John and Mackenzie Phillips in 1981. Mackenzie has a new and shocking memoir out.
(AP Photo/File)
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John and Mackenzie Phillips in 1981. Mackenzie has a new and shocking memoir out.
(AP Photo/File)
The story goes that before Mackenzie Phillips dropped her sickening allegations about her late father, John Phillips, she had kept quiet for years to avoid tainting his legacy. There was a lot on the line, too: his pivotal role in shaping the sound of ’60s flower-power rock with the Mamas and the Papas and his fascinating and overlooked solo catalog in the wake of that band’s demise.
For the most part, though, John Phillips has been a curious footnote in rock-music history, someone you had rooted for and hoped would be more appreciated after his death in 2001.
Well, at least until last week when his daughter claimed they had a consensual sexual relationship that began as an unwanted one when she was 19. She says she woke up from a drug-induced blackout and found herself having sex with her father, who had previously shot her up with cocaine and heroin, presumably the start of her long battle with substance abuse.
It’s a sad story all around, especially for Mackenzie, who revealed the sordid details to Oprah Winfrey timed to the release of a new memoir, “High on Arrival.’’ It also effectively torpedoes John Phillips’s reputation, which had been in the midst of a modest but promising renaissance. Since 2006, the label Varese Sarabande had been working with his estate and gradually reissuing his long-lost ’70s albums in a series called “Papa John Presents.’’
I’m not defending the man, mind you. As Roman Polanski taught us this week, it’s often troubling to separate the art from the artist. Instead of John Phillips going down as a brilliant musician, as he was, he stands to become the Ike Turner of folk-rock.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
