My Mama, Cass

A Memoir

De: Owen Elliot-Kugell

Narrado por: Owen Elliot-Kugell

Duración: 6 h y 30 m

Resumen del Editor

A long-awaited, myth-busting, and deeply affecting memoir by the daughter of legendary rock star “Mama” Cass Elliot

To the rest of the world, Cass Elliot was a rock star; A charismatic, wisecracking singer from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted band, The Mamas & The Papas; A legend of Laurel Canyon, decked out in her custom-made Muumuus, glittering designer jewelry, blessed with a powerful, instantly identifiable singing voice which helped define the sound of the 1960s counterculture movement. But to Owen Elliot-Kugell, she was just Mom.

In the nearly 50 years since Cass Elliot’s untimely death at the age of 32, rumors and myths have swirled about, shading nearly every aspect of her life. In her long-awaited memoir, Owen Elliot-Kugell shares the groundbreaking story of her mom as only a daughter can tell it.

In My Mama, Cass, Owen pulls back the curtains of her mother’s life from the sold-out theaters to behind the closed doors of her infamous California abode. Born Ellen Naomi Cohen, the woman who was known to the world as Cass Elliot was decades ahead of her time: an independently minded, outspoken woman who broke through a male-dominated business, a forward-thinking feminist, and a single parent who embraced motherhood from the moment Owen entered the world. From the closely guarded secret of Owen’s paternity to Cass’s lifelong struggles with self-esteem and weight, to rumors surrounding her mother’s death, Owen illuminates the complex truths of her mother’s life, sharing interviews with the high-profile figures who orbited Cass, as well as never-before-heard tales of her mother and this legendary period of American history.

Featuring intimate family and archival photos as well as interviews and memories from famous friends, fans, and colleagues who loved and respected Cass, this book is both a love story and a mystery, a tale of self-discovery and a daughter’s devotion. At its core, My Mama, Cass is a beautifully crafted testament befitting of Cass Elliot’s enduring cultural impact and legacy, written by the person who knew and loved her best.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Owen Elliot-Kugell (P)2024 Hachette Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“My Mama, Cass is a daughter’s search for the mother she lost. In these pages, Owen Elliot-Kugell reconstructs who Ellen Naomi Cohen really was, which is not an easy task, as the woman who became Cass Elliot was a very complex person: unimaginably talented, independent, loving, warm, and completely dedicated to her one and only child. She brings her mother back to life for herself and for Cass’s millions of fans. The spotlight is back on my friend, and it’s great to see her again.”—Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas

Loved this

Very well done, thank you Owen for sharing this story of yours and your mom‘s lives. I’ve always loved her music and now have a whole new understanding and love for your mother and her life

Very good account of Cass’s too-short life

I appreciate the loving effort Cass’s daughter put into the creation of this memoir. Her narration grew on me and I felt Owen the most when speaking about her own life following Cass’s death. I would love an even deeper biography of Cass Elliot but no less sensitive. This will do for now. It’s a lovely tribute.

Love!

I loved all the stories about Cass, Owen and all the 60s rock stars. I enjoyed this book so much!

Interesting double-bio

It’s a biography not just of Cass, but also of her daughter (which makes sense, since her daughter wrote it). I definitely learned a lot about Cass that I didn’t know even though I’d read other biographies about and by her bandmates of the Mamas & the Papas. She was so instrumental in a lot of great musicians meeting each other, and she was so active in the public eye and on television after the band split up!!

And I learned a lot about the author too. (There are several chapters on her own life after Cass’s death. I had no idea that Owen had recorded with Wilson Phillips, or even that Wilson Phillips had done more than one album!)

Overall an interesting book, even with a couple of the memories/stories being told multiple times in various chapters, and even though the phrase “dressed to the nines” appears FOUR times over the course of the book, and even though she also once uses the word “woefully” when she means “willfully” (all of which makes me wonder: where is her editor, asleep??). Those issues, while nagging at my attention, do not make the book bad, because it’s otherwise quite interesting.

If you’re interested in Cass Elliot, this is very much worth a listen. I’m so inspired by these stories that now I want to scour the internet for all the Cass footage I can find.

Couldn’t be happier I listened!

I can’t tell you how wonderful this memoir is. Cass Elliot has brought me so much joy. Learning more about the real story has been excellent. Learning more about her story from her daughter has been delicious. I bet Owen is so much fun to have coffee with.

Loved this..

She is so great at telling her story and all the memories. She’s really funny too. Great “read” highly recommend!!

Lovingly told

The story is lovingly told!
But the first half of the book is about Cass Elliot, but the 2nd half is more about her daughter and parents, grandparents etc. A couple of chapters would have been interesting!
I was just a little disappointed and thought there should have been more about Cass Elliot.
Cass was a wonderful one of a kind person!

Oh, how I wanted to like this book...

I joined Audible so I could listen to this book. I tried hard to like it, but I just didn't.

I was certainly sad and nostalgic, tragic in many ways. but it actually not that interesting or insightful. Dare I say, it was boring. All the minutia with very little depth.

Given that Owen lost her mother at the age of seven, she has little personal experience. She doesn't do much more than list her mother's resume, repeat what others have told her, and assume how her mother "must have felt."

I get that she wanted to write a valentine to her mother, but what revelations there were, made Cass Elliott much less likable than I ever found her before. What emerges is an oblivious, self-centered, celebrity with arrested development of her own. Having a baby to have "something of her own," is what most nine-year-olds wish for until they (sometimes) grow up.

What a burden to place on a kid. It's a set up for lots of trouble down the road. If Cass hadn't died, her daughter would probably have had to do a lot of therapy. I'm sure she would have preferred that to losing her, but sadly, she's stuck in arrested development too--perhaps being robbed of natural stages of development like rebellion, or having to deal with the recognition that her mother saw her more as an accessory, or a possession to fill her own emptiness and insecurity.

I chose the audio version because I wanted to hear the author read the book in her own voice. Unfortunately, she seems to have been coached out of her monotone voice and right into sounding phony and forced. Just not genuine.

I'm fairly certain many will disagree with this review, but that used to be what made life rich and interesting. it's shocking how many people have negative attitudes about individuality, welcoming differences of opinion, valuing personal freedom, and "doing your own thing."

The message of one of her best songs, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" is more relevant than ever before. A lot of sixties liberals grew up to be people who are more intolerant of differing opinions than ever before. I wonder what Cass would think about that today, or whether she would have been one of them.