JMC live - the ideal concert

[sup_fan]

In the car today i was listening to Glady/Pips "The Lost Live Album" which is an excellent recording of their 70's show. Other than The Way We Were it's all GK&TP songs. Made me think that the Jean era shows were just a bit disappointing. Of course the girls sang beautifully and gave it their all. But it's another case of what could have been...

So if you were managing the JMC lineup, what would be your ideal live show?

Here's my version during the "Touch" era

1. Intro - band
2. Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music - an exciting and ideal opener. and not in medley form. do the full thing. Thought about Loving Country but decided this was more energetic
3. Stoned Love [[would segue these together like the lp. could do some fun lighting effects and the guitars and band vamp. maybe Jean could do some sort of spoken intro)
4. dialog
5. Stop In the name of love
6. dialog
7. Up the ladder
8. Touch
9. nathan jones
10. medley [[all about light hehe) - here comes the sunrise, reflections, shine on me
11. everybody's got the right
12. Someday
13. Thank Him For Today/O Happy Day medley

[floyjoy678]

Hmm I would do:

1. Together We Could Make Such Sweet Music/Stoned Love [[like on New Ways)
2. Reflections
3. Nathan Jones
4. This Is the Story
5. Bill When Are You Coming Back?
6. Son of a Preacher Man [[Mary lead)
7. Touch
8. Up the Ladder to the Roof
9. People [[all 3 lead)
10. Love is like an itching In my heart/You Keep Me Hanging On
11. This Is the Story
12. I Wish I Were Your Mirror
13. Shake [[not the Sam Cooke medley, just Shake)
14. Zing Went the Strings of My Heart [[Mary lead)

[sup_fan]

^interesting set list!

i also debated what the girls would do for the Floy Joy tour

1. Your Wonderful Sweet Sweet Love

Smokey section
2. dialog about working with Smokey
2A. mini medley of mary singing Breathtaking Guy and Your Heart belongs to me.
3. Smokey medley: Over and Over, Second That Emotion, Don't Mess With Bill, Oh be my love
4. Automatically Sunshine

5. Stoned Love
6. Mary-lead medley: First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, A Heart like mine

the 60s section
7. Dialog about 60s supremes
8. Stop!
9. 60s medley: You Can't Hurry Love, Come See About me, Love is here, My world is empty

Two Lovers section
10. women's lib dialog - and snippets of Two Lovers
11. Floy Joy
12. more women's lib dialog and a chorus of Two Lovers
13. Nathan jones
14. Everybody's got the right to love

15. up the ladder

[Thornton]

Oh, I love posts like these. I think the "Touch" era is a good time to focus on since they had developed a solid catalogue of their own material. Here's what I would do:

1. Overture
2. Medley: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show/Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music/The Loving Country
3. Here Comes The Sunrise
4. Medley: Stop! In The Name of Love/Come See About Me/Back In My Arms Again/You Keep Me Hangin' On
5. Theme from "Love Story"
6. River Deep-Mountain High
7. Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars [[Mary solo)
8. Reflections
9. Love The One You're With
10. This Is The Story
11. Touch
12. Up The Ladder To The Roof
13. Superstar [[Jean solo)
14. Nathan Jones
15. Stoned Love
16. Oh Happy Day

Side note: I would not to the medleys at warp speed.

[sup_fan]

yeah i think it's fun too to hypothesize about what they could have done

i wanted the girls to get out of doing so many covers and cabaret numbers and utilize their own catalog more. And then when they worked with superstar producers like Smokey, Stevie and Jimmy, they should have really capitalized on that connection. help garner more media and public interest

[sup_fan]

here's my New Ways tour idea

1. intro
2. Loving Country/Together We can make
3. Stoned Love [[technically this would segue in just like that lp.)
4. dialog
5. Stop in the name of love
6. dialog
7. Hair medley - with each girl doing a lead. Imagine if they did White Boys, Black Boys!! lol. but given its the supremes we could do a medley of Where Do I Go, Good morning starshine, maybe a ballad for mary, aquarius, let the sunshine in
8. Time To Break Down - this rock song would be great to follow up the rock sound of Hair
9. Bridge over troubled water - very acoustic. maybe just starting out with guitar, light rhythm section, the girls on stools singing quietly. then build
10. I hear a symphony - always wanted to hear jean sing this and full song.
11. dialog about 3 young girls by the sea & 60s medley - Come see about me, you keep me hangin on, love is here, my world
12. Up the ladder
13. everyday people, all you need is love, everybody needs somebody medley
14. Oh happy day, Thank him for today medley

[RanRan79]

Gotta come back for this when I have more time. Much to think about. Sup you know I like this kind of stuff.

[daviddh]

I like some of the above but no medleys.
I would add ...
When Can Brown Begin .
river Deep mountain high
Time to break down
Touch ..Mary entire lead.
I did like the caberet medley from live 73.
Less showtimes.more original material
Your wonderful sweet sweet Love
Love train

[sup_fan]

Alright daviddh😉 some interesting song selections. So what would u do for a lineup of a stage show? No one has offered up a MJL one yet [[sure I said MJC in the post headline but who cares lolol).

[sup_fan]

Gotta come back for this when I have more time. Much to think about. Sup you know I like this kind of stuff.

Hahah I know! Me too. Not been a ton of comments on here. But oh well. Guess people would rather rehash the endless quips of Mary this or Diana that. 🙄

I’ve already started making some mental edits on my Floy Joy tour list lol

[floyjoy678]

Here's my set list for the Floy Joy time period, we'll say summer of '72:

1. Your Wonderful Sweet Sweet Love [[great opener as it was during this period)
2. Together we can make such sweet music [[segue into following song)
3. Stoned Love
4. The Name Game [[in related to the following three songs)
5. Bill When Are You Coming Back?
6. Nathan Jones
7. Floy Joy
8. Reflections
9. Come See About Me/You Keep Me Hanging On/Love Is Here [[Lynda lead)
10. Zing Went the Strings of My Heart [[Mary lead)
11. Touch
12. Now the Bitter, Now the Sweet
13. People [[Lynda lead)
14. Automatically Sunshine
15. Talking About My Baby/Say Its Alright

[RanRan79]

Okay, so I put together my lineup if I were in charge of JMC after the release of the Touch album.

1)Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music/Stoned Love [[Just seems like a natural opener)

2)Nathan Jones

3)The Loving Country [[Some Right On representation)

4)Motown Medley [[Not only showing some label mate love, but also a good way of keeping the audience interested with big hits currently resonating)
I Just Want to Celebrate [[I think Jean could rock out to this)
Never Can Say Goodbye [[An obvious Jean lead)
Just My Imagination [[Mary obviously)
The Tears of a Clown [[Jean)

5)River Deep, Mountain High

6)Brotherhood Medley
Bridge Over Troubled Water [[Leads for all three)
Everybody's Got the Right to Love
Lean On Me

7)Let's Stay Together [[Jean lead)

8)Supremes Medley [[Nothing rushed)
Reflections [[Mary)
Baby Love [[Cindy)
Love Is Like An Itchin [[Jean)
You Can't Hurry Love [[Jean)
You Keep Me Hangin On [[Jean)
My World Is Empty Without You [[Mary)
Reflections reprise

9)Someday We'll Be Together [[Jean)

10)Touch Album Medley [[Because the album needs promotion, promotion, promotion)
This Is the Story
Here Comes the Sunrise
Johnny Raven
Have I Lost You
This Is the Story reprise

11)Touch

12)Up the Ladder to the Roof

13)It's So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye

Now I'm off to do JML.:D

[RanRan79]

Okay, here's my JML lineup after "Bad Weather" drops.

1)Your Wonderful Sweet, Sweet Love [[High energy opener)

2)Up the Ladder to the Roof

3)Stoned Love

4)Smokey Medley
Get Ready [[Jean)
My Guy [[Mary)
The Tracks of My Tears [[Lynda)
More Love [[Jean)
A Breath Taking Guy [[Mary)

5)Floy Joy Medley
Over and Over
Precious Little Things
Now the Bitter, Now the Sweet

6)Floy Joy

7)A Heart Like Mine

8)Supremes Medley
Where Did Our Love Go [[Mary)
I Hear A Symphony [[Jean)
Love Is Here and Now You're Gone [[Lynda)
Someday We'll Be Together [[Jean)

9)Jimmy Webb Medley
By the Time I Get to Phoenix [[Jean)
MacArthur Park [[Group)
Honey Come Back [[Jean)
All Night Show [[Lynda)

10)5:30 Plane

11)I Keep It Hid

12)I Guess I'll Miss the Man

13)Stevie Wonder Medley
Signed, Sealed, Delivered [[Lynda)
I Was Made to Love Her [[Jean)
You Are the Sunshine Of My Life [[Mary)

14)Bad Weather/Automatically Sunshine

[sup_fan]

4. The Name Game [[in related to the following three songs)
5. Bill When Are You Coming Back?
6. Nathan Jones
7. Floy Joy


good one! that's an interesting way to do it

[sup_fan]

I agree - Jean would have been spectacular on I Just Want To Celebrate!! hadn't ever considered that song but perfect

[Diana Ross Fan Club]

1. Overture
2. Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music
3. Stoned Love
4. The Loving Country
5. Could It Be I'm Falling In Love [[Jean lead)
6. Reflections [[Medley Introduction)
7. 60s Medley: Where Did Our Love Go / Baby Love / Stop! In The Name Of Love / My World Is Empty Without You / You Can't Hurry Love / Love Is Here And Now You're Gone / Love Child
8. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You [[Mary lead)
9. I Can See Clearly Now [[Jean lead)
10. Medley: Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In [[The Flesh Failures)
11. Is There A Place [[In His Heart For Me)
12. Floy Joy
13. Nathan Jones
14. Someday We'll Be Together
ENCORE:
15. This Is The Story
16. Up The Ladder To The Roof

[benross]

There are some exciting possibilities mentioned here, especially I Just Want To Celebrate, Just My Imagination [[Mary lead) and Lean On Me.

We've Only Just Begun and The Love Story Theme [[Where Do I Begin) might have been a great medley addition as well.

Too, it would be super to have a clean, official recording of Exodus [[without the overly emoted, thus insincere-sounding monologue). It was an unexpected, yet ideal, revival of an old song, with its excellent harmony and positive relevant message.

In my opinion, substituting current pop/rock hits by other Motown and non-Motown groups for the numerous show tunes used in the 1960s might have been a good idea, as Jean seemed to connect less with the Broadway songs' sophistication than Diana did, and the show-biz aspects suddenly seemed old-fashioned to the younger generation as the 1970s began.

I would not have added many, if any, deep cuts from the group's albums, as the albums did not sell all that well, and these more obscure songs would have been unfamiliar to many in the audience, inviting restlessness. Even in the Diana Ross years, the shows did not include deep cuts, except for the I Hear A Symphony and We Remember Sam Cooke medleys, but the songs in those medleys would have been familiar to many in the audience.

Also, the Three Girls dialogue and oldies medley probably should have been dropped, largely because that story was ancient revisionist history, seemed overly rehearsed rather than spontaneous and had a false ring to it, as Jean [[and Cindy) had nothing to do with the origins of the group. It was fine to repeat a few of the mid- to late-period hits from the Diana Ross era -- Reflections, My World Is Empty Without You and Someday We'll Be Together, for instance -- but relying too much on the early period only emphasized that, again, Jean and Cindy had nothing to do with those songs.

[RanRan79]

I have audio of the Supremes singing "We've Only Just Begun" but I can't remember where I got. It's beautifully done. Easily one of my favorite JMC live cuts.

My mindset regarding the deep cuts is that performing them is promotion for the albums, which the Supremes lacked. The 60s were the decade of singles and the decade of specialty albums, where everyone was recording an album in tribute to an artist, style, period, etc. The average popular artist album consisted of one or two, maybe three, hits surrounded by a bunch of filler, especially Motown. The 70s was a different time. The albums were now as important as the singles and JMC/L were not selling huge numbers of albums, even when they were selling huge numbers of singles. The girls were still a hot live act that first two years. Right On and New Ways and Touch could've benefited greatly from the exposure of what could be found on the albums, apart from the singles. In the case of Touch, I think adding "This Is the Story" to the live act could've been a huge winner for them, as I can hear it being a showstopper. As an album cut it is IMO one of Jean's finest vocal performances.

Floy Joy and Jimmy Webb could've also benefited from more deep cut exposure, although in the case of the JW album I just think it would've still tanked by word of mouth reviews. In listening to some of Jimmy's other stuff [[I really am unfamiliar with most of his work and thus had to look into some of his productions for himself and others in order to create the Jimmy Webb medley in my post...which has also led me to fall in love with Glen Campbell's "Honey Come Back"), I just fail to hear what made anyone think he was a perfect pairing for the Supremes. The big thing that Jean and Diana had in common was their ability to equally sing pop and r&b and pretty much everything in between. But most of the productions on JW don't seem to fit Jean at all, even though she turned out some very fine vocals on at least half of the songs. But I don't see anything about that album resonating with the public. The missed opportunity was completing and releasing the Stevie Wonder album. That was bound to be a critical success, if not a commercial one.

[floyjoy678]

Here's my JML '73 setlist:

1. Love Train
2. Stoned Love
3. Automatically Sunshine
4. I'll Never Fall In Love Again [[Mary lead)
5. All I Want
6. Nathan Jones
7. Up the Ladder to the Roof
8. Homeward Bound/Keep the Customer Satisfied
9. Floy Joy
10. 5:30 Plane
11. Love Is Here And Now You're Gone [[acoustic, Lynda lead)
12. Reflections
13. Touch
14. Bad Weather
15. Last Night I Didnt Get To Sleep At All [[Lynda and Mary duet)
16. Your Wonderful Sweet Sweet Love

I pictured in my head with this show, the three of them ditching the gowns and glamour and wearing regular street clothing. One frustrating thing at this time in their career was they had enough material to cover a whole show yet they still continued condensing their songs into rushed 3 minute medleys.

[sup_fan]

I have audio of the Supremes singing "We've Only Just Begun" but I can't remember where I got. It's beautifully done. Easily one of my favorite JMC live cuts.

My mindset regarding the deep cuts is that performing them is promotion for the albums, which the Supremes lacked. The 60s were the decade of singles and the decade of specialty albums, where everyone was recording an album in tribute to an artist, style, period, etc. The average popular artist album consisted of one or two, maybe three, hits surrounded by a bunch of filler, especially Motown. The 70s was a different time. The albums were now as important as the singles and JMC/L were not selling huge numbers of albums, even when they were selling huge numbers of singles. The girls were still a hot live act that first two years. Right On and New Ways and Touch could've benefited greatly from the exposure of what could be found on the albums, apart from the singles. In the case of Touch, I think adding "This Is the Story" to the live act could've been a huge winner for them, as I can hear it being a showstopper. As an album cut it is IMO one of Jean's finest vocal performances.

Floy Joy and Jimmy Webb could've also benefited from more deep cut exposure, although in the case of the JW album I just think it would've still tanked by word of mouth reviews. In listening to some of Jimmy's other stuff [[I really am unfamiliar with most of his work and thus had to look into some of his productions for himself and others in order to create the Jimmy Webb medley in my post...which has also led me to fall in love with Glen Campbell's "Honey Come Back"), I just fail to hear what made anyone think he was a perfect pairing for the Supremes. The big thing that Jean and Diana had in common was their ability to equally sing pop and r&b and pretty much everything in between. But most of the productions on JW don't seem to fit Jean at all, even though she turned out some very fine vocals on at least half of the songs. But I don't see anything about that album resonating with the public. The missed opportunity was completing and releasing the Stevie Wonder album. That was bound to be a critical success, if not a commercial one.

We've Only Just Begun was sung by the girls on the Flip Wilson show. same episode where they sang Stoned Love/Time To Break Down

I completely agree about the need to push the lps in the concerts. And on tv. when they did their little "chats" with whomever the host was, they should have had a copy of the lp, talked about the new music, etc.

Floy Joy was such a unique and catchy cover that they really could have done something with it. Imagine in their larger shows that the stage has a special platform with the group's name on it. they do a long intro to YWSSL with the guitar riff and the platform either turns or the curtains open or something to reveal the girls in white outfits sitting around the patio table with the chairs. maybe there's lighting effects with the Floy Joy title in red.

then throughout the show the stick with white outfits to open and close and then a middle outfit change of red or deep/hot pink

they had the outfits for this:

white pantsuits
white central park outfits
remade chandelier gowns
white bugle bead gowns
they a round or two of their own personal white wardrobe

red pantsuits
red "hexagon" dresses from the Touch photo shoot
pink pantsuits
red floral puffy gowns from LA tour with temps

plus they could have easily made another outfit or two for the tour

[bradsupremes]

01.) Where You Lead
02.) Stop! In The Name Of Love
03.) Floy Joy
04.) Love The One You're With
05.) Nathan Jones
06.) 60's Medley: Come See About Me / Baby Love / Back In My Arms Again/ You Can't Hurry Love / Love Is Here And Now You're Gone
07.) Your Wonderful Sweet Sweet Love
08.) Lean On Me
09.) Reflections
10.) Soul Ladies Medley: Want Ads / Rock Steady / Mr. Big Stuff
11.) Signed, Sealed, Delivered [[Lynda solo)
12.) The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face [[Mary solo)
13.) You're So Vain [[Jean solo)
14.) Up The Ladder To The Roof
15.) Bad Weather
16.) Someday We'll Be Together

Encore:
17.) Stoned Love

[sup_fan]

I like the Soul Ladies idea! starting with a medley then each girl doing a song. very clever

[Thornton]

If we're going into JML territory, I think there was sooo much potential for a dynamic live show. This would be an early '73 show:

1. Overture
2. All I Want
3. Nathan Jones
4. Medley: Stop! In The Name of Love/Come See About Me/Back In My Arms Again/Love Is Here And Now You're Gone [[Lynda lead)
5. Love The One You're With
6. Floy Joy
7. Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
8. Medley: Reflections/Where Did Our Love Go/Baby Love/My World Is Empty Without You
9. Up The Ladder To The Roof
10. Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours [[Lynda Lead)
11. 5:30 Plane
12. Superstar [[Jean Solo)
13. Bad Weather
14. Tossin' & Turnin'
15. Stoned Love
16. Love Train/Stoned Love reprise

[sup_fan]

ok - here's what i would do for a JML show during the Bad Weather era

1. revised overture that dissolves into pre-recorded "weather" sounds like thunder, wind, weather man reports from tv, etc. Also thought maybe NO overture and just start with the sound effects and weather "stuff"
2. Bad Weather. segues into the band starting up an extended intro of Bad Weather, which the announcer speaks over to bring the girls out.
3. dialog welcoming the audience, highlighting that BW is their latest release and how great it was to work with Stevie
4. Stevie medley - If you really love me [[jean lead but each girl chimes in on the chorus), Signed [[lynda lead), You are the sunshine [[mary lead), for once in my life
5. Stoned Love
6. Jimmy Webb medley - I guess i'll miss the man [[jean) By the time i get to Phoenix[[mary), 5:30 plane [[jean) I keep it hid [[mary)
7. 60s supremes medley - stop, you can't hurry love, you keep me hangin on, my world
8. Everybody needs somebody - shorter version to introduce the two "men"
9. Floy Joy
10. Nathan Jones
11. seques into reprise of Everybody needs somebody
12. 50s medley - cherry pie [[longer version) with Mary lead, Get a job [[jean), Blue moon [[lynda)
13. Tossin & turning
14. Heaven help us all
15. Up the ladder to the roof - encore