One heart gone and one alone
Is that how life must go
the more I see, the less I know
So bring tomorrow around
until it comes I don’t wanna be found
Let me stay right here with nothing to say… No love today
– Songwriter: Roger Nichols
– Singer: Michelle Phillips
MY COLUMN Friday last week started with this: “It was one of those rainy afternoons, sitting by the window waiting for my muse. It was not a writer’s block. There was really nothing worthwhile to write about, so much so that you’d rather have a chilled glass of Chablis and listen to Michelle Phillip’s album Victim of Romance and Rarities”.
Well, I did have that glass of chilled Chablis – make it a bottle – while listening to Michelle Phillip’s album Victim of Romance and Rarities. One song did stand out and evoked memories from this sentimental old fool.
Victim of Romance & Rarities’is singer and songwriter Michelle Phillips’ first and only solo album, and was released in February 1977. The song No Love Today from that album sparked a subtle comeback of her as a singer after a long hiatus following the breakup of her former group, Mamas and the Papas sometime in 1971.
For the uninitiated from that online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
Michelle Phillips is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and former model. She rose to fame as a vocalist in the musical quartet the Mamas & the Papas in the mid-1960s. Phillips garnered critical acclaim for her voice, which was deemed by Time magazine as the “purest soprano in pop music”. She later established a successful career as an actress in film and television in the 1970s. Phillips is the last surviving original member of the Mamas & the Papas.
Phillips has been noted for her soprano vocals. A 1977 Billboard review described Phillips’ vocals as “both spirited and smooth.” Despite having received critical acclaim for her singing, Phillips has admitted to being self-conscious of her voice, and stated that Cass Elliot encouraged her during their tenure in the Mamas & the Papas.
In 2008, Phillips advocated legalization of marijuana, crediting it with helping her quit smoking cigarettes: “When I really, really, really wanted a cigarette, I would take a puff of pot, and the cravings would go away,” she said.
And for those living under a rock that might be lost in translation:
The Mamas & the Papas were an American folk rock vocal group which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s.
The group was composed of John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, and Michelle Phillips.
Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the songwriter, musician, and leader of the group who adapted folk to the new beat style of the early 1960s.
Yes, we’re talking about music from the 1960s/1970s, the “Summer of Love”. It was the time of “Make Love not War”, the “Flower Power” generation – a time when music was real and people were real. Music was performed by real living artists, not someone manipulating a laptop.
And we segue back to the song No Love Today…on a personal note, it evokes a certain sadness, a feeling of longing for a moment, perhaps for someone, maybe a moment with that someone lost in the bin of memories that’s not going to happen again.
I remember sometime in the early 1980s, it was late at night. I was reeling from an emotionally draining failed marriage. I was walking the empty streets of Calle Real trying to get myself together when I caught what seemed to be the last trip of a Jaro CPU jeep. At that time these jeeps had excellent sound system or jeep stereo and playing was the song No Love Today.
So there I was alone in the jeep and life took the time to play a cruel joke. Indeed there was no love that day.
I’m sure there was a time in our existence we have been Victim of Romance and Rarities. Let me end with the rest of the lyrics of the song No Love Today for all of us who have been:
One day morn, just like before
can make it hard to see
a world more beautiful for me
So bring tomorrow around
until it comes I don’t wanna be found
Let me be where no one ever would say… No love today
Need to be where no one ever would say… No love today./PN
