Mama Cass...two generations later
December 27, 2010 9:16 PM   Subscribe

Mama Cass Elliott's granddaughter singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Sometimes a bit of nostalgia combined with a sweet child is just worth sharing.
posted by HuronBob (22 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think your suggestion of "I would suggest you close your eyes as you listen" from your Santana-Clapton thread is more appropriate for this one. FOR GODSAKES HOLD THE CAMERA STILL! That's all I could think while I was trying to watch this video.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 9:22 PM on December 27, 2010


Fuckin' ham sandwich, man. I think about it every time.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:24 PM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I wanna see Hulk Hogan's granddaughter wrestle Andre the Giant.
posted by cmoj at 9:32 PM on December 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


I wanna see Hulk Hogan's granddaughter wrestle Andre the Giant.

I want to see Andre the Giant play Tevye in Fiddler on The Roof, with John Hodgman's evil twin brother playing Perchik and David Mitchell playing Lazar Wolf, but my wishes don't make any of what I just typed out make sense.

Anyway, this is cute, although I can only see her as a little girl singing a song well, rather than the granddaughter of Mama Cass. Whether the legacy is good or bad, I have trouble connecting kids to their genetic lineage.

But on the other hand, it seems like she can sing, and no one in my family could hold a tune if it had a handle and was handcuffed to their wrist. So maybe genetics have something to do with it.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 9:54 PM on December 27, 2010


Who is doing the camera work, the CIA from an embassy lookout post 2 miles away? Holy cow.
posted by scalefree at 10:05 PM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I suspect the "camera work" is being done by her mother, Owen Elliott. Typical parent at a talent show production quality...
posted by HuronBob at 10:10 PM on December 27, 2010


Fuckin' ham sandwich, man. I think about it every time.

It was actually heart failure that killed Mama Cass.
posted by pinky at 10:36 PM on December 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


It was actually heart failure that killed Mama Cass.
Yeah pork fat has nothing to do with heart disease
posted by I love you more when I eat paint chips at 10:48 PM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think it was years of crash dieting that weakened her cardiovascular system that lead to her heart attack. So it was hamsandwichcrashdiethamdsandwichcrashdiethamsandwichcrashdiet.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:56 PM on December 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Yeah pork fat has nothing to do with heart disease

No one's arguing that Mama Cass was the picture of cardiovascular health, but "Choked on a sandwich" is a pretty different cause of death than "Heart failure." In the same way that the morgue doesn't use the same check box for "He died of liver problems" and "He drowned in a Scrooge McDuck pile of empty beer bottles."
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 11:13 PM on December 27, 2010 [16 favorites]


over the hiccups
posted by philip-random at 11:35 PM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Seriously, perpetuating the death-by-sandwich canard about Mama Cass pisses me off no end. The only reason it has any legs was because she was fat, and hey, LOLfatchicks! Amirite? Fucking thin-icism. Cass Elliot was one of the GREAT vocalists of her generation, male or female, and popular music missed out on what should have been an incredible and lengthy career from a great entertainer.

Now, John Phillips, there's bastard who should have choked on a ham sandwich in his prime.
posted by KingEdRa at 11:36 PM on December 27, 2010 [25 favorites]


I'm not quite old enough to remember Mama Cass and her career very much. Just some nice songs. But Mama Cass is one of the few music artists that, when she comes up, you really get that she was loved.
posted by Goofyy at 1:23 AM on December 28, 2010 [2 favorites]


Sure, give the solo to Mama Cass's granddaughter, never mind that little Billy has a better range or that Suzy can stay on key, she's Mama frickin' Cass's granddaughter fer chris'sakes! Damnit, can you see this nepotism is going to end with more shit like Country Strong!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:52 AM on December 28, 2010


you really get that she was loved.

It was the generosity of her voice, and the clear joy that she took in performing. The poor girl was killed by the sheer contradictoriness of her situation, of being a talented fat girl standing next to a no-talent model (Michele Phillips), a life-force in a death (drug) culture, an artist who was born for the mainstream, but accidentally came up through the margins, a born soloist who "made" the sound of a tight harmony group (run by one of the world's biggest jerks, John Phillips), a sexually unattractive women in the midst of the sexual revolution, a successful woman surrounded by loser men, but mainly ... it was the weight thing. We sure wish she was still around.
posted by Faze at 5:42 AM on December 28, 2010 [9 favorites]


Fat Angel

How many artists of her moment had songs written about them, and at the time?
posted by philip-random at 7:07 AM on December 28, 2010


As long as we're debunking old stories about Cass Elliott (she hated being called "Mama"), I'd like to point out that she never planned to go to Swarthmore, and it was only written into the lyrics because it sort of rhymed. Cass was a good Baltimore girl, and planned to go to Towson.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:26 AM on December 28, 2010


She may have the genetic material, but still need some help from the school of hard knocks.

In his biography "Papa John", John Phillips says he was reluctant to let Cass into the group, not only because of her size, it was also because her alto voice couldn't hit the high notes John wanted for the group sound. She would follow the band everywhere, getting jobs wherever they played, just to be around. Then, one strange day, Cass was walking past a construction site when a falling piece of wood hit her on the head, knocking her out. After three days in the hospital with a moderate concussion, she joined a rehearsal the band was having- and she could hit the high notes John wanted! Cass was then, finally, invited to join The Mamas and Papas.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:29 AM on December 28, 2010


The little girl needs singing lessons, she's not very good, but I can see the potential.

Or maybe the awful camera work is distorting her voice.
posted by Malice at 10:33 AM on December 28, 2010


It's kind of poignant that, in the video, she's the same age that Owen was when Cass died. You think of the sheer joy that Owen has in taping her daughter and how her mother never got the chance to hear her own daughter sing at future school concerts nor for that girl to have her mother hear her. When you see that Owen tapes a concert and uploads it just like any one of us other mamas of my generation, it's all the more upsetting to think of the loss for that family. The loss of a superb voice for music, but the bigger loss of a voice, a cheerleader, a mother would would cheer and celebrate her child's own small and normal accomplishments. It just tears me up. Maybe because I'm a mom too.
posted by acoutu at 2:57 PM on December 28, 2010 [3 favorites]


She did a better than adequate job. It's 3 years later...I wonder if she still sings?
posted by naplesyellow at 10:45 AM on December 29, 2010


Little Zoey gets pwned by Connie Talbot.
posted by dobbs at 10:31 PM on December 29, 2010


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