CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend.
ART NOTES — works by the early 20th century painter Elliott Daingerfield in an exhibition entitled Seeking the Spiritual are at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee through February 21st.
“The Sleepers”
HAIL and FAREWELL to two veteran journalists … to Barry Schweid — the AP correspondent who signed-off numerous radio news hourly updates with “Barry Schweid … at the State Department” — who has died at the age of 83 … and to Bob Clark — a former correspondent for ABC News who covered the assassinations of both JFK and Robert Kennedy, and later served as a guest host and commentator on C-SPAN — who has died at the age of 93.
WHILE ITS national and regional domestic violence phone hotlines meet the standards set by the Council of Europe, Italy’s women’s shelters do not — no country in the European Union has fewer available in a crisis.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Vincent the Cat — a Nevada kitteh fitted with titanium back legs by the veterinary medicine department at Iowa State University.
Vincent the Cat
AUTOMOBILE SAFETY has never been a high priority in Latin America — but regulators are finally making headway in overcoming automakers’ objections and trying to reduce the high death rate on its roads.
MEDICAL NOTES — Mexico has has approved the use of the world's first vaccine against dengue fever — which infects about 100 million people every year.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Trixie the Cat - the kitteh at the public library in Independence, Kansas.
Trixie the library cat
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
BOOK NOTES — while it will soon no longer feature nude photos, a new book argues that Playboy magazine did more than any other organization to promote jazz music — both in print (including its reader’s polls), in its nightclubs and also sponsorship of jazz festivals.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverly McLachlin … as well as Barbara Boxer, the (soon to be retiring) senator from California.
Beverly McLachlin
Barbara Boxer
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… retrospective looks back at the Mamas and the Papas focus primarily on Cass Elliot (perhaps their strongest voice, and who had the best solo career of them all, before her premature death), John Phillips (its gifted principal songwriter and whose life had dark spots even before revelations following his death) and Michelle Phillips (who had a successful acting career afterwards and is today the lone surviving band member).
Often overlooked (outside his native Canada) was Denny Doherty — whose tenor voice was an important part, and whose career outside the band is worthy of a mention.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1940, he began his musical journey in a rock band (called The Hepsters) then switched to folk music at its heyday at the dawn of the 1960’s (in a band named The Colonials). After gaining some audiences in Canada, they changed their name to the Halifax Three before promptly relocating to the USA in 1962. They had a recording contract with Epic, during the folk-revival boom, yet garnered comparatively lackluster sales, although a 2002 compilation album release did win them some critical praise (albeit posthumously).
Here is where many paths cross: they toured with a sometimes sideman, Zal Yanovsky on guitar (although he did not perform on any of their recordings). One of the folk bands they toured together with were called The Journeymen — which included John Phillips (soon to marry his girlfriend Michelle Gilliam) and Scott McKenzie (who would later remind people to ‘wear some flowers in their hair’). After the Halifax Three split in 1964, Doherty and Yanovsky were looking for a new band to join, when they met two members of a band that had also recently split. The Big 3 featured Tim Rose (who popularized the song “Hey Joe” before Jimi Hendrix made it famous) and also a young Cass Elliott.
In 1964, Doherty and Yanovsky joined Cass Elliott, her Big 3 bandmate Jim Hendricks and for a time, guitarist John Sebastian in The Mugwumps — and although they did not last long (and critics were unimpressed), the fate of its members ensured its legacy after the band split-up late in 1964.
It was then that John Phillips contacted his old touring friend Doherty about joining his new band that came from the remnants of The Journeymen — The New Journeymen (with his wife Michelle as a singer). Yanovsky and Sebastian went on to form the Lovin’ Spoonful while Cass was on the sidelines for a bit. Eventually, she joined the New Journeymen who became the Mamas & The Papas in 1965. Their history is well-known, and is a subject matter all unto itself.
After that band split in 1971, Doherty became a solo performer, with a critically praised album Whatcha Gonna Do in 1971, and a more melancholy recording Waiting for a Song in 1974 that did not sell well (despite guest performances from Michelle and Cass, a few weeks before her death). He appeared in 1975 in a Broadway show produced by by Andy Warhol and John Phillips, then moved back to his native Canada in 1978, more than fifteen years after he had left.
And with the exception of a stretch during the 80’s touring with a New Mamas & the Papas — with singer Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (lead singer of the band Spanky and Our Gang) taking Cass Elliot’s place — Denny never had a major recording career afterwards. Instead, he appeared on numerous Canadian television programs (including being the host of a musical variety show) and was the harbormaster in the popular childrens’ show Theodore Tugboat - very apropos, as it was set in his native city of Halifax.
In 1999, he produced what was — at the time — a one-man-show entitled Dream a Little Dream that recounted the life-and-times of Denny Doherty. Later, it morphed into a musical revue, with other actors portraying the other members of the Mamas & The Papas (plus other associated musicians) and eventually made its way to off-Broadway in 2003 ... which brought Dougherty’s career full-circle.
Denny Doherty died in January, 2007 at the age of sixty-six — as noted earlier, Michelle Phillips is the sole surviving member of the Mamas & the Papas.
In the 1960’s ……………
……… and last decade.
While “California Dreaming” is the Mamas & the Papas most enduring hit, and “Monday Monday” was their only #1 hit single ….. by far, my favorite song of theirs was one from 1966 that Denny received a co-writer credit for, I Saw Her Again (Last Night) - a song that John Phillips wrote about the affair that Denny and his wife had (with Denny contributing part of the lyrics). But for all of the lush arrangements and elaborate vocal harmonies on it: it was the driving rhythms underneath that made me want to pick-up my bass as a teenager and play it as soon as I heard it.
This was also a long-standing mystery in popular music: as in the final chorus, it appears that Denny comes-in too early (which was the subject of many a debate, as to whether it was intentional). Years later, it turns out that the mistake was caused by recording engineer Dayton “Bones” Howe — who “punched-in” early, leading Denny to jump-the-gun. Howe thought he had removed that, but upon playback it was still there — and yet producer Lou Adler was delighted with the mistake, and told Howe to leave-it-in, as Howe explains on this short video.
Either way, it provided an interesting twist to the song — Paul McCartney (upon hearing it) was alleged to have said, “That has to be a mistake — no one is that clever”.
I'm in way over my head
Now she thinks that I love her
Because that's what I said
Though I never think of her
Every time I see that girl
You know I want to lay down and die
But I really need that girl
Don't know why I'm living a lie?
It makes me want to cry
I saw her again last night And you know that I shouldn't To string her along's just not right If I couldn't I wouldn't
But what can I do, I'm lonely too And it makes me feel so good to know You'll never leave me
