YouTube Gold: Go Where You Wanna Go

The Mamas and The Papas had a bizarre and unhappy history. Their heyday coincided with the height of the hippy and psychedelic era. Bandleader John Phillips managed to bring folk music and beat music together in a sound that was really well suited to the era.

The music was sort of packaged as a healthy dose of counterculture with shimmering vocals and pretty guitars. Songs like California Dreamin’ and Monday, Monday are still culturally relevant.

There was immense talent but the band had a lot of issues. Cass Elliot was the last to join and Phillips didn’t like that she was significantly obese. Elliot in turn had a major crush on bandmate Denny Doherty, who in turn had an affair with the fourth member of the band, Phillip’s wife Michelle which devastated both Elliot and John Phillips.

There was enough tension in the band to blow out a wind turbine and needless to say, it didn’t last too long.

Elliott died quite young, just 32, of a heart attack. Doherty died in 2007. Phillips died in 2001 and after his death, his daughter made unspeakable allegations about his behavior of which the less said the better. For the record, other members of the family dispute her allegations.

Only Michelle Phillips remains and she appears in the second half of this video. Bob Dylan’s son, Jakob, arranged a brilliant cover of Go Where You Wanna Go, an early hit by the Mamas and The Papas, which features an amazing vocal performance by Jade Castrinos. The studio version is here and her voice, in a word, is remarkable.

It’s amazing that a band with such a sad history of drug abuse and the worst sorts of personal betrayals could leave behind music that endures.