diana ross project

[daviddh]

Paul has started the 70s Supremes reviews,
both Right On and Magnificent Seven are up.
check it out.

[Bluebrock]

Excellent stuff. Thanks for the heads up David.

[Motown Eddie]

Thanks Davidh for the update. Reading it now.

[PeaceNHarmony]

Thanks from me as well; just did a quick skim and will delve fully later. My only disagreement? 4/5?! A SCANDAL, sir! RO is a 6/5!!

[Bluebrock]

Thanks from me as well; just did a quick skim and will delve fully later. My only disagreement? 4/5?! A SCANDAL, sir! RO is a 6/5!!
I agree. It was a great read and Paul certainly knows his stuff, but i think he was a little under generous with his praise for "right on" and a little over generous for "the magnificent seven" but that is just my opinion. I look forward to further reviews of the 70's Supremes.

[daviddh]

I think RO is just elegant. love it. I would make a few changes such as add Life Beats a leave off I GOT Hurt.
but Mag Seven. geez I think I like 2 songs. I liked the out takes better, will have another listen

[Bluebrock]

I think RO is just elegant. love it. I would make a few changes such as add Life Beats a leave off I GOT Hurt.
but Mag Seven. geez I think I like 2 songs. I liked the out takes better, will have another listen
I could never get into the Supremes/Tops albums. They should have been musical heaven, but they sounded disjointed and contained too many average cover versions. I recently had the complete works double cd on rotation but even after half a dozen listens i am still underwhelmed.

[TheMotownManiac]

I love River Deep and literally hate the rest of the album. a huge waste of fine talents all around. I have been playing Right On steadily for 47 years now - fantastic way to show the world that The New Supremes meant business.

[Bluebrock]

I love River Deep and literally hate the rest of the album. a huge waste of fine talents all around. I have been playing Right On steadily for 47 years now - fantastic way to show the world that The New Supremes meant business.
Agree with all you say except River Deep which i always compare unfavourably with Ike and Tina's peerless original. The best thing i can say about the Supremes/Tops albums is that it was great to hear Jean and Levi together. As regards "right on" you are spot on! It is an album that i never tire of hearing. So many beautiful songs and Jean never sounded better. You can tell she firmly believed in these songs , unlike some of the later stuff where she was just going through the motions.

[daviddh]

feel free to leave your own reviews of these albums

[Bluebrock]

I love River Deep and literally hate the rest of the album. a huge waste of fine talents all around. I have been playing Right On steadily for 47 years now - fantastic way to show the world that The New Supremes meant business.
I was listening to Celine Dion's excellent rendition of River Deep yesterday. I would say that version is much better than the Supremes/Tops version. It has the energy, excitement and drama so sadly missing in the Supremes/Tops lacklustre version, though it will never equal Ike and Tina.

[sup_fan]

I think River is a strong performance by the group. exciting backing track, strong vocals in background and great leads. I enjoy the duet albums but mostly just because i'm a fan of the girls and listen to ALL their stuff lolol. From a career direction standpoint, it was a case of overkill. Motown flooded the market with Sup stuff. I definitely think that River and Mag 7 negatively impacted the chart performance of Stone and New Ways. Had there been a bit more strategic career decision-making going on, I think the New Sups tenure would have been different. If New Ways had been named Stone Love and with the fro cover AND the Four Tops stuff not released, then the girls would have had IMO a massive #1 hit song and the lp would have done very well. Much better than where it did chart. i'd also have swapped out Na Na Hey Hey with a different track. a non-cover or something that might have fit the "higher ideal about humanity" image they were working with.

Together We Can Make would have been a strong 2nd single and then Time To Break would have been a very hot 3rd. Then the Touch set would have been released by summer of 71 and Nathan Jones would have been an excelled follow up to Time to Break. This would have helped keep their recording reputation intact

[detmotownguy]

I think River is a strong performance by the group. exciting backing track, strong vocals in background and great leads. I enjoy the duet albums but mostly just because i'm a fan of the girls and listen to ALL their stuff lolol. From a career direction standpoint, it was a case of overkill. Motown flooded the market with Sup stuff. I definitely think that River and Mag 7 negatively impacted the chart performance of Stone and New Ways. Had there been a bit more strategic career decision-making going on, I think the New Sups tenure would have been different. If New Ways had been named Stone Love and with the fro cover AND the Four Tops stuff not released, then the girls would have had IMO a massive #1 hit song and the lp would have done very well. Much better than where it did chart. i'd also have swapped out Na Na Hey Hey with a different track. a non-cover or something that might have fit the "higher ideal about humanity" image they were working with.

Together We Can Make would have been a strong 2nd single and then Time To Break would have been a very hot 3rd. Then the Touch set would have been released by summer of 71 and Nathan Jones would have been an excelled follow up to Time to Break. This would have helped keep their recording reputation intact. Agree about the fro cover! The frilly one turned me off as it seemed to be "old school". The back side depicted the girls as being serious and projected a certain aura. Cindy esp looked great. I also appreciated the slight rock edge to many of their songs. Jean could sing anything.

[kenneth]

feel free to leave your own reviews of these albums

On an earlier thread, it seemed that Honest Man and I were the only ones who really love the "Magnificent 7" LP. I thought the stylistic pairing of Jean with Levi was excellent, and that their voices were well suited to each other. I also loved the way the others shared some leads, and they all seemed to be having so much fun, especially on "You've Got What it Takes." I like "River Deep" as much as Tina's version, though they're radically different interpretations. And I love their takes on various other standards from the Motown and other catalogs, especially the way they do "Without the One You Love," which, to me, elevates that song past the original.

I thought "Right On" was a good album, but not innovative enough. I also think it suffers from having nothing but originals. I always thought the Motown albums benefited from having a few familiar tunes or standards so you could compare how they sounded to the artist who introduced them. I think what was originally Side 2, especially, gets a little sounding like filler, though Jean sings beautifully on some of the tracks like "Baby Baby," "Loving Country," and I still love both of the singles from the album, especiially of course "Up the Ladder." I could never get tired of that song!

[Bluebrock]

I think River is a strong performance by the group. exciting backing track, strong vocals in background and great leads. I enjoy the duet albums but mostly just because i'm a fan of the girls and listen to ALL their stuff lolol. From a career direction standpoint, it was a case of overkill. Motown flooded the market with Sup stuff. I definitely think that River and Mag 7 negatively impacted the chart performance of Stone and New Ways. Had there been a bit more strategic career decision-making going on, I think the New Sups tenure would have been different. If New Ways had been named Stone Love and with the fro cover AND the Four Tops stuff not released, then the girls would have had IMO a massive #1 hit song and the lp would have done very well. Much better than where it did chart. i'd also have swapped out Na Na Hey Hey with a different track. a non-cover or something that might have fit the "higher ideal about humanity" image they were working with.

Together We Can Make would have been a strong 2nd single and then Time To Break would have been a very hot 3rd. Then the Touch set would have been released by summer of 71 and Nathan Jones would have been an excelled follow up to Time to Break. This would have helped keep their recording reputation intact
I agree with most of what you say. The duets albums impacted on "new ways" sales. Personally i would have gone with "it's time to break down" as the follow up to "stoned love". and then possibly "sweet music"as a3rd single. Too much product in too short a space of time was the problem. They also underused "right on". "The loving country "was just crying out to be a single. I think the magnificent seven was anything but and should have been delayed or not released at all, especially when so many potential hit singles went to waste,

[sup_fan]

I agree Blue. while for the fans we love to listen to just about anything, strategically there really just wasn't any reason to do the duets albums. I know this wasn't the approach at the time, but maybe it would have been fun to have the Tops "guest appearance" on something like Everybody's Got The Right. and on the liner notes it lists them as a guest vocalist. They did this back with the banjo guy on Rock N Roll Banjo Band so it wasn't totally unheard of. But the idea of the 3 lps just wasn't well thought out.

There's the old idea that Motown has used of piggy backing. But that requires that the one carrying is strong enough to do it. DRATS could take other groups out with them or Diana with J5 because of the strength of the primary attraction. the New Sups were too "new" and were still building their own reputation. Seems that the hope might have been to have them help carry the Tops and build them back up. But it didn't work

[daviddh]

I agree, I would have released Lovin Country. and the vaulted Life Beats.love it.
and from New Ways. same as Bluebrock. undertapped is correct.
I also think that the group should have been ablt to sing their songs live on tour rather than the standards

[dianarossproject]

haha...okay, so maybe I was a little hard on RIGHT ON. I'll up to a 4.5 for now :) -Paul

[dianarossproject]

Thanks for sharing, David -- appreciate your support of the website, as always. Working on TOUCH right now -- can't wait to discuss it -- it's really a fascinating, challenging album. -Paul

[PeaceNHarmony]

Thanks for sharing, David -- appreciate your support of the website, as always. Working on TOUCH right now -- can't wait to discuss it -- it's really a fascinating, challenging album. -Paul
Wonderful - thanks for your past and present work on the DRP - Love it!

[thanxal]

I love reading the album reviews on dianarossproject and I am especially happy that the 70s Supremes have been included. It is so delightful that people still treat this 40-50 year old music as if it were new. That is the key to keeping Motown a living thing.