The Other Mama

Sleeve job by IoF©

Michelle Phillips was the igloo snow queen to Cass Elliot's tiki cabin log fire. Her solo album came dressed in a sleeve [below left - Ed.] that she must have thought showed her sexy, sophisticated side, but the dull one-piece came over as sensible, even prudish. Carly Simon had set this particular benchmark a couple of years earlier with Playing Possum. The album was also called Victim Of Romance, and she never struck me as a victim of anything - certainly not romance. It was always Cass losing and breaking her big old heart. Michelle could look after herself.

She sang as good as she looked, and it's something of a mystery why her solo career didn't take off with this album, which is as unfailingly lovely as you'd want it to be. It got universally rave reviews, too. I put it down to the cheesy cover. But she had her acting career, and shrugged it off.

The deliverable is the usual IoF© cornycopium of bountiful largesse, including the album, plus the extra tracks on the limited re-release (a complete album in their own right), plus the rare missing tracks supplied by a Four Or Five Guy©. Yes, the sleeve uses a Mamas & Papas-era picture, but it expresses the essence of her appeal in a timeless way. Doncha think?

 

This post funded in part by The Gabriel Snubbers Timing Ass., Pismo Beach.