•
Versione 1
Rating:
This will be a quick review, also because the Mammine ed i Paparini were a band that did everything quickly, rushing through and burning out in just a few years. I will talk to you about them and their first album, which remains practically unique even though it's not the only one.
Inexplicably absent from the Deb, this 1966 album, a year when even I was a little boy, is one of the manifestos of the hippie season and libertarian movements in the United States after Kennedy. Who wouldn't have wanted to live those mythical years of protesting the Vietnam War and racial discrimination, years of sexual liberation, of indiscriminate drug use?
The group formed in September 1965. John Phillips is a young folk musician who believes he is writing for the undying glory of the Californian Summer of Love and for his beautiful and uninhibited wife Michelle Gilliam, who is the true image of the future group. The two complete the band almost by chance with a force of nature, Cass Elliott, a powerful voice in an oversized body, and Denny Doherty, a Canadian with a lovely velvety voice, both of whom came from a folk group called “The Mugwumps”, where Zal Yanovsky also played, who shortly thereafter would form the "Lovin' Spoonful" with John Sebastian.
It's unclear how or why John Phillips wrote two of the most successful hits of the '60s, “California Dreamin’” and “Monday Monday”, truly explosive tracks. And success came remarkably, as our heroes found themselves catapulted onto the world stage.
The album takes off like a spaceship, and even taking into account that Kubrick's “2001” would arrive only two years later, it made an incredible impact. The band's attitudes, very beatnik clothing, declared promiscuity, and various acids and drugs, together with the gossip about beautiful Michelle who was constantly having flings, all helped. In short, it was a bit of promotion and a bit of cultural revolution, but the fact remains that the album was a hit.
“California Dreamin’”, the iconic song, was born from the desire to celebrate the promised land of rock, exalting that generation of young rebels who dreamed of free love and flowers in guns. All very naive, but, you know, youth… and then that flute solo that reminded me of western movies was very picturesque.
In Italy, the young Dik Dik presented it, and it was a huge success for us too, and it's fair to say that “Sognando la California” inaugurated the cunning and successful season of foreign covers translated by, among others, Mogol, but that's another story...
“Monday Monday” as a single shot to the top of the sales charts for several weeks and propelled the album to number one in America, which is no small feat.
Fresh and nice were the other tracks as well, with “Go Where You Wanna Go” standing out and even a Beatles cover (“I Call Your Name”). Well packaged, the album represents that moment of lightness and frenzy that generation was experiencing, a moment that would last at least until Woodstock.
This is where the beautiful story ends and the troubled end begins.
Through highs and lows, they carry on for another couple of years, amid marital disputes with the expulsion of beautiful Michelle and the arrival of a substitute, then Michelle's return and increasingly useless records, Mama Cass's insuppressible desire to pursue a solo career, and finally the breakup. There was a reunion attempt in '71 but to no avail.
Mama Cass, who had always suffered from health problems, died of a heart attack in '74 at age 32 in London. Meanwhile, John Phillips had been one of the organizers of the Monterey Festival and in '67 wrote 'San Francisco', made successful by Scott McKenzie. Later he became a film producer.
After the inevitable divorce, the beautiful Michelle, the only survivor of the story, dedicated herself to cinema and TV and carved out a not-to-be-despised acting career. The third wheel Denny Doherty (he was the first tempter of Michelle) turned to alcohol and then produced a musical on Broadway about the group's story. For the gossip, another tempter was Gene Clark of the Byrds.
Of course, things were a bit more complex than this, and perhaps I dedicated more space to the characters than their music, but the songs and their authors were connected in a totalizing way. Certainly, I did not pretend to delve into such an important period. However, the story was interesting. And then you can always dig deeper!
Sanluri a tottus!
P.S. I discover with guilty delay that there were already two reviews, albeit very dated, of the album. But since seu malu, I post it and present it... for viewing!
Loading comments slowly
