Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
i definitely need to explore Disc 2 of their L&F set. i've played it a few times but really not familiar with most of the tracks on it.

i think this is a fascinating topic. all groups must evolve and change and, as someone stated already, 68 was a crazy year in America. music was rapidly becoming much more aggressive and less "cute" than in the early and mid 60s. And given the material that HDH did at Invictus, i don't think it was really all the revolutionary. while it's perfectly fine, it doesn't really reinvent or shake things up like their mid 60s work. So i think if HDH had stayed at motown, they would have started to lose their iron-clad grips on the Tops and Sups. I do love the Frank Wilson work with both of those groups. it seems as if the tops were the male counterpoint to the New Supremes as they moved into singing about peace, god, higher ideal about mankind.
I agree with you that H-D-H may have ended up losing their grip on those groups, or at least, the material may have retreated from trying to break new ground. The H-D-H vaulted material on the Lost And Found Set struck me as good music, but I think it definitely was moving away from the astonishing, epic sounds of the Golden Trio of "Reach Out", "Shadows" and "Bernadette". Really, how could you top those?

It's the same topic a buddy and I have about a lot of Progressive Rock bands. One in particular we discuss is the band Yes. They had a period where they were really hitting on all cylinders and then the times changed as the 70's became the 80's. A band gets put into a no-win position at some point: either you change with the times [[or try) and get shot down for changing your sound. OR you stick to trying to do the same thing and get shot down for NOT changing your sound. Yes got shot down for doing something as 80s-Chic as "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", but what were their options by this time.

Coincidentally, this same friend is a huge fan of the Four Tops and much of the Motown artists and the same arguments that apply to these Prog Rock bands can actually be carried over to Motown's writers and artists. Had the Tops and Supremes gone as far as they could have with H-D-H? Very hard to say, but both groups were thankfully rejuvenated when they worked with Frank Wilson and they didn't suffer and complaints from the public about changing their sound. Thank goodness.