The Mugwumps

The Mugwumps

2007: Warner Bros/Collectors’ Choice Music CCM-795

1. Searchin’
2. I Don’t Wanna Know
3. I’ll Remember Tonight
4. Here It Is Another Day
5. Do You Know What I Mean
6. You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover
7. Everybody’s Been Talkin’
8. Do What They Don’t Say
9. So Fine

Two of the first three of these tracks appeared on the very handy compilation Creeque Alley: The History of The Mamas and the Papas; “Searchin’” turned up on Magic Circle: Before they Were the Mamas and the Papas. The former didn’t captivate me, although Cass Elliot was as magnificently voiced as always, but “Searchin’” sported a four-part choral array that was seriously tantalizing to me, so I kept an eye out for this album’s CD release.

It’s not a great album but there are some great talents at work: not just the singers but also the arrangers in some cases. “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” and “Searchin’” are great examples of the thrilling vocal arrangements the Folk/Rock transition days gave us, while “Do What They Don’t Say” is the weirdest loose wheel of that milieu I’ve ever encountered, with its downright slippery chords refusing to be saddled or to go where you expect them to.

In any case, there’s Cass Elliot. A voice that makes me say Wow every time I hear it.

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Comments © 2008 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.