Discrepancies: Motown: Music Money and Power

[CoolKatz]

I'd be very surprised if there were any serious discussions in 69 of Mary stepping in as the lead singer for the Supremes. I tend to ignore most interviews since who knows what the heck they'll say. often they're just trying to pull together a quick answer while on air.

according to mary's book, she didn't want the position as she felt she wasn't prepared to take it on.

another POV is the Motown had never had any interest in Mary as a lead singer. during the very earliest sessions, she had only a couple vocals while Flo had quite a few. They seemed to pretty much just give her a token track on the specialty albums and that was it. There certainly wasn't any significant investment in studio time for her to trail things, experiment, test, etc. And she wasn't a "problem" like Flo.

As for the Lynda shows when Jean was ill, the musical charts were all written for a soprano lead line. You would have had to redo all of the vocals and that would have been out of the question. If you listen [[if you care to lol) to Mary's live shows that are on YouTube from that ill-fated South America tour in summer 77, during the choruses of the songs, she's singing her alto part. sure during the verses she's on lead but it makes for a rather confusing listen. her mic is the lead mic but she's often not singing the melody.

As time moves on and more truths are revealed I think it's highly plausible that Mary was the one who really wanted to be the lead singer. In this sense Mary and Lynda were a lot a like.

Motown legend has it that Flo wanted the sole lead role. This is often said because it fits well with the Dreamgirl narrative imo, but from what I've been told is Flo just wanted things to be be fair. Flo was fine with the group being a multi lead group like the Temps because that is how they started. Imo this would have lessened the friction a bit

I do think that because Mary was told that she couldn't sing [[she could sing well) that it caused a major insecurity, but that was done by design. It's basic manipulation 101

Songs could have been tailored to Flo or Mary even if they were B-sides or album fillers. They did for Wanda, Gladys and Martha.

Make no mistake I do agree with Diana for the singles as this was a winning formula, but as anyone with children will tell you, issues begin when one child gets all the treats all the time!

As always I close with this is all water under the bridge It's interesting to see how things should have gone but it's all done now. Rest assured as time goes on and more people pass on, a more honest picture will emerge for those who are interested.

Fortunately the ones who have passed on couldn't care less about any of this. They gave us the music and the illusion while they were here and we're still talking about it. Their work is done!