That's the sad part about it. I've said it before, so I'm just repeating myself, but who cares? That's all we do around here these days anyway.
But her confidence in herself and her inability to take risks really inhibited her options. The voice was there, the look was there, she had the goods on stage. All she needed was the confidence and someone to have an idea of what to do with her. Did Mary have a voice that was going to set the world on fire? Not in my opinion. But did she have a voice to keep her working? Did she have a voice to record albums and singles, to various degrees of success? Sure thing. I look over my music collections and read up on different discographies and am amazed at some of the folks who managed to secure recording contract after recording contract, some, dare I say, with half the talent Mary had. So it wasn't a real case that she had no options when Jean and Lynda flew the coop. It was a mental corner she had backed herself into.
Not that I'm judging her. Self confidence is a problem for so many people, no fault of their own. But of all the Supremes, Mary seemed to be the one that for quite some time wasn't convinced of her abilities. Diana didn't really have that problem. Neither did Florence. Jean and Lynda, and later, Scherrie and Susaye didn't either. [[Hard to say with Cindy.) All those ladies were convinced of their talent and it would've been tough to convince them of anything else. What if Mary had given Motown the finger in 1974? [[Or 73? Did Jean and Lynda officially leave in 73 or 74?) What if she had convinced herself that she was worthy of the music industry and a career in it on her own merit and talent, how different might the MW story be? Of course Mary's story is similar to a lot of folks stories, many of whom never even step into the business because of fear. I remember how back in the day we used to talk about how crazy it was to think that as good as Michael Jordan was, there was some guy at home sitting on his ass who could make Jordan look like a scrub. Likewise it's crazy to consider how many singers whom we could have or could be enjoying have never even gotten a foot in the door because their self confidence is zero.
Anyway, by the time Mary did get it together in her mind, she was officially the Supremes' Mary Wilson and wouldn't, or couldn't, break away from that.
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