Originally Posted by
sup_fan
ok - this post has, unfortunately, been sidetracked by nonsense. not that it's really all that important but in regards to Mary's house in Detroit, here's what SHE writes in Supreme Faith. This is fall of 1972
"It was so nice to sleep in my old round bed. After moving to California, I'd given my mother my house, and Willie's family and my Aunt Moneva moved into her old house."
So yes. Mary moved and was living in LA. however she still owned the properties in Detroit in fall 72 AFTER Lynda joined in the fall. one of the houses was a duplex, with half being rented to Cholly. So when Lynda joined she most certainly could have stayed at the house Mary owned and learned the routines from Cholly.
As for the Touch question, i don't think that 1 single ended the girls' career, though i do think it was a mistake to be released. Nathan Jones was a hit but i'd hardly label it a MASSIVE hit. i agree it certainly should have been. love that song. and i know it eventually sold a million. but a US pop chart peak of 16 isn't a massive hit. Stoned Love was much closer to a massive hit but that was released nearly a year prior to Touch. they'd released nathan and river, both decent but not massive hits. then came touch and You gotta have love. neither did well.
i think part of the issue was motown and the sups didn't really move forward enough with evolving the groups image and sound. they started to do this when Jean joined but if you listen to the interviews on the talk shows, the group portraits, etc they were still being passed off as "kittenish glamour girls." I think it was a Mike Douglas show in 70 or 71 where he asked them the number of records they sold and Mary wasn't exactly sure. he laughed he'd be counting them everyday and she responded they go shopping everyday, giggle giggle. When Jean joined they started having a stronger r&b sound but the look was still very Diana Broadway/Glam. not that they needed to switch suddenly to Black Panthers but i don't think they moved with the times enough. They started to fade in the eye of dj's and station managers.