The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (232 page)

The Mamas & The Papas

(The Journeymen)

The principal songwriter for The Mamas & The Papas, John Phillips was the man behind such classic pop moments as ‘California Dreamin’’ and the US number one ‘Monday Monday’ (both 1966). A former member of The Journeymen, Phillips married singer (Holly) Michelle Gilliam, the pair joined by Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot as they moved from New York’s Greenwich Village to join the beautiful people in Los Angeles. After a chart-busting two years, internal problems caused the group to split: a later reunion was hampered by Elliot’s refusal to become involved and, of course, her subsequent death
(
July 1974).
A perhaps ill-advised ‘mark II’ of the group then emerged in 1992, Phillips being joined by his actress daughter Mackenzie (another daughter, Chynna, found fame with Wilson Phillips around the same time).

Phillips - who also penned Scott Mackenzie’s flower-power anthem ‘San Francisco’ and organized the 1967 Monterey Festival that propelled Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to stardom -died from heart failure on 18 March 2001.

See also
Tim Rose (
September 2002); Denny Doherty (
Golden Oldies #42’).

The Mamas & The Papas: John Phillips shares his last life-saver with Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty and Michelle Gillian

APRIL

Tuesday 3

Paul Peek

(High Point, North Carolina, 23 June 1937)

Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps

The Peekaboos

The Blue Caps were a bunch you really wouldn’t want to take home to Momma, and Paul Peek, the gum-chewing, red-haired replacement for guitarist ‘Wee’ Willie Williams, looked every bit the part in Gene Vincent’s gang. It was a far cry from his musical family’s other affairs: his parents were both country musicians, while The Peek Sisters (his three older siblings) were a vocal troupe far too nice to be mixing with the likes of Vincent and co. Although he was not to last long in the singer’s ever-changing line-up, Peek wrote a few songs before becoming one of The Blue Caps’ posing ‘Clapper Boys’ with Tommy Facenda. After two years of relentless touring, Peek, a lover of the steel-pedal guitar, pursued a solo career, but met with less recording success on his own. His band – The Peekaboos – were a popular draw locally, however, and there was even time to reconvene with surviving members of The Blue Caps in the early nineties, before Peek passed away from cirrhosis of the liver.

See also
Gene Vincent (
October 1971); Cliff Gallup (
October 1988); Max Lipscomb (
March 1991); Willie Williams (
August 1999). Other Blue Caps Grady Owen (1999), Jerry Lee Merritt (2001), Juvenal Gomez (2002) and Jumpin’ Jack Neal(2012) have also died.

Friday 6

Charles Pettigrew

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 May 1963)

Charles & Eddie

(Down Avenue)