The Smiley Smile Message Board

Any Mamas & The Papas fan here?

I was looking for songs written by John Phillips but never recorded by M&P:

Scott Mckenzie "San Francisco", "Like An Old Time Movie", "Holy Man"

"Me & My uncle" by Gratefuld Dead, etc..

Beach Boys "Somewhere Near Japan", "Kokomo"

do you know anyone more?

Kokomo

They mentioned kokomo in their first post.

Well he has his solo album "Wolf King From Los Angeles" and he also wrote and produced a lot of stuff for Michelle Phillips' very underrated solo album "Victim Of Romance".  A lot of the John Phillips' tracks got elbowed when Michelle went with Nitzche.  The fact that all of the session tapes for the M&P are no longer in existence is just an immeasurable tragedy.  There should be "Unsurpassed Masters" type sets for them floating out there right now too but sadly that is never to be either officially or otherwise.

Are the tapes definitely destroyed? or maybe sitting in someone's house? ( I know next to nothing here)


as to Phillips songs; he wrote for the Journeymen before the M&P; he evidently did a lot after M&P also, see here: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Phillips_(musician)

His wife Genevieve Waite's album Romance Is On The Rise comes to mind. It has several songs he wrote that were part of an aborted musical intended for Broadway.

Wiki confirms what both people on this forum and Hoffman have been mentioning for years:

"Around 1973, ABC-Dunhill discarded all multi-track session recordings and mono masters because they were deemed obsolete and too expensive to store; Jay Lasker, co-founder of Dunhill and by then president of ABC, is "usually the one blamed" for the decision.  The original recordings of the Mamas and the Papas, and of labelmates such as Three Dog Night, are therefore lost, and it has been necessary to create digital versions from the stereo album masters, often second- or third-generation tapes. This is why the sound quality of Mamas and Papas' reissues does not match the best from the 1960s."

Also lending credence to this report is the fact that the "Mamas & Papas - Complete Anthology" box set that came out around a decade ago didn't have any studio outtakes to offer fans as the only rarities that could be offered were solo tracks and a few live and television performances.  There are a handful of tantalizing snippets on the box set from "A Gathering Of Flowers" LP which was compiled prior to the discarding/destroying of the multi-track tapes.  The session for "Once Was A Time I Thought" is very comparable to a lot of the enjoyable Beach Boys session work that is out there.  But unless there are tapes or perhaps acetates hiding in someone's private collection, those snippets are probably all that remains of the M&P multi-tracks.

Since you did bring up The Journeymen, we did get three "Peter, Paul & Mary" type demos from "The New Journeymen" (John, Michelle, Denny and Marshall Brickman) on the collection "The Magic Circle" that was released a few years back.  Strangely these tracks weren't included on the "Complete Anthology" which is a pity because "The Last Thing On My Mind" and "Mr. Tambourine Man" are jaw dropping amazing.

There is a clip of the M&P performing a cover of "Nowhere Man" on TV, but I suppose the original recording has been lost.

I once listened to his John, The Wolf King Of L.A. (1970) - thought it was okay but didn't stick with me.

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/25054353/John+The+Wolf+King+Of+LA+o673119.jpg)



I'm a huge fan of the special M&P blend & tunes, though.

I love it, it's one of my fav albums, every song is terrific but "Topanga Canyon" is an absolutely masterpiece and one of the best songs John have written.

that album cover looks almost identical to Desire

It really does! (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0e/Bob_Dylan_-_Desire.jpg/220px-Bob_Dylan_-_Desire.jpg)

I'm not sure I've understood the question properly but I've just checked on Amazon (UK) and right now it's possible to purchase ALL of the following albums bursting with JP songs:

Pay Pack & Follow
Phillips 66
Pussycat
Jack of Diamonds
Andy Warhol Presents Man on the Moon

For sure there is some duplication on the track-listings of these albums but any serious JP fan will surely need to add all of these to his/her collection.

I was looking for songs written by John Phillips in mid sixties but that mamas and papas never had recorded but another bands yes.
Thanks anyway :)