From Interview magazine, a dialogue between these 2 icons [[and Shelly Berger is also there) from 1976.
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/cu...th-andy-warhol
From Interview magazine, a dialogue between these 2 icons [[and Shelly Berger is also there) from 1976.
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/cu...th-andy-warhol
Thanks for sharing - great tidbit here:
PL: Do you ever wish You were still a Supreme?
DR: No. But I remember a lot of loneliness then. Now I don’t have to ever be lonely. I always have the kids. They’re always there and they’re mine, you know? You look at them and they change every day. And they learn every day. They’re really very special. I think that’s the real special part of my life now. Before, when I was with the Supremes, there was a lot of loneliness. Man, we were together on the stage and grinnin’ and smilein’ and makin’ everybody else happy … and then go home to your room all by yourself. I never partied a lot. Mary did get a chance to get out of that. She had lots of friends and she socialized. I never socialized a lot. I wasn’t comfortable-that was my own personal hang-up. And then it was difficult for Florence, too. Her whole thing … it was just very difficult. We became a piece of baggage travelin’ all around. Towards the end there, we were just workin’ together. But we were still friends and kind of feedin’ off of each other while we were travelin’ around. But it was very difficult. I think it was difficult also because we made it very difficult. We didn’t really know how to handle what was happenin’. All of a sudden, we were makin’ a lot of money and we were able to… only thing we wanted to do with our money was buy clothes! That’s all. We didn’t know anything else to do with it. We didn’t know if we were bein’ taken advantage of. We were just little kids—doin’ it, you know?
I just finished the whole thing - really great stuff and it made me love her even more…
The Supremes accomplished so much success,yet we fans overlook the fact that it was alot of work.
You are so right about what had to be a tremendous amount of work to be a Supreme. Apart from their performance appearances, let's just consider all of the photography [[both professionally done and semi-staged photos) where they always seemed to 'on point' and fashionable. There have to be what seems like thousands of pictures taken of them. And then, how about the recording schedules evident from so much of the non-released material we are fed from time to time. It's hard to fathom when they ever had time to just relax. And add the extra strain put on Diana being [[like it or not) the lead singer whose voice was on all of their recordings. She had to learn all the different genres of music. Mary, Florence, and Diana really didn't have a former group from the past from whom they could learn the pros and the cons of the business.
Berry Gordy and Motown were still relatively new to the business and maybe did not provide all of the psychological and business support to each of the ladies. They were fortunate to have the Artist Development Department assisting them; however, in hindsight, having some type of therapy/psychological support system would have been beneficial. Yes, they accomplished so much success!
I apologize to after all who referenced this article several days ago. I didn't mean to steal his thunder.
Diana has mentioned that a lot of the problems within the group weren't exactly problems or anyone's fault. they were just the natural outcome of working extremely hard, in very stressful conditions with really no roadmap or predecessors to pull from. 10 years they were together and working all the time. frankly 10 years in any job is a lot. and to have such together could be a bad thing - at least with an office job you head home and are only with those people from 9 to 5. but the supremes were constantly together
rehearsing new songs for recording
in the recording booths
photo shoots
preparing new tunes for the show
traveling
interviews
PR appearances
gown fittings
then there are the shows themselves, after parties
rehearsals on stage everywhere they went - they had a rhythm section they traveled with but the additional musicians would have been local. so after you arrived in that city, hurry to the theater or club to run a few numbers with the larger band.
The depiction of Ross in this article is brilliant. She becomes wonderfully fascinating, authentic, and exciting. It is who I always imagined Diana Ross was.
Contrast that with dull and mundane Secrets of a Sparrow. The checkout lady in the grocery store seemed more interesting. Diana is not a creative person, and she still doesn’t know it. She is a brilliant puppet and a lousy puppeteer. Take 90% of the executive power away from her and put it in the hands of a truly innovative person, and we get the brilliant Diana Ross back.
Last edited by Circa 1824; 03-26-2023 at 12:50 AM.
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