already posted on YouTube
already posted on YouTube
This is FANTASTIC! Mary is fabulous, and the banter with Diana is priceless! So great to hear Cindy so loud and clear as well!
I have to say this is quite nice......maybe Mary at her best ....
Last edited by Boogiedown; 01-24-2022 at 04:14 AM.
Mary performs this R&H song with consummate class and ease. It’s marvellous she’s finally getting the true recognition she deserves. Lady Supreme indeed.
Last edited by Ollie9; 01-24-2022 at 06:32 AM.
this is a stronger performance than the one on the lp.
Listening to this version made me wonder if all the shows during that engagement were recorded. Maybe Andy and the group has ever thought of releasing all the recordings of this. Hell, Elvis Presley's group released all the recordings of his Vegas engagement in 1970. Here's to wishful thinking.
i don't know that they recorded every night. Deke once shared his memories - not sure if he posted them here himself or if someone recapped a discussion with him.
several nights were recorded. now does that mean 2, 3, all of them? not sure.
my guess is that they knew they would be recording 1/14 and then would also cover a few more shows earlier so that if something went wrong on 1/14, they had a backup. like what if in the middle of Love Child on 1/14, there was a big feedback screech? LC would be a song they'd want on the lp. so having a backup would be good
Deke did mention the girdle comment from mary lol. he said the girls were MUCH more animated during this run, especially on the final night. there's apparently LOTS of banter that he cut out. some of it might be a bit jaded too. he said Mary was feeling NO pain that night and really was going to town
I remember reading those comments from Deke. He also mentioned the editing process was a complete nightmare, taking many dedicated hours.
It seems strange that with all the care put into the recording, of “Farewell”, Motown never thought to release the concert on video or dvd.
I imagine back in the day it would have sold extremely well, though now that time may have passed.
A bit less blah than than her other solos. Her voice lacked brightness, especially her lower registry. Diana’s exploded with brightness. Mary should never start a song in that lower registry because it almost dooms the song. Mary went a very long way riding on a thin carpet.
Last edited by Circa 1824; 01-25-2022 at 09:16 AM.
i think the issue with video taping the show was "where would it be used and distributed?"
there really was no home video market at the time. And supposedly Dick Clark did use segments of it on Bandstand. but outside of that, there really wasn't much of an opportunity to use the video anywhere. sure they could have tried to do a tv special but why would Berry want to do another Supremes special? he wanted Diana to launch out of the group and do her OWN special, which she did
The show is probably sitting in Berry's personal vault, which is rather sad as I'm sure most of us would enjoy seeing it.
I do remember a color clip being shown on one of the AMERICAN BANDSTAND anniversary specials. I assume it was from a 1970 episode on which the J5 performed as they showed an intro of Dick introducing the clip and you could see MJ sitting in the audience. Later, they showed some brief B&W clips on the last episode of the PBS series BROWN SUGAR.
Some time back, someone was offering a lot of rare Motown video for sale, amongst them were supposedly the Farewell show. A friend of mine who is also a huge fan asked if I would like to chip in with him to buy some of these offerings as the charge was quite steep. I was going to do it but for whatever reason, it didn't happen. I recall hearing later that some folks did pay but never received anything.
Had it been released in one form or another during the 70’s or 80’s it would have sold bucket loads. This was the biggest girl group in music history. They deserved better.
my guess is that there are a myriad of problems with all of the non-motown songs and singers. Fortunately the Beatles medley was out of the act by this point so that's one less problem to deal with.
Rodgers & Hart estates
Tommy Dorsey
the composers of Hair
Jimmy Webb - didn't we
Cole porter
sweet Charity
TCB - is this owned by motown or the producers of the TCB show?
Man of La mancha
seeing as how some of these songs are quite old, i'm not sure what royalties or whatever would be paid today.
I don't know how difficult getting the rights for the songs would be. But, I remember Deke's post about putting the album together. He had a hard time getting releases from people who were invited to sing Let The Sunshine In. Many of them wouldn't sign one so he couldn't use them. That would also be an issue with them appearing on the video.
They could perhaps have released it to video with the “Let The Sunshine” segment edited to include only Diana, Mary and Cindy.
Its a travesty that this historic event along with TCB have never been made available on dvd, while the market appears flooded with material from far lesser acts. Even a package containing all their fabulous tv apperences would be something.
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