Quote Originally Posted by CoolKatz View Post
We should perhaps start another thread regarding Florence because this one is about Mary.

IMO I don't think Son of a Preacher Man was that bad, If there were any intentions of having it released they would have did multiple takes until they had a Supremely finished product. These songs were likely given to Mary to appease her at the time, but never any true intentions to include it on any DRATS album.

Regarding Florence I will add that Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, Otis Williams among others have also have spoken highly on Florence's vocal skills. Having said that we must keep in mind that everyone has different taste and that everyone does not have to agree on an opinion. Emphasizing the word opinion. One must keep in mind that all will not agree and that's fine. I personally liked some of the songs on Flo's album like "Forever Faithful" and "Love Ain't Love" to name a few, but again overall the production was bad and from what I heard George Kerr was trying to pull a Gordy play and this automatically put things at a negative start. Flo was not about to endure that again. Robert Bateman knew her from early Motown and came in with a different approach, thus getting better results.

Finally keep in mind that no one at Motown came in as professional singers [[with a few exceptions), therefore most skills were learned and cultivated. More for some than others. All one of the original Supremes had raw talent that needed cultivating. Luckily we did get to see their showmanship evolve quite a bit from the 65 Copa to the 67 Copa. But like everything else on this planet it all ends at some point.
Unfortunately I can't comment on "Son" as it's been taken down before I got a chance to listen to it.

I agree 100 percent with your comment about opinions. That was the point I was trying to make. Different strokes for different folks, but it doesn't make anyone wrong and it can't be chalked up to BS. Each of the original trio has folks who love their voices and folks who don't. And in the case of Diana and Mary it seems like folks either love or hate their voices, not much of a group of inbetweens.

As far as Flo and Kerr, I don't know if George was "trying to pull a Gordy" or if he had his own personal way of producing a singer and Florence was still smarting from being forced to do what some man- any man- told her. [[Unfortunately she was a fool for Tommy.)

Agree 1000 percent about cultivating talent. People forget that talent needs to be cultivated. Diana in 1960, as talented as she was [[I even dig the nasal sound lol) would never have become Diana of 1964/1967/1970/1980/1990 if she had remained within the abilities she had in the beginning and had not had the guidance of many people who helped her learn all she could. Why people expect Florence to be able to do in her first solo go what it took Diana years to learn is beyond me.