John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas and remains frequently referred to as Papa John Phillips.
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| L-R clockwise top Mike Boran, John Phillips, Scott Mackenzie, Bill Cleary |
The son of a marine officer, Phillips was born in South Carolina. He studied at George Washington University, and briefly attended the US Naval Academy before migrating to New York in 1957 to join the Greenwich Village folk scene. There, he formed several groups, including the Abstracts, the Smoothies and the New Journeymen, whose members included guitarist and singer Denny Doherty and Michelle Gilliam, who became his second wife in 1962. The quartet that was to become the Mamas and Papas was completed by the arrival of Cass Elliot, who had formerly sung with Doherty in the Mugwumps.
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| The New Journeymen |
The quartet moved to Los Angeles, where they linked up with record producer Lou Adler. He later said of their audition: "They had just come down from about 80 acid trips; they were funky, dirty and grizzly, and yet they sang like angels." Elliot found them a name after hearing a Hell's Angel say, "We call our women mamas," on a television show.
Their first single was California Dreamin', released on Adler's Dunhill label in 1966. Doherty was the lead singer, Glen Campbell played guitar, and the flute solo was by jazz musician Bud Shank. Like another of John Phillips's 1966 compositions, San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair), it portrayed California as a new utopia, and was the first of a series of his powerful ballads. These included the playful Creeque Alley, which told the history of the group, the ecstatic love song, I Saw Her Again Last Night, and the sombre Look Through My Window.
The Mamas and Papas also recorded some deftly-chosen songs from the 50s, notably Dedicated To The One I Love, originally by the Shirelles. Phillips's four-part vocal arrangements were influenced by the jazz singing of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and by such 1950s pop groups as the Four Freshmen. With Lou Adler, Phillips organised the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which introduced Jimi Hendrix and The Who to American audiences.
But the Phillips' marriage had been damaged by Michelle's affair with Doherty, for whom Elliot had an unrequited passion. Michelle was temporarily ejected from the group, and the end came when Elliott left to follow a successful solo career as Mama Cass. She died suddenly in 1974.
In 1970, Phillips made his own solo album, The Wolf-king Of LA, which reflected the growing popularity in Los Angeles of the country-rock sound associated with his friend Gram Parsons. Its lyrics mostly concerned the lifestyle of the new Los Angeles movie and music aristocracy, of which Phillips was a leading member.
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| Phillips with Brian Jones |
By this time, however, he was in the grip of the drug addiction graphically described in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. He had little incentive to work in the 1970s, as he was reportedly receiving $100,000 a year in composer royalties. The sum total of his musical activity in that decade was the soundtrack music for Nicolas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), and the production of an album by his third wife, Genevieve Waite. He also recorded some solo tracks, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as producers, under the title Pay, Pack And Follow.
The catalyst for Phillips to return to the stage was a conviction for drug offences that forced him to undergo rehabilitation in 1981. As part of his sentence, he gave lectures on drug abuse, assisted by his daughter, McKenzie. The following year, he was fit enough to form a new Mamas and Papas group, with Doherty, McKenzie and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (formerly of the Los Angeles group Sparky and Our Gang).
Phillips died on March 18, 2001, in a Los Angeles hospital of heart failure, following several years of failing health after a liver transplant and two hip replacements. Prior to entering the hospital, he had completed work on a solo album tentatively titled "Slow Starter." He was married four times and had five children and two stepchildren. They include McKenzie, a singer and television actress, Chynna, a member of the Wilson Phillips vocal group, and Bijou, a singer and model.
(Edited from a Dave Laing article @The Guardian & Wikipedia)