#perleoscure John Phillips - Drum (Music Video) “Polemos is the father of all things” (Heraclitus)
Isn't evil the true driving force of the Universe? A pacified World would be a dead World.
But instead of boring you with banal philosophical musings, here’s a little story I’ve kept aside for a rainy day…. (when I found the time and the push to tell it properly).
He is Papa John Philips, and if his name doesn’t mean much to you, think of “California Dreamin’”.
Exactly, the Mamas & Papas….
The California dream, the flower children, universal love…. and a crystalline, sunny pop. Too bad the group breaks up over a story of infidelity!
Okay, John is the main mind and goes on alone, putting out an album that is a masterpiece: “John, The Wolf King Of L.A.”. Then he releases a couple more that are also good, but this! This is a Perfect Pop Album! Beautiful.
Our Papa John is generous too, gifting his friend Scott Mackenzie that “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” which will be his biggest hit (and one of the best-selling records of all time).
So what? What is the dark side hidden behind all this?
It’s a love story (yes, love), a sick, deformed, unacceptable love, because it’s directed toward his underage daughter, Mackenzie (a name that recurs). He introduces her to drugs and enslaves her (but her sister, on the other hand, says she was consenting) for a full ten years.
Then Mackenzie gets pregnant….
Now I will have to tell this story better than this because it deserves it, because it’s more complicated than it seems (it’s incredible, it’s absurd, but it’s a love story), because it raises some questions.
For now, let’s just listen to that crystalline, sunny, clear pop album. Perfect!
And remain astonished knowing what dark abyss surrounded it.
