The Mamas and the Papas - Creeque Alley

This is a type of song the 60s didn't produce much. Lennon did it, maybe, and Bowie would debatably do it in the 70s, but The Mamas and the Papas were one of the first, as far as I can remember. And the nearest thing we have today is probably in rap, interestingly enough.
Bear with me...

This is a self-mythologizing song. It's a song about how the band got together, exclusively. There's no cloaking personal sentiments in universal terms, no attempts to make this relatable. It's about them, period. And yet it works, because of the magnificent harmonies and production; when the Mamas and the Papas got it right, they got it really right.

The song starts out before the band formed, and takes us through John Sebastian's two earlier groups, the Mugwumps and the Lovin' Spoonful. The former was a group that includes Mama Cass Elliot and Papa Denny Doherty, the latter is included not because of its relevance but because of the song's specific approach to history. Sebastian was not a member of The Mamas and Papas, just for the record. "Creeque Alley" is a story song, but a fun and aphoristic and highly compressed and selective one. One with digs at the Byrds in the form of a triple - triple! - pun ("McGuinn and McGuire still a-gettin higher" - on the charts, in terms of fame, and on drugs). One that refers to the group's earlier hit in its final line ("And California Dreamin' is becoming a reality...")

It's a very cool song for what it does with its lyric and with the idea of being in a band and with the idea of rewriting the folk tradition of storytelling into autobiography and self-mythology. But it wouldn't work if it weren't as catchy as it is. It's my favorite song of theirs to sing along to, hands down.