The Supreme Florence Ballard CD: Your opinion? Any favourite tracks?
I was apprehensive about getting this CD because it was out of print and expensive, but also because I read a bunch of negative reviews of it, from not only from the more cultlike Beyhivish Diana fans [[which is to be expected) but also from a number of Florence fans, claiming a number of reasons such as the poor production values and lack of effort from ABC.
Anyway when I had a bit of cash, I knew I just as a huge Florence fan I had to have it. She's my idol to the extent that I haven't seen Dreamgirls yet because I know it will make feel too sad seeing Flo get a happy fairytale ending in make-believe only. Also from what I've seen of the movie, Effie is very different from Florence and seems to be a pastiche of several soul legends [[Etta and Aretha I have read), since Effie seems to lack Florence's innate sweetness and warmth, and obviously makes no reference of the true darkness that was gnawing away at Flo inside her, such as the death her father and younger brother, as well as the trauma of being raped at knifepoint at 16. Also Florence was never that big at the height of the Supremes power, and we all know that was just something Gordy did to mess with her head, as Flo didn't start really really really drinking and overreating until all her depressions, hardships, traumas and heartaches reached critical mass. Also, the diet pills that she started taking to get Gordy off her back about her weight actually messed with her natural metabolism and weight until they ended up making her put on much more weight in a faster period. Those things are worse then scams. So Dreamgirls is a very apt title, as its a dream. It's to the true story of Flo [[as it has to be knowing Motown's very fierce lawyers) as Disney's Pocahontas is to its titular real life heroine, or the Don Bluth Anastasia, who as well know now thanks to DNA testing, did not survive the massacre of the Romanov family.
Anyway.
So after a few days of waiting until I felt ready to meet another aspect of my idol, I popped it on. I listened to Buttered Popcorn, which was one of the songs I'd heard of hers by then, which at first I wasn't sure about and didn't like because it was so different to everything else Supreme I had heard.... but now it's one of my quintissential Supreme tracks. Love it. It has its charms that I appreciate and feel sad that they were not to be heard from again for the rest of Flo's Supreme career.
And then I hit a track, You Bring out the Sweetness In Me. Loved it. Most of my fave tracks on the CD are clustered around there. For a while that track was my fave, but soon I found myself loving, and I do mean loving, Love Ain't Love, Forever Faithful [[my favourite parts of that song are when Flo sings "Oh Baby Heaven must have put in overtime for me" and "i WILL keep on telling you through eternity", Ain't That Good News, Forever Faithful.... but my fave song on there is It Doesn't Matter How I say It, [[It's what I say that matters), because of how cute and silly but also quite raunchy as well the lyrics are, delivered with Flo's sweet, warm sensuality. It felt like an older, more mature version of Buttered Popcorns in that Flo was delivering very risque sounding double entendres, but managed to make them sound sweet and innocent and silly as well, with her natural charm and warmth. It felt like the brassy, sassy but also sweet girl in Buttered Popcorn had grown up and matured, into a young mother. I consider the two songs a bit of a set to each other in my head.
If she was a candy dish, I'd want to be the one I'd put all my butterscotch caramels in, I can tell you! I love old fashioned hard candy.
But another standout track on there for me is Heavenly Father. When I heard that for the first time, you felt the intense sadness in the heart of this sweet young lady. The gentle anguish, sweet heartache, loving gentleness, but determined, resolute glass half full nature. I lost my own father when I was six, and now when I sing this song to myself I think of the song addressing the heavenly father about my own father in heaven and how I miss him despite not having many memories of him before his death. And it makes me feel.... like Florence would have understood my sorrow at losing my dad, as she was very much a daddy's girl and adored her father and was very close to him, and lost hers as a teenager. You know Florence was beyond distraught if Diana had to sing at his funeral and not her. I myself was the main speaker at my mother's funeral, and that was.... very easy for me, because I knew it's what she would have wanted, but I would totally understand Flo not wanting to.
I don't know. I feel like this CD is the tip of the iceberg of Flo's true talent and potential, and it's one of my most prized possessions now and one of my best purchases ever, musical or not.
I would be pleased to know if any of you enjoyed it as much as me. And if you didn't like it, I would be interested to know your critiques, as I don't think it's perferct but for me, singing is like fashion, it's not what you wear, but how you wear it, it's not what you sing but how you sing it. And I can tell no thought was put into it by ABC and it was doomed from the start, but I am very grateful and happy that I have a whole 18 tracks where my idol gets to shine. I'm hoping if Cindy Birdsong and Jean Terrell and Mary Wilson have shelved albums too, as all I have heard is Dancing Room, which really didn't showcase Cindy's lovely talents very well, though I did like the lyrics. There is a whole bunch of shelved Supremes albums that I would be so happy to see dragged up from the depths, like the Disney album and the Roostertail one.
Also I loved Forever Faithful/Love Ain't Love so much I got it on vinyl and made sure it came with the sleeve. I watched One Night ONly only Youtube [[the Deena Jones and the Dreams version) and I was pleased to spot that Effie's single sleeve was clearly a reference's to Flo's Love Ain't Love/Forever Faithful release.
Sorry if I wrote a whole essay I have a lot of feelings and reactions! The Supremes and Flo in particular mean so very much to me.
I would say the album is missing several songs, such as songs where Diana and Flo sang lead together, such as Manhattan and People [[which I consider Flo's song in the Supremes repetoire), and songs where all girls shared leads. Save me a Star really needs to be there as well. I would also be interested in renaming some of the more clunky titles into something a bit more punchy. It's a very sixties thing to do is to have long and very bald emotional titles, such as I Only Want to Be With You and Where Did our Love Go [[look at the original title for Breathtaking Guy), but I think some of them could be trimmed. I think If I were a Candy Dish is a better title for example. Love Ain't Love could do with a longer title as I would say it is perhaps the strongest original release by Flo, so perhaps A Bell Ain't A bell Until You Ring It? Love Ain't Love, Bells Ain't Bells?
I would be interested in having CDs that each focus on one specific Supreme be released. A best of Jean and the Supremes would be easy to do, Jean probably has my favourite singing voice of any individual living or dead. I love it so! I think of it being as a combination of Diana's sweet and breathy silky vocals, delivered with Flo's velvet sensuality, raw charisma, effortless charm and gospel powerhousing. It's divine, like pure distilled nectar, she has the voice of an angel!
But I would be interested in one that allows sweet Cindy to be in the spotlight, with songs like the Wisdom of Time and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Miss Birdsong works hard and throws no shade in an industry where feuds can end up playing like a social media version of the Kashmir border, it's about time she got her dues, I think we all can agree.
But yes. I'm so happy I got this CD.
