently completed an album with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards which he’d begun 25 years earlier and abandoned due to drug problems. He’d also finished another solo album which features performances by Paul Shaffer and British rock guitarist Chris Spedding. Both albums are scheduled to be released soon.

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