https://youtu.be/rxMPgu9WcDo
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Good find and kudos to whoever recorded it and saved it as it preserved and captured a bit of Supremes history. But aside from that, I can't say I liked it as there's too much singing going on. The oversinging and the arrangement the orchestra is playing overwhelm what made Stoned Love, the recording that JMC did, so special.
Scherrie would have sounded even better with a slightly slower arrangement. It was a good idea to put their own stamp on the song then replicate the Jean led version, but it’s all just to [[sound familiar) frantic. Such a waste of their voices.
I was at this show, we the audience LOVED Scherrie's intro of Stoned Love, Mary got a Standing Ovation for How Lucky Can You Get, Scherrie got 1 for My World Is Empty Without You, and Susaye got the biggest Standing Ovation for He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother, GREAT Show, Sold Out.
Very cool !! I didn’t know the Royal Hawaiian had a showroom, I thought they did shows outside. Was it a dinner show ??Quote:
Originally Posted by REDHOT
one night only ??
I saw the same show at bachelor's III in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a full house, though I've heard ticket sales were slow. I honestly don't remember the numbers being that frantic when I saw them. In going back to listen to some of these shows from then, many do sound rushed and all over the place at times. When you're there in person you're caught up in the moment and I was young, and no doubt had had a few drinks. LOL!Quote:
Originally Posted by REDHOT
It was [[to me) a great show and Mary did a moving tribute to Florence with "How Lucky Can You Get".
There is a poster at beginning of video above, It calls it the Royal Hawaiian Supper Club. The Supremes were booked there for twelve days. And the top priced ticket of $13.95 included the show and an all you can eat buffet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogiedown
very nice and with a Hawaiian buffet , I’m there !Quote:
Originally Posted by milven
???
Why does it say ten minutes from downtown DC
Mary stated in her book that Susaye was the catalyst to making them freer with their singing. With the Supremes, we were used to them following very rigid vocals and choreography. I feel Scherrie has been very underrated in the group. I especially enjoy hearing her and Mary sing during this time. Susaye added a uniqueness to the sound. Everyone wanted them to progress but when they tried to move with the times, the fans offered resistance. Many fans blame Mary for being locked into 1967, but so are many of the fans' perceptions locked in the past. Scherrie has such a great voice and onstage presented such beauty and elegance. Her entrance into the Supremes gave me hope because she sang far more contemporary than Jean did. Scherrie put her own stamp on it here.
If I'm not mistaken, the Royal Hawaiian was [is] in Virginia. I'm assuming the ad lets DC patrons know that it is within driving distance for them as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogiedown
Using an inflation calculator on the web, that same ticket would now cost $72.65 in 2022. For dinner and a show that wouldn't have been cheap...but definitely being spent on a special night out. I'd assume alcoholic [and fountain] drinks were extra. This venue certainly wasn't "The Supremes at The Ramada Inn Dining Room."Quote:
Originally Posted by milven
Only Jean can sing this classic soul.
they were at the Royal Hawaiian from April 12 - 25, 1976. this was the first stage engagement with Susaye. they're already done Soul Train and the Easter Seals Telethon. and during this engagement they appeared on BandstandQuote:
Originally Posted by Boogiedown
some of the bootlegs can speed up as they age, the tapes don't play at the right speed. and then when being dubbed, more distortion can occurQuote:
Originally Posted by lakeside
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogiedown
I did as well! It was still a great catch!
this Royal Hawaiian:Quote:
Originally Posted by kenneth
http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/i/msnbc/...e-hmed-12p.jpg
Some good points raised Jim. I think many a Supreme fan loved the glitter and glitz as much as the music. It really was a battle for the group to adopt a more contemporary image and style while forever being associated with the Ross era.Quote:
Originally Posted by jim aka jtigre99
very fair assessment ollie. I wonder if a mega hit would have allowed the group to advance. something that would have re-established them with the general public and maybe in a bit of a new light/style from previous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie9
I agree that Cindy is an anchor of the Supremes' legacy and all. and her second departure was a bit of a hot mess. and although MCS sounded great on the tracks on Sup 75, i don't think the MSC lineup would have been able to handle the MS&S album. Susaye was/is an amazing singer and added an exciting and completely new dynamic to the group. whereas HMM and Where Do I Go From Here are nice but rather generic disco, Walking and LYG weren't standouts. much of that certainly lies with Scherrie's incredible vocals. But Susaye's role [[both with the ad libs and just as a backing vocalist) adds an important new level to the music
We always talk about what a magic combination the blend of Diana, Flo And Mary’s voices made for, but i believe, vocally af least MS&S had something really special.Quote:
Originally Posted by sup_fan
Susaye breathed new life into the group, whether as you mention leading a song or in the background. With two soulful, powerhouse voices, Mary was cast as the calm after the storm.
I’ve always thought that had MS&S been a comeback album of sorts and released in 81, it would have gone down a storm, establishing the groups new sound and identity.
45 years after the group disbanded, those final two Supremes albums still sound fresh and relevant even today.
i agree, at least on record. MSS is one of the most powerful lineups of the group's history. vocally, they were amazing. and the proof is the sensational final album.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie9
listen to Sweet Dream Machine and Susaye's line. on "You take me high" Susaye actually goes DOWN on the word "high" and then on "you take me low" she flips the note up on "low" it's quite subtle but an amazing effect.
Live though, the group was a mess. it's just a case of too much. there's too much 3-part harmony - doing it on everything is too much to take and too much to try and listen to. there's too much ad libbing. there's to much choreography. etc.
but i see that as the fault of the management of the group. not necessarily the singers.
My all-time favorite lineup, though you were much more eloquent than I could’ve been about the reasons why!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie9
Oh Lord. That was way to much oversinging for me. Hard to listen to the entire number.
Are there any recordings of Jean singing this live? I don't remember it being on the Live in Japan album, though I've only listened to it a few times.
I think this one would sound a lot better in a better audio. I didn't find it had too much singing as I got a little impatient with the overlong intro. I thought the girls sounded to be in amazing voice though.
Great find, thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6at8UDDt9AQuote:
Originally Posted by kenneth
Intro aside, i don’t understand why you take a powerful message song and try to make it light and fluffy. It sounds like their in a hurry to get it over with. I prefer the MS&S version.Quote:
Originally Posted by reese
All of the lineups were talented, but there are hundreds of other talented female groups no one is going to be a success without the material. And it is difficult to get good material if the people who have it do not feel you are going to do something worthwhile with it. Producers get an idea in their head, someone saved Tina Turner from oblivion, Patti got Lady marmalade out of nowhere, it happens. Rarely. MSS wouldn’t go anywhere at any time unless they had someone behind them with vision and a plan and dollars to invest. It’s quite unlikely that would happen outside of Motown . And nobody was happy with a Motown. I think people are not looking at why, at least a major reason why the groupings did not work: they had no visual sense or style, they had absolutely no idea how to work a stage they treated their hit records like garbage completely destroying the likability. When I used to hear these songs live I used to think there was something wrong with me that I hated so much the way they were doing it. I wanted to see and enjoy their artistic vision until I realized, it wasn’t me, it was them. They imploded from the inside. I watched it happen. I saw them enough times until one day I realized this wonderful disciplined group that I love so much had turned into a grab bag free-for-all with occasional fantastic highlights. The girls were wonderful and friendly and it was weird hanging out with them and hating their show. I don’t think MSS could’ve gone anywhere because they didn’t have a clue. Scherrie still doesn’t. She obliterates the classic supreme songs to this very day. And she is the kindest sweetest woman in the world you will never hear across worried about her, she absolutely knows that there is a lot of pushback about the way she sings the classic songs and she doesn’t care. Well you can’t piss on your legacy and foundation like that and expect to maintain the followers. They don’t have followers anymore they have hangers on, like me. People talk about how Diana’s ego got in the way of the group, but that didn’t do 1/10 as much damage as what Mary’s ego did to the group. I truly believe in my heart that if they had let Berry manage them, hands on when he offered to, that they would have fared much better. He would’ve presented their individual talents while still maintaining a true group identity. It’s easy to say that now of course, in hindsight, but mary wanted control of the group at all costs. She said in 1970 they became a group again, but that’s not true. She called the shots. When I think of the magic moments she created in the shadows with her spotlight numbers, she was amazing. She didn’t have to run on the stage yelling look at me look at me look at me all the time. It didn’t work, and it took away from the grace and integrity of her rich solos. Ditto Susaye: she could be stunningly effective in her solos, or she could over seeing them to the point of annoyance. They needed someone to reel them in and they didn’t have that so I don’t think it matters who was in the group in 1981, they didn’t have the fundamentals down to be successful.
many times i've commented on my disappointment with SL in the live version. the rapid pace is certainly a problem but also Jean's insistence on going so far off the melody. this Japan version is one of the most egregious as she basically just mumbles her way through the lyrics. in addition the recorded version has several glorious moments of 3-part harmony like the "I tell ya I ain't got no other" prior to the bridge and of course the On and On and On and On segment. Unlike some of the MSS where the act just overwhelms you with endless 3-part harmony to the point of giving you a headache, Frank used it to add emphasis and power to very specific segments of the song. those should have been mandatory segments in the live performance with absolutely 0 ad lib or anything. it's not needed. the power and sensationalism of their 3 glorious voices in 3 part harmony would be all you need. Lynda does add some wonderfully powerful top notes in the backing vocals but overall the song is a dudQuote:
Originally Posted by Ollie9
which is a bit ironic since part of Frank's vision for SL and the NW album was this fusion between classical and pop/r&b. the symphonic nature of the tune should lend itself perfectly to a supremes show, since they'd often be backed by a full orchestra as opposed to just a band. and SL didn't have as many layered vocals lines as Ladder, Loving Country, etc.
excellent points maniac. in my other post i just typed, i talked about Jean basically butchering SL live. others on here have said that Gil and people tried to coach her, advising not to go so far off the melody. but jean did what she wanted. and on the stage in the middle of the show, she would sing it however she wanted. so even if you had people giving them appropriate notes to pull back, doesn't mean they wouldQuote:
Originally Posted by TheMotownManiac
the 70s lineups suffered from a lack of strategic vision. they came out of the gate strong - the new sound with Ladder and RO worked beautifully. there was significant interest in the revised group and people responded well. problem seems to be they just sat there and didn't evolve. in the past, you could hold onto an image for several years but by the 70s, you needed to keep things fresh. the myriad of missteps with the NW album, the idiotic duets, the clinging onto the old sequin/Vegas image by late 70 were all culprits in the group's decline.
with I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do The Walking you had a small glimpse of an opportunity to again re-invent the group. and yes, they should have let Gordy and Motown manage things again. people say "well motown had done nothing and P and M had kept the group together" but it was the diehard gay fans keeping the group together. and when there was a breakthrough record, even if P and M had the best of intentions, they simply didn't have the resources. they could never have taken things to that next level so they should have allowed motown to help
@Reese et. al,
Thanks for posting the video. Boy, you really do hear the power and strength in Jean's voice especially in the opening. But yes, they just race through the song at such a breakneck pace that she does what she always seemed to do with all the hit songs when performing them live, she seems to throw away the lyric.
I'm sure there is something to be said for the pace in a live performance needing to be faster than on the records, as someone alluded to above, perhaps to keep the energy level up [[and maybe get away with shorter live segments?). But this song is so moving and majestic in its original arrangement, that it just sounds kind of like a pop song in this rendition. "Stoned Love" definitely deserved better!
Thanks again!