The Mamas & The Papas — People Like Us

If this retrospective walk through my record collection has taught me anything recently, it’s that I really don’t care that much about The Mamas & The Papas, and yet I hold onto the records I have. This one is particularly baffling. Best known as a contractual obligation, this was released in 1971, three years after the group split up, well after anyone cared about anything but the hits, and there isn’t a joyous moment on it. Michelle Phillips later wrote that the album “sounded like what it was, four people trying to avoid a lawsuit.”

Yep. I picked it up, probably around 1980, not knowing that. We didn’t have Wikipedia or Discogs or anything to provide us with information on old record releases. All we had was Alan, the guy who owned DesertShore, who maybe charged me $2 for this, though there’s a chance he cut that price as he often did. I hope so, because I haven’t gotten $2 worth of entertainment out of this, even in today’s dollars. Again questioning why I have held onto any of these, because honestly, I’m just not gonna listen to The Mamas & The Papas very often, or at all. But they were such a cultural phenomenon in their day that it feels like any self-respecting collector of ’60s music would have some of their records, and that’s how I ended up with them in the first place. But none of it is really necessary except the greatest hits collection. They were a singles group, and that’s enough.