Originally Posted by
RanRan79
I agree Ollie. If Diana were ever going to give music up and focus on something else, it would've been right before the Supremes made it big. Once she became a singing sensation, she wasn't giving that up. Only other scenario I could see is if she felt being at home with her children 24/7 for one reason or another was necessary. At that point I think she would've found someway to do that because it appears she prioritized her children and worked her career around them.
Another label would've made a huge difference. For whatever reason RCA was willing to put up with Diana's crap. Surely there were other labels who would've found a way to ensure that Diana made good on that 20 million dollar return investment. As was pointed out in another thread, it's the music business, so what good business did it make to hand this lady 20 million and then allow her to carve out an inferior career chapter at the new label compared to what she accomplished at Motown? A strong label head would've squashed at least half- and I'm being generous to Diana by saying half- of Diana's output at RCA.
I also agree with Captain's point about Diana needing to stretch her wings. It's the same thing I say about Mary Wilson. These ladies were under the umbrella of Motown and "Daddy" Gordy since they were 16 years old. At 30 something, they are bound to desire something different, something more. They are going to want to venture out and see what they can do. For Diana, that growth first came with leaving the Supremes and making it. Next, it was time to take over her own career, be her own woman. Because of their personal relationship, Gordy should've understood this.
Maybe Gordy couldn't match the offers Diana was getting, but had he sat down with her, offered her as much money as he could get as close to the other offers, agreed to hand over any and all business obligations that Motown still controlled for this nearly 40 year old woman and gave in to her desire to have more creative control, she probably would've stayed. And honestly, I like quite a bit of Motown's 80s output, and feel that Diana could've been as relevant as long as Stevie was. Diana remixing that Chic album shows that she wasn't completely clueless to the production side of music, but with a label like Motown hovering, I think we would've been spared a ton of crap. And some of the RCA cuts that were good to great, may have been even better.
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