Richard Skipper Celebrates All The Leaves are Brown with Scott G. Shea
b'Few songs have captured the contradictions and ambiguities of the 1960s as memorably as \\u201cCalifornia Dreamin\\u2019,\\u201d the iconic folk music single that catapulted the Mamas & the Papas into rock and roll history. In All the Leaves Are Brown, author Scott Shea details how John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips, and \\u201cMama Cass\\u201d Elliot became standard-bearers for California counterculture, following their transformation from folk music wannabes to rock sensations and chronicling the tumultuous events that followed their unexpected success. Shea gives a definitive account of the group\\u2019s short time together, from their hitmaking approach with legendary producer Lou Adler to John\\u2019s unique songwriting to tours and friendships with other musicians riding the folk-rock wave. He explores the emotional vicissitudes that came with being in the Mamas & the Papas, from Cass\\u2019s unrequited love for Denny, his affair with Michelle, and the ebb and flow of dysfunction in John and Michelle\\u2019s marriage. And he explains how it all came to a crashing end with John\\u2019s brainchild, the Monterey Pop Festival, which should have launched the group even further into the musical stratosphere, but only served to be their undoing. Drawing on new interviews with former bandmates, session musicians, family members, and many others, All the Leaves Are Brown is a layered, revelatory tale of overnight stardom and its many pitfalls.'