What Is Left In The Vaults For Diana Ross / Supremes ?

[sup_fan]

i don't think FFYL is the worse thing Diana ever committed to vinyl. it's not stellar but not hideous.

and i'm not quite as negative as some about her RCA content. i do agree that there are a lot of "what ifs" in regards to this time. what if she'd stayed with motown? what if she's allowed other producers or people at RCA to have more input and collaboration with material? etc.

in my mind - WDFFIL is a pretty solid album. not her best but certainly more compelling that some of her motown sets. it sounded contemporary and strong.

Silk Electric, IMO, was a decent job at making something work. it's a potpourri album but i think a bit better than others. Ross 78 is worthless and the mixing of a few decent disco track, some crap disco tracks, some lush ballads and an Ain't No Mountain High Enough knock-off is worse. With SE it's more like "i'm doing 1 song of 6 or 7 difference genres." and because there's 0 attempt to unify them, it kinda worse. there's pop, reggae, hard rock, disco, ballad, 50's. I even sort of thought Turn Me Over was a cute play on the title and being the last track

I find the Eaten Alive set more annoying to the ears. i think Berry's falsetto and Diana's naturally nasal voice to be an ear-piercing combination. and the excess reverb and echo to diana vocals make it all the more exasperating. but again, these are all just opinions

[Bluebrock]

i don't think FFYL is the worse thing Diana ever committed to vinyl. it's not stellar but not hideous.

and i'm not quite as negative as some about her RCA content. i do agree that there are a lot of "what ifs" in regards to this time. what if she'd stayed with motown? what if she's allowed other producers or people at RCA to have more input and collaboration with material? etc.

in my mind - WDFFIL is a pretty solid album. not her best but certainly more compelling that some of her motown sets. it sounded contemporary and strong.

Silk Electric, IMO, was a decent job at making something work. it's a potpourri album but i think a bit better than others. Ross 78 is worthless and the mixing of a few decent disco track, some crap disco tracks, some lush ballads and an Ain't No Mountain High Enough knock-off is worse. With SE it's more like "i'm doing 1 song of 6 or 7 difference genres." and because there's 0 attempt to unify them, it kinda worse. there's pop, reggae, hard rock, disco, ballad, 50's. I even sort of thought Turn Me Over was a cute play on the title and being the last track

I find the Eaten Alive set more annoying to the ears. i think Berry's falsetto and Diana's naturally nasal voice to be an ear-piercing combination. and the excess reverb and echo to diana vocals make it all the more exasperating. but again, these are all just opinions

It's all about personal preferences and it is interesting to hear your views on Diana's RCA career. No-one is right and no-one is wrong. It's all good.

[Albator]

I find the Eaten Alive set more annoying to the ears. i think Berry's falsetto and Diana's naturally nasal voice to be an ear-piercing combination. and the excess reverb and echo to diana vocals make it all the more exasperating. but again, these are all just opinions

That's funny how people, fans, are compartmented in their opinion. As for "eaten alive", I'm with you. From the moment I heard the flip side "I'm watching you" , I thought something was wrong. This was so unreal ... I also thought that she could never sing so high live. In fact, I saw her in Paris, the month the record came, and she only performed material from Swept away.
By the way, she also had trouble singing live Telephone and Swept away.

[Bluebrock]

That's funny how people, fans, are compartmented in their opinion. As for "eaten alive", I'm with you. From the moment I heard the flip side "I'm watching you" , I thought something was wrong. This was so unreal ... I also thought that she could never sing so high live. In fact, I saw her in Paris, the month the record came, and she only performed material from Swept away.
By the way, she also had trouble singing live Telephone and Swept away.

As you say it is each to their own. I personally liked much of EATEN ALIVE but i am a big Bee Gees fan from way back. Diana was also a fan and after turning down ISLANDS IN THE STREAM she realised her mistake and was determined to work with them, A proposed 2nd album never materialised even though both parties expressed an interest in working with each other. Barry Gibb told me that CHAIN REACTION is his all time favourite production on another artist.

[Albator]

As you say it is each to their own. I personally liked much of EATEN ALIVE but i am a big Bee Gees fan from way back. Diana was also a fan and after turning down ISLANDS IN THE STREAM she realised her mistake and was determined to work with them, A proposed 2nd album never materialised even though both parties expressed an interest in working with each other. Barry Gibb told me that CHAIN REACTION is his all time favourite production on another artist.

I like the Bee Gees to, but I'm not a fan. They wrote fantastic enduring hits during the seventies and the songs penned for Samantha Sang, Yvonne, Frankie Valli are equally great.

From the eighties, I know most of their work for Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Roger and Barry.
The Streisand LP was a total success, maybe it has more to do with Barbra than with the songs. The Dionne LP was the same vein, so if you prefer Dionne, you prefer Heartbreaker and if you prefer Barbra, you go with Guilty.
But after those two, they lost the hit formula for Now Voyager and After Dark .

[Ollie9]

That's funny how people, fans, are compartmented in their opinion. As for "eaten alive", I'm with you. From the moment I heard the flip side "I'm watching you" , I thought something was wrong. This was so unreal ... I also thought that she could never sing so high live. In fact, I saw her in Paris, the month the record came, and she only performed material from Swept away.
By the way, she also had trouble singing live Telephone and Swept away.

I think Eaten Alive a so so album. Not terrific, but not bad. I do think "Crime Of Passion" should have been the first song on side two of the album. The lyrics to "I'm Watching You" are just so wet and not a way to kick off.
I heard Diana sing "Telphone" in concert 85. She did a fantastic job, hitting all those high notes. It was one of the highlights of the evening and was mentioned in some of the reviews of the concert.

[Albator]

I think Eaten Alive a so so album. Not terrific, but not bad. I do think "Crime Of Passion" should have been the first song on side two of the album. The lyrics to "I'm Watching You" are just so wet and not a way to kick off.
I heard Diana sing "Telphone" in concert 85. She did a fantastic job, hitting all those high notes. It was one of the highlights of the evening and was mentioned in some of the reviews of the concert.

If you talk about the bootleg record, "Swept away" is slower and personally , I don't hear the same vocal pitch on her live "telephone"compared to the studio take. But it's good anyway, it's soulful . To bad she repeated the same verse twice.

[mpn1jco]

I think Eaten Alive a so so album. Not terrific, but not bad. I do think "Crime Of Passion" should have been the first song on side two of the album. The lyrics to "I'm Watching You" are just so wet and not a way to kick off.
I heard Diana sing "Telphone" in concert 85. She did a fantastic job, hitting all those high notes. It was one of the highlights of the evening and was mentioned in some of the reviews of the concert.

Swept Away sounded horrible live, but I liked the way she worked the stage with the song.

Eaten Alive is not a bad album. However, the engineering on the Eaten Alive album was atrocious. It features her worse vocalizing, and her voice is buried in the mix. The Bee Gees usually sing distinct background harmony on their productions [[ Dionne, Streisand, Kenny Rogers ) . These vocals were present but not consistent on the Eaten Alive, and Diana certainly needed them to flesh out her featherweight, breathy and trembly vocals. With Whitney Houston breaking big at the time, and the inevitable comparisons raging - I didn't think it was wise for Diana to do a lot of whispering and 'aaahhs' all over an album. Red Hot Rhythm and Blues had Ross in fine voice and production.

[Albator]

Discutions on this board are really great 😉