Touch - the Album - A Facebook Review

[blackguy69]

Most of the Motown act didn’t really do album cuts in their shows so it isn’t a surprise that the girls followed suit.

I can see how my statement might have been confusing. I wasn't suggesting that the whole show be one album. When I said the whole album would have made for an excellent show, I was referring to the quality of songs to choose from. Both "Story" and "Sunrise" would have made great openings. And the other songs would have all made good choices for songs in the show.

The Supremes never could have done a show and not sung some of those old hits. And of course the 70s Supremes would need to sing their own hits as well. So no, a whole album show probably wouldn't have worked. However, RO had the longest runtime at about 37 minutes. NW, Touch and FJ all hover around the 30 minute mark. The argument could certainly be made that, if they had an hour set, they could have sung all the songs from their latest album, plus a couple of the old hits, the new hits, and a cover tune or two. The group never really capitalized off of their own new material. I'm not well versed in the show lineups as many of the rest of you, so I will definitely defer to more knowledgeable folks, but the only album cuts I know of that the Jean Supremes did in their show was "Tossin and Turnin", I believe "Loving Country" and I assume it's possible they were doing "Time To Break Down" since they did it on TV. That's way too little usage of their own catalog in an age where selling the album was arguably more important than the single.

[gman]

It never charted. Was just a catalog release for the average record buyer. In 1965 Gordy flooded us with Supremes, it was hard to keep up

In my neck of the woods....by 1968 when I got onboard, the beautiful MEET cover reissue was just a once in a blue sighting....I never got it....my first copy of MEET was the 80's stools reissue...it is one step ahead of Webb in my least fav Supremes LPs. The earliest of the tracks are IMHO horrible....I like 3 songs on Meet...2 on Webb, and IGIMTM isn't even one of Webbs.

[sup_fan]

I'm not sure why the decision to merge "Stoned" and "Break", and agree that it was strange. However, I do enjoy hearing them do "Break" live, as it's one of my favs from the NW album. Might have made more sense to just do them separately. And "Bridge"- while I don't like the Supremes' version- makes total sense since it was huge and they covered it on their album. That would have been the smart move. [[Although, I absolutely love their versions of "We've Only Just Begun" and wish they had actually recorded it.)

Time To Break is such a studio masterpiece that it was always going to be a struggle to replicate it live. but maybe it would have worked well at the midpoint of the show as the girls could have let the band and guitars really vamp for a while. they could depart the stage to do a fast costume change and then re-emerge. frankly there isn't all that much vocally to the song anyway

[sup_fan]

Most of the Motown act didn’t really do album cuts in their shows so it isn’t a surprise that the girls followed suit.

true but that's sort of the point. it was motown's standard for live shows in the 60s to include 4 or 5 hits and then MOR material, showtunes, other top songs, etc. But by the 70s that strategy was out of date. and that applies for ALL of the acts. Diana too.

does anyone know how the Four Tops approached this live act after leaving motown? didn't they go to ABC and then had several big hits? were they still doing Copa-material after leaving motown?

i have the Gladys/Pips "lost live album" cd that came out in the 90s. i think it was recording in Detroit? can't remember. great show though and they do almost exclusively their big hits. both motown and buddah. and it's wonderful

[marybrewster]

Let’s be real, other than Marvin, no one at Motown was going to do a full concert with just doing songs from one album. The Jackson Five was really the the only Motown group doing more of their albums cuts with a mix other material.

Right! Even with Diana-lead Supremes, they RARELY ever did an album cut. I can only think of "Mother Dear", but that was slated for potential release, and done on TV, not in concert.

The 70's Supremes should have built a show around 70's Supremes hits. Was LADDER performed in full after 1971? Keep the 60's hits to one medley, and one full tune; Love Child? Reflections? Then fill the show with your own catalog.

[floyjoy678]

true but that's sort of the point. it was motown's standard for live shows in the 60s to include 4 or 5 hits and then MOR material, showtunes, other top songs, etc. But by the 70s that strategy was out of date. and that applies for ALL of the acts. Diana too.

does anyone know how the Four Tops approached this live act after leaving motown? didn't they go to ABC and then had several big hits? were they still doing Copa-material after leaving motown?

i have the Gladys/Pips "lost live album" cd that came out in the 90s. i think it was recording in Detroit? can't remember. great show though and they do almost exclusively their big hits. both motown and buddah. and it's wonderful

I have a live Four Tops album from 1974 and it was all their own songs in the setlist. No standards or cover songs.

I remember seeing the setlist from when Jean first joined the Supremes and they were doing "Don't Rain On My Parade" among other showtunes which gave me an eyeroll. It's a shame, they really had an opportunity to shake things up with Jean and it was wasted.

[blackguy69]

I thought that was Diana’s set list. She opened her show with it. I know someone did post the first show the girls did in Dallas

I have a live Four Tops album from 1974 and it was all their own songs in the setlist. No standards or cover songs.

I remember seeing the setlist from when Jean first joined the Supremes and they were doing "Don't Rain On My Parade" among other showtunes which gave me an eyeroll. It's a shame, they really had an opportunity to shake things up with Jean and it was wasted.

[blackguy69]

I was mistaken: I had to look up the set list


The "New" Supremes - April 19 1970
Intro 1:09
Set Me Free 1:59
Nothing Can Stop Us Now 2:35
Something's Coming 2:05
Tonight 1:21
Dialouge 0:51
Little Green Apples 2:48
Walk On The Wild Side 3:18
Dialouge II 0:38
MacArthur Park 4:58
The Happening1:28
I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You 2:30
Dialouge III 0:56
You'll Never Walk Alone 3:51
Don't Rain On My Parade 1:32
Up The Ladder To The Roof 3:39
Baby Love 0:46
I Hear a Symphony 0:35
Come See About Me 0:43
Stop! In The Name of Love 0:59
Love Child 1:04
Someday We'll Be Together 3:21
Oh, Happy Day 8:03
THE EXODUS SONG aka THIS LAND IS MINE 3:16
Outro 0:59

[sup_fan]

Right! Even with Diana-lead Supremes, they RARELY ever did an album cut. I can only think of "Mother Dear", but that was slated for potential release, and done on TV, not in concert.

The 70's Supremes should have built a show around 70's Supremes hits. Was LADDER performed in full after 1971? Keep the 60's hits to one medley, and one full tune; Love Child? Reflections? Then fill the show with your own catalog.

there are a few times they did some of their other material

time changes things and standing at the crossroads were in their early show up through WDOLG. And so they actually ended up doing many of the WDOLG album tunes - title, BL, CSAM, Breathtaking, Lovelight, run, standing at the crossroads. of course most of those are the album's singles and i don't know that they did them all in 1 concert to promote the album.

the symphony album was heavily covered as they did Symphony, My World, Yesterday, stranger in paradise, wonderful, with a song, without a song, unchained melody. and then on the Sullivan show they swapped Unchained with Everything is good about you. so in the end a total of 9 tunes were performed live [[although most in a medley format) but they did sometimes introduce that medley as being from their IHAS album

Can't take my eyes off you - from the Together album. i think the only tune they did live from that lp

Aquarius/Sunshine - from LTSI but i don't know that this really counts since they sort of threw that track onto the lp from the Dinah show.

R&H - Tramp and Falling

Sam Cooke - about half of the songs were in the medley

[daviddh]

i think if they dropped the standards and kept the hits and album cuts they may have changed course but , somebody had this jazz and broadway nonsense in their heads

[jobeterob]

I was mistaken: I had to look up the set list


The "New" Supremes - April 19 1970
Intro 1:09
Set Me Free 1:59
Nothing Can Stop Us Now 2:35
Something's Coming 2:05
Tonight 1:21
Dialouge 0:51
Little Green Apples 2:48
Walk On The Wild Side 3:18
Dialouge II 0:38
MacArthur Park 4:58
The Happening1:28
I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You 2:30
Dialouge III 0:56
You'll Never Walk Alone 3:51
Don't Rain On My Parade 1:32
Up The Ladder To The Roof 3:39
Baby Love 0:46
I Hear a Symphony 0:35
Come See About Me 0:43
Stop! In The Name of Love 0:59
Love Child 1:04
Someday We'll Be Together 3:21
Oh, Happy Day 8:03
THE EXODUS SONG aka THIS LAND IS MINE 3:16
Outro 0:59

The first half is awful

If Mary had stayed and they kept any of Jean, Scherrie, or Susaye and confined themselves to a big chunk of hits much like Diana does today - I think they could have lasted much like the Temptations.

In retrospect, I think both Mary and the FLOs would have done better if they could have stayed together as the Supremes. Neither of them had any hits as it was and the bookings would surely have been better for both. Mary could still write her book and fought for groups etc.

[sup_fan]

The first half is awful

If Mary had stayed and they kept any of Jean, Scherrie, or Susaye and confined themselves to a big chunk of hits much like Diana does today - I think they could have lasted much like the Temptations.

In retrospect, I think both Mary and the FLOs would have done better if they could have stayed together as the Supremes. Neither of them had any hits as it was and the bookings would surely have been better for both. Mary could still write her book and fought for groups etc.

agreed - had Mary joined up with Scherrie and Lynda, it would have made an excellent situation. their schedules wouldn't have been so full that they wouldn't be able to do some solo things on the side. it just would have combined forces

[Boogiedown]

the reason I find it laughable is that Jean Terrell had zero interest in doing disco. When she did her own album in 1978 she didn't allow for even one such song on it. [I believe that's right]. This during the height of disco and even after seeing LOVE HANGOVER take Diana Ross to the very top. Having someone performing music they weren't interested in would've been disingenuous and not a satisfying solution to any of this mess.

[RanRan79]

Most of the Motown act didn’t really do album cuts in their shows so it isn’t a surprise that the girls followed suit.

No, it's not a surprise, but that doesn't make it any better. The Jean Supremes had a wonderful collection of their very own material and during a time when Motown wasn't as invested in them as the label had been when Diana was in the group, they needed every leg up they could get. Mary has made mention, and I think Jean and Cindy as well, that they felt like Motown wasn't giving their albums the push that they needed. True or not, promotion for those albums could have been aided by including those songs in their live shows as opposed to singing a bunch of other people's songs.

[RanRan79]

I was mistaken: I had to look up the set list


The "New" Supremes - April 19 1970
Intro 1:09
Set Me Free 1:59
Nothing Can Stop Us Now 2:35
Something's Coming 2:05
Tonight 1:21
Dialouge 0:51
Little Green Apples 2:48
Walk On The Wild Side 3:18
Dialouge II 0:38
MacArthur Park 4:58
The Happening1:28
I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You 2:30
Dialouge III 0:56
You'll Never Walk Alone 3:51
Don't Rain On My Parade 1:32
Up The Ladder To The Roof 3:39
Baby Love 0:46
I Hear a Symphony 0:35
Come See About Me 0:43
Stop! In The Name of Love 0:59
Love Child 1:04
Someday We'll Be Together 3:21
Oh, Happy Day 8:03
THE EXODUS SONG aka THIS LAND IS MINE 3:16
Outro 0:59

Does the setlist for this only exist, or is there audio also?

[floyjoy678]

Does the setlist for this only exist, or is there audio also?

Audio for this and another show from March of 1967 exist from a user on the Steve Hoffman forum. I've tried to contact him to obtain it because he didn't know what to do with it but I haven't been able to successfully join the forum to do so. I would love to hear them especially Jean's show.

[sup_fan]

Audio for this and another show from March of 1967 exist from a user on the Steve Hoffman forum. I've tried to contact him to obtain it because he didn't know what to do with it but I haven't been able to successfully join the forum to do so. I would love to hear them especially Jean's show.

what's the "Stever Hoffman" forum?

[floyjoy678]

what's the "Stever Hoffman" forum?

It's an audiophile forum basically.