John Phillips (musician) well as a compilation known as "Best of the Journeymen", have since been reissued on CD. He developed his craft in Greenwich Village, during the American folk music revival, and met future " The Mamas & the Papas" group vocalists Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot there around that time. Lyrics of the group's song "Creeque Alley" describe this period. Phillips was the primary songwriter and musical arranger of The Mamas & the Papas. In a 1968 interview, Phillips described some of his arrangements as "well arranged two-part harmony moving in opposite directions". After being signed to Dunhill, they had several
The Mamas & the Papas the record in the fall of 1966, playing a series of precarious and reportedly bizarre shows. At a September 1966 concert at Fordham University in New York City, the band was noted by Gus Duffy and Jim Mason of their co-headlining band, Webster's New Word, as being clearly "high, drunk, or tripping. When they got on stage, it was clear that these people shouldn't be on stage ... They tumbled onto the stage, shambled around, and just got nowhere. After completing their brief East coast tour, the group started work immediately on its third album, "The Mamas & The Papas