The Mamas & The Papas: All The Leaves Are Brown - The Golden Era Collection (Disc-2) CD Track Listing

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The Mamas & The Papas All The Leaves Are Brown - The Golden Era Collection (Disc-2) (2001)
All The Leaves Are Brown: The Golden Era Collection - Disc 2 of 2\n2001 MCA Records, Inc.\n\nThis compilation released August 28, 2001\n''If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears'' LP Originally Released March 1966\n''The Mamas & The Papas'' LP Originally Released September 1966\n''Deliver'' LP Originally Released 1967\n''The Papas & The Mamas'' LP Originally Released March 1968\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: This is where fans of the group can sort of stop and settle down at last. MCA Records had previously let the Mamas & the Papas' music out on CD in a trickle; the debut LP was upgraded and a compilation of remastered hits showed later in the decade, but the rest was left to languish. This two-CD set makes up for that neglect, assembling all four of the quartet's '60s albums on two CDs and augmenting them with the mono single versions of "I Saw Her Again," "Words of Love," and "Creeque Alley," plus the non-LP single "Glad to Be Unhappy." One just wants to luxuriate in the sound of this reissue and its little details, like the rhythm guitar on "Do You Want to Dance" that cuts right through the air, the string basses on "Go Where You Want to Go" that sound like they're just across the room, and the rest of the first album. The real keys to the value of this set, however, are the second and third LPs by the group, superb albums which were either never reissued on CD at all or never upgraded from the mid- to late '80s. The group's second album has never enjoyed as strong a reputation as its predecessor, possibly because of the painful and convoluted circumstances under which it was recorded (Michelle Phillips was fired and then reinstated a few weeks later, but a version of the cover does exist that features Phillips' temporary replacement, Jill Gibson, in the lineup). The songs may not quite match up to the selection or the sense of free experimentation that went into the first album, but coming from any other group, the contents of The Mamas & The Papas LP would have been considered a triumph. "No Salt on Her Tail" and "Trip, Stumble & Fall" could have been outtakes from the first album, while "Dancing Bear" put them into Peter, Paul & Mary territory. "Words of Love" didn't quite come up to the standard they'd set for themselves, but "My Heart Stood Still" nearly succeeds in turning the Rodgers & Hart standard into a folk-rock piece of incomparable beauty. The whole second half of the disc is a revelation in sound, simply because apart from the hits, none of its material had shown up on CD before, and here it is with resolution so close that Joe Osborne's bass sounds like it's practically in the listener's lap. Cuts such as "I Can't Wait" and "Strange Young Girls" -- although the latter is never cited as a strong point, it has a depth and richness in its appearance here that calls to mind textural echoes of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album -- and "Once Was a Time I Thought" (where they tread onto Spanky & Our Gang-cum-Manhattan Transfer territory) help make this set essential to virtually any fan of the group. The quartet's third album, Deliver, which is divided between the two CDs, is similarly improved in a startling upgrade from the mid-'80s CD that makes their version of "My Girl," in particular, sound gloriously radiant. Their fourth album, Papas & Mamas, although never in the same league with the group's earlier records, can be considered nearly essential musically for the upgrade on "Rooms," "Too Late," "Mansions," and the classic "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)." As an added attraction, in addition to the single mixes on three of their hits, the disc also features superb notes built around recollections by the surviving members of the group and longtime session musicians, such as Eric Hord. -- Bruce Eder\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW (''If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears'') In the spring of 1966, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears represented a genuinely new sound, as fresh to listeners as the songs on Meet the Beatles had seemed two years earlier. Released just as "California Dreaming" was ascending the charts by leaps and bounds, it was the product of months of rehearsal in the Virgin Islands and John Phillips' discovery of what one could do to build a polished recorded sound in the studio -- it embraced folk-rock, pop/rock, pop, and soul, and also reflected the kind of care that acts like the Beatles were putting into their records at the time. "Monday, Monday" and "California Dreamin'" are familiar enough to anyone who's ever listened to the radio, and "Go Where You Wanna Go" isn't far behind, in this version or the very similar rendition by the Fifth Dimension. But the rest is mighty compelling even to casual listeners, including the ethereal "Got a Feelin'," the rocking "Straight Shooter" and "Somebody Groovy," the jaunty, torch song-style version of "I Call Your Name," and the prettiest versions of "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Spanish Harlem" that anyone ever recorded.\n\nIf the material here has a certain glow that the Mamas & the Papas' subsequent LPs lacked, that may be due in part to the extensive rehearsal and the exhilaration of their first experience in the studio, but also a result of the fact that it was recorded before the members' personal conflicts began interfering with their ability to work together. The work was all spontaneous and unforced here, as opposed to the emotional complications that had to be overcome before their next sessions. -- Bruce Eder\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (''The Mamas & The Papas'') Sometimes art and events, personal or otherwise, converge on a point transcending the significance of either -- a work achieves a relevance far beyond the seeming boundaries of the creation at hand. During the 1950s and 1960s, in music, it used to happen occasionally for Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan, once or twice for the Byrds, and a few times for the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones. For the Mamas & the Papas, it happened twice, with their first album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, and, on a more complex level, with this album -- which was astonishing, given that they had a major upheaval in their membership in the midst of recording it. The Mamas & the Papas (also sometimes referred to as "Cass- John-Michelle-Denny," which might well have been the official title until that lineup started to shift) was recorded over a period of almost four months, in the wake of the massive success of their first two singles and the debut album, issued in February of 1966. The members were riding a whirlwind in the spring of 1966, which showed -- along with a lot more -- in this album's unintentionally revealing cover photo, depicting all four of them framed in a window, the other three standing while Michelle Phillips reclined in front, bisecting the trio behind her. She looks happy, even pleased with herself, while the others look just a little tired, even fatigued -- a lot like the Beatles did on the cover of Beatles for Sale, the main difference being that the latter album was made two years into their international success, while this album was just a few months into the Mamas & the Papas' history as a recording act. \n\nIf the demands and rewards of success -- the concerts, the money, the drugs, and the need to keep up the quality -- were causing the group to burn the candle at both ends, Michelle Phillips' extra-curricular romantic activities with Denny Doherty burned it right through the middle, and did a lot more than bisect the group -- it disrupted all of the interlocking relationships, including her marriage to John Phillips and any trust that she shared with Cass Elliot (who had long adored Doherty), as well as greatly complicating Doherty's relationships with all of them; and another problem was her relationship with Gene Clark, formerly the best singer and songwriter in the Byrds, with whom she was flirting very publicly and spending lots of time with in private during that season. Phillips was finally dropped from the group in late June and replaced by Jill Gibson, a friend of the band, a girlfriend of producer Lou Adler, and a good singer who did a few shows with them before it was decided that they needed Phillips back -- at one point, a cover photo with Gibson replacing her in the window was prepared, but it was never used, though billboards of that shot were put up to promote the upcoming release. Gibson did end up on parts of the album, but precisely where is one of the great unanswered questions to this day. \n\nAs to the album, it still holds up magnificently as music, and shows how, even juggling live performances, television appearances, a marriage going bad, and Lord knows what drugs in his life, John Phillips could think on his feet and create like few people this side of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Martin, and get the others to work it his way -- "No Salt on Her Tail" started life as a backing track to a Rodgers & Hart song on a television special that Phillips thought was too good not to use on one of his own songs, and he wrote one just for that track that was more than good enough to open the album. Indeed, the song has an almost tragic beauty about it -- one gets a strong sense of sadness behind the words and the music and between the lead vocals and the soaring harmonies, while uncredited guest organist Ray Manzarek of the not yet famous or especially successful Doors plays an Al Kooper-ish, "Like a Rolling Stone"-style keyboard; Hal Blaine's drums and Joe Osborn's bass provide a rock-solid rhythm section; and Eric Hord, Tommy Tedesco, and John Phillips' guitars chime away. All of it sounds a little like the Byrds channeled through God. "Trip, Stumble and Fall" was lyrically more ambitious than anything on the first album, and offered luscious harmonies, while "Dancing Bear" was an art song, opening with a small orchestral accompaniment in the foreground that recedes, switching to an acoustic guitar accompaniment and voices almost totally isolated, a cappella style, building layer upon layer in their accompaniment as though the quartet was suddenly transformed into the Serendipity Singers. "Words of Love" was Cass Elliot's great showcase, giving her the spotlight that she filled magnificently with an elegant, bluesy pop sound -- and then comes Rodgers & Hart's "My Heart Stood Still," which is transformed into a 12-string-driven, horn-ornamented piece of folk-rock, and it leads into the first side's finish, "Dancing in the Street," arguably the best straight blue-eyed soul rendition ever done of a Motown number and also the song that resulted from Michelle Phillips' return to the fold in the summer of 1966. \n\nSide two opened with John Phillips' masterpiece, "I Saw Her Again," the hardest-rocking song of the group's history as well as the place where he crossed swords with the Beatles as a songwriter and producer, and succeeded in matching them. "Strange Young Girls" was a hauntingly beautiful yet ominous take on the youth scene in Los Angeles at the time, and then there was "I Can't Wait," an angry but beautifully harmonized bitter love song, with a bassline that's one of the most memorable instrumental moments in the group's history, all about a busted romance. The latter song, the equally venomous "That Kind of Girl," the bittersweet "Even if I Could," plus the singles "Words of Love" and "I Saw Her Again" all seemed to reveal more about what was happening to the band than any press release could have -- some of what's here is mean-spirited enough that garage punk misogynists the Chocolate Watch Band could have covered it without too much trouble. They combine to make this album one of the nastiest-tempered statements of romance in a mainstream rock album of its era, and a lot edgier than any other long-player the group ever issued. (And for those who want to hear an almost equally good folk-rock album that is a companion piece to this album, check out Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, recorded a little later than this album -- listen to some of the more cynical love songs and one must wonder seriously if Clark wasn't, consciously or not, giving his "take" on the relationship with Phillips.) The Mamas & the Papas does end on a harmonious note, however, with the equally bittersweet "Once Was a Time I Thought," a piece of vocalese that rivals the work of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and anticipates the records of the Manhattan Transfer, and might be the group's single best vocal performance. It's all a good deal messier than the first album, but it holds up just as well and is just as essential listening. -- Bruce Eder\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (''Deliver'') By the time the Mamas and the Papas recorded and released their third album, the group was continuing, in the words of singer Denny Doherty, "on its own momentum." Acrimonious personnel changes, rock stardom, fame, money, and drugs (among other factors) were taking their toll on the group's chemistry. Fortunately, this momentum is precisely the reason that the album succeeds. Buttressed by the singles "Creeque Alley" (the sometimes hilarious story of how the group came together), "Look Through My Window," and the stupendous remake of "Dedicated to the One I Love," the album has some exquisite moments. "Look Through My Window" also is one of the group's most realized recordings, and the cover of "Twist and Shout" is an absolute killer. Much of the record, frankly, doesn't sound too different than the group's first two albums, but with the songwriting, vocal, and production excellence, why tamper with genius? The group felt so too, which is why this album is Michelle Phillips' personal favorite. It's not too hard to see why. -- Matthew Greenwald\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (''The Papas & The Mamas'') An often misunderstood album, this album (aside from the 1971 "reunion" album) was the final record by the Mamas and the Papas. As time goes by, it has held up incredibly well, and sounds better today than when it was released in mid-1968. The centerpiece of the album is "Dream a Little Dream," which very well may be the finest cover version that the group ever recorded, and in the end, was a very nice way to end the group's short but incredible career. The album also contains some excellent John Phillips material such as "12:30" (a minor hit), "Rooms," and "Too Late." These three tracks form a mini-medley in the middle of the second side, and add a lot of dimension to the record. Cut at the Phillips' home studio, the album has a simple sound, but when the vocal majesty cuts through on such tracks as "Mansions" (one of the band's lost masterpieces), it's faultless. -- Matthew Greenwald YEAR: 2001
This rock cd contains 25 tracks and runs 76min 31sec.
Freedb: 7411ed19
Buy: from Amazon.com

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