All the Leaves Are Brown: How the Mamas & the Papas Came Together and Broke Apart Hardcover – 1 Aug. 2023

Delved into everything. Excellent read. Big section on how John Phillip's organized the Monterey Pop Festival. Author did his homework.

Fine

Pretty terrific group biography. Fascinating story of success gone wrong even before it has been achieved. Talent versus ego versus hormones, sentiment and sex drive. This band was doomed to break-up from its very beginnings. Scott Shea tells the story well -- multiple stories, really. You get the individual stories (John, Michelle, Denny and Cass), along with the various pairings, couplings, and musical heroes and villains. Telling the tale in real time makes for an easy, engrossing read, while giving you a bird's eye behind-the-scenes view of the group's high, low, and in-between times together (and apart). Sometimes it comes across as too much info, but it's all relevant to the wider-view picture. I found myself pulling out the CD reissues of their classic albums, playing them in the background as I read. The thought occurred to me more than once, how did voices this perfectly harmonious on record fail so miserably to get along as friends and lovers in their real lives? Point is, you can't take away the music or the fact that these troubled souls made it all happen together. Four stars (no discography!) and highly recommended to fans of the Mamas & the Papas and the pop scene of their '60s heyday. One warning: Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for a bumpy ride ...

I usually avoid books about musicians or actors as they tend to strongly be either accusatory or apologetic. Scott Shea gives us a very balanced and objective view of the Mamas and the Papas rise and fall, without judgement. This is a rarity today. I also appreciated his straight line, chronological style. It was refreshing in this age of flash backs and time skips. He tells the story with authority, simply and accurately, with excellent references and sources. What I thought would be a curious read turned into a book that was hard to put down.

It’s an okay book, some inconsistencies and no direct quotes or documentation of who said what in interviews. The biggest problem is no one bothered to proofread and there are so many mistakes it’s embarrassing for the author. To charge so much for a kindle book and be so sloppy is upsetting. It almost seemed intentional there were so many sloppy mistakes