The band performed indifferently at the first Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. They were badly under-rehearsed, partly because John, Michelle and Lou Adler were preoccupied with organizing the festival, partly because Denny arrived at the last minute from another trip to the Virgin Islands, and partly because he was drinking heavily in the aftermath of his affair with Michelle. They rallied for their performance before 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl in August, with Jimi Hendrix as the opener, in a performance that both John and Michelle would remember as the apex of their career.
The Mamas and the Papas had cut their first three albums in Hollywood at a professional studio, which imposed a certain discipline. Now they would record at a studio that John and Michelle built at their home in Bel Air. John: “I got the idea to transform the attic into my own recording studio, so I could stay high all the time and never have to worry about studio time. I began assembling state-of-the-art equipment and ran the cost up to about a hundred grand.”
While this gave him the autonomy he craved, it also removed the discipline that was beneficial to a man who described himself as an obsessive perfectionist. Denny, Cass and Lou Adler all found the arrangement uncongenial. Cass: “We spent one whole month on one song. Just the vocals for ‘The Love of Ivy’ took one whole month. I did my own album in three weeks, a total of ten days in the studio. Live with the band, not prerecorded tracks sitting there with earphones.” The recording sessions for the fourth album stalled completely, and in September 1967 John called a press conference to announce that the band was taking a break.
The plan was to give concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Olympia in Paris before taking time out on Majorca to “get the muse going again”, as John put it. But when they docked at Southampton on October 5, Cass was arrested on a charge of having stolen two blankets and a hotel key when in England the previous February. She was transferred to London, strip-searched, and spent a night in custody before the case was dismissed the next day. The hotel was actually less interested in the blankets than in an unpaid bill. It turned out that Cass had entrusted the money to a friend who neglected to settle the account. The police were less interested in the blankets or the bill than the friend who was suspected of international drug trafficking and was the sole subject of their questioning.
Later, at a party hosted by the band to celebrate Cass’ acquittal, John interrupted Cass as she was telling Mick Jagger about her ordeal. Cass went on a rant at John before storming out of the room. She was ready to quit, the London and Paris dates were cancelled, and the four went their separate ways. Cass unilaterally announced that the band was finished.
They got back together just enough to finish their latest album, whose work was uneven and produced few hits.
This is an example of writing two songs as counter-melodies to each other. It didn’t do well as a single, but it’s still haunting and powerful nonetheless.