California Dreaming - DVD

Here is an example of the virtues of reading the fine print. It is only on the back cover of this album that one can glimpse the subtitle, 'Live in Concert,' revealing that this is not a collection of the Mamas & the Papas' original studio recordings. Still, one might assume, mistakenly, that the original members of the group were involved. In order to be disabused of this notion, one would have to buy the album and read the brief, error-filled liner notes inside, which reveal that the concert in question occurred on July 3, 1995, and features founder and original member John Phillips, his longtime friend Scott McKenzie, and female singers Lisa Brescia and Deb Lyons. They perform many of the familiar 1960s songs of the Mamas & the Papas in the familiar arrangements. They are good-enough singers, too, they just aren't Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, or Michelle Phillips. McKenzie, a member of John Phillips' pre-Mamas & Papas group the Journeymen, sings his Phillips-penned hit 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),' and Phillips fans may enjoy two new numbers, the pretty ballad 'Love Song' (co-written with daughter MacKenzie Phillips) and 'The Year 2000,' an optimistic anticipation of the millennial celebration. But for the uninitiated who purchase this album expecting it to feature all four original members of the Mamas & the Papas, the album will seem a rip-off.