hands down my favorite mamas and papas piece.
Sparky Mahoney sums it up best.

They're such an odd group because so much of the music they did was so very bittersweet. Consider their body of work for a moment, and almost all of it has a real bittersweet element to it. And this was probably the most bittersweet of then all. Very powerful, very driven piece of music. This is my favorite piece of theirs, hands down. And yet, it's the one that makes me the most ambivlent, It's like it reminds me of something from a far simpler, more innocent time to something I've lost and can't get back, yet for the life of me don't understand what it is exactly I lost. Innocence maybe? I believe Phillips meant this as song of hope and rebirth but the music - for me at any rate - runs as a counterpoint to the message. It seems more of a longing and desperation for that than anything else. Hell, I don't maybe it's just me getting old. Still, while I don't often lament those days of heady youth, I sure enough do miss them from time to time.