The Music, The Madness, The Magic That Was
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'
The True Story of The Mamas and the Papas
"California Dreamin'" ... "Monday, Monday" ... "Creeque Alley" ... "Go Where You Wanna Go" .. the music of The Mamas and the Papas captured the heady, freewheeling, free-loving spirit of the 1960s. Now for the first time, Michelle Phillips, a founding member of The Mamas and the Papas, gives an intimate, in-depth portrait of the superstar group that personified and led America's Love Generation.
It's all here: the years of poverty, struggle, and obscurity ... the fateful first meeting with record producer Lou Adler ... the incredible burst of work and creativity that led to their first smash album ... the band's meteoric rise to stardom ("Monday, Monday" sold 160,000 copies the first day it was released) ... the wildly decadent life-style that embraced LSD and free love ... the burnout, the arguments, and the final bitterness and breakup of the band.
In California Dreamin', Michelle Phillips reveals her own gripping story, from her tumultuous marriage at seventeen to the band's leader John Phillips, to her constant infatuations with other men and his growing drug problem. You'll enter the world of history-making recording sessions, and encounters with Bob Dylan; Jimi Hendrix; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul, and Mary; John Sebastian; Jim McGuinn; and others. You'll follow the group of grueling cross-country tours and to reckless West Coast parties where the drugs flowed and fans flocked. You'll meet John and Denny, the "papas" of the band -- and learn how Michelle loved them both. You'll discover the true story of hippie queen Mama Cass Elliot, her strength of character, her fierce loves and intense dislikes, her long friendship with Michelle that would survive jealousy, rivalry, and bitter feuds.
Most of all, California Dreamin' describes what it was really like to live at the center of the rock music scene in the 1960s: the community of musicians and their fans, the haze of love and drugs, the phenomenal successes and the shattering defeats -- all from the point of view of an insider who lived, loved, struggled, and found her way through it.
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About the Author
Termed "the purest soprano in popdom" by Time magazine, Michelle Phillips is today an acclaimed actress as well as a musical legend. She starred opposite Audrey Hepburn and Omar Sharif in the film of Sidney Sheldon's bestseller Bloodline, opposite Rudolf Nureyev in Valentino, and with other major stars in numerous motion pictures, TV mini-series, and made-for-television movies. Her latest starring role is one opposite Olympic gold medalist Mitch Gaylord in the motion picture American Anthem (Lorimar/Columbia) for Albert Magnoli, director of Purple Rain.
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