I was living in Michigan in the late 90’s when John Phillips came through town.
He had re-formed The Mamas and The Papas with a new lineup. It included his druggie daughter from One Day At A Time, Spanky McFarland from Spanky and Our Gang, and Scott McKenzie.
He gave a long interview to our local paper in which he detailed his ex-wife Michelle’s promiscuity in great detail. Basically she’d jump in bed with any guy who had a pulse. And when she did it inspired him to write songs. Sometimes he’d sit at the piano and write as he could hear her in the next room doing the nasty with her latest paramour.
One of her favorite lovers was Denny Doherty, the other male vocalist in the original lineup. I read this article and I have never been able to listen to their music in quite the same way ever since.
I hear “words of love, so soft and tender won’t win a girl’s heart anymore” and think “what on earth was going on when THOSE words were being written!”
At the time it was popular, I thought it was related to the feminist movement.
The album, Rumours, was about similar turmoil with-in the Fleetwood Mac group.
Christiy McVie and Mick Fleetwood's wife (sister of George Harrison's wife) left them because of their dallying with Stevie Nicks...and, all this was breaking Lindsey Buchannan's heart as he and Stevie were a couple even before Fleetwood Mac. Stevie bedded every male in the group.
This remains one of my all time favorite albums:
