High Energy vs Mary, Scherrie & Susaye albums

[BobbyC]

I liked Susaye's voice but my friends hated it. One of them said she sounded like a screeching cat! I prefer Susaye in the background more than on lead. To my ears, Scherrie and Mary had good lead voices on the right material--but Susaye's voice really added some extra excitement to many of those tracks. I actually heard Let Yourself Go on the radio exactly once back then. Years ago Susaye told me she thought that song was too fast which sort of surprised me. I would be a lousy producer. A song like Let Yourself Go could be done so many different ways--how does one choose?

[sup_fan]

I liked Susaye's voice but my friends hated it. One of them said she sounded like a screeching cat! I prefer Susaye in the background more than on lead. To my ears, Scherrie and Mary had good lead voices on the right material--but Susaye's voice really added some extra excitement to many of those tracks. I actually heard Let Yourself Go on the radio exactly once back then. Years ago Susaye told me she thought that song was too fast which sort of surprised me. I would be a lousy producer. A song like Let Yourself Go could be done so many different ways--how does one choose?

i wonder if she's maybe remembering their live rendition of LYG which was like a runaway train. plus with the choreography and gowns and stage lights, it's amazing one of them didn't suffer cardiac arrest right on the stage! lol


Motown was interested in the group again during Walking. with such as ham handed promotional campaign and strategy, it was on the charts a long time. was on fire in the clubs. so motown felt - ok maybe there IS still some interest in the group. with gays and discos and dance.

motown didn't really have a disco act at the time. Diana had just broken into that market with Hangover and labels like Casablanca were really getting hot. I'd guess that motown thought they could take an established brand like The Supremes and pretty easily take them into that market. rather than trying to build and develop something new.

[RanRan79]

motown didn't really have a disco act at the time. Diana had just broken into that market with Hangover and labels like Casablanca were really getting hot. I'd guess that motown thought they could take an established brand like The Supremes and pretty easily take them into that market. rather than trying to build and develop something new.

That makes a lot of sense. It's difficult for me to believe there's any accuracy to the hypothesis, considering how dumb TPTB at Motown at the time appear to have been. I still disagree that the Supremes were the group to establish the label in disco. Maybe had they signed Scherrie as a solo artist...

[sup_fan]

That makes a lot of sense. It's difficult for me to believe there's any accuracy to the hypothesis, considering how dumb TPTB at Motown at the time appear to have been. I still disagree that the Supremes were the group to establish the label in disco. Maybe had they signed Scherrie as a solo artist...

i guess we'll have to agree to disagree lolol Now i do like the overall genre of disco. I think it makes some of the best dance music. but then again, i remember it when it was new too! lol

that's not to say that all disco music was excellent or of high quality. absolutely not. as time progressed, it become more and more mechanical and soulless. And even some of the more popular hits and music by quality artists was a bit disappointing. That's why i like the Supremes' stuff, especially MS&S. There's a legitimate effort to create melody with many of their songs. Walking, You keep me moving on, you're what's missing, Don't want to be tied down, let yourself go - although to be honest LYG is more just a feel-good dance tune. Each of these has some attempt at some pretty decent verses and choruses, utilizing some strong backup vocals too. IMO they're not just mindless thumping of the bass beat.

Disco was slandered by white midwest men that felt threatened by this burgeoning music that came from the blacks and gays. And disco didn't help itself by becoming so mainstream that you had parents in Peoria learning to hustle and heading to a local disco. And some of the music frankly was garbage. But there's junk in any and all musical genres too

[RanRan79]

i guess we'll have to agree to disagree lolol Now i do like the overall genre of disco. I think it makes some of the best dance music. but then again, i remember it when it was new too! lol

that's not to say that all disco music was excellent or of high quality. absolutely not. as time progressed, it become more and more mechanical and soulless. And even some of the more popular hits and music by quality artists was a bit disappointing. That's why i like the Supremes' stuff, especially MS&S. There's a legitimate effort to create melody with many of their songs. Walking, You keep me moving on, you're what's missing, Don't want to be tied down, let yourself go - although to be honest LYG is more just a feel-good dance tune. Each of these has some attempt at some pretty decent verses and choruses, utilizing some strong backup vocals too. IMO they're not just mindless thumping of the bass beat.

Disco was slandered by white midwest men that felt threatened by this burgeoning music that came from the blacks and gays. And disco didn't help itself by becoming so mainstream that you had parents in Peoria learning to hustle and heading to a local disco. And some of the music frankly was garbage. But there's junk in any and all musical genres too

"i guess we'll have to agree to disagree lolol"...So what else is new?

I love the genre of disco. So much music to love IMO. I don't care for what I call the electronic disco, stuff like "I Feel Love" or "Livin, Lovin, Givin". It feels too mechanized and stale rather than utilizing great musicians, maybe combined with a bit of new artificial sounds. There was still quite a bit of soul to disco IMO. So my critique of the Supremes being paired with disco has everything to do with the Supremes' brand and nothing to do with the genre itself. I'll believe in the public accepting disco Supremes as much as I believe they would have accepted disco Beach Boys. When you're as HUGE and iconic as the Supremes, Beach Boys, Elvis, you really can't stray too far away from your brand. Couple that with the general public largely believing the Supremes ceased to exist somewhere around 1971, and not feeling any connection to three nameless, faceless, new Supremes [[even though one was an original), disco Supremes really didn't have a chance in hell. R&B/Pop Supremes was where the money is.

[sup_fan]

we've talked plenty about how the live shows for MSS were a mess. For the Susaye solo, they simply pulled old songs out of their set list like He Aint Heavy and People. Both were old songs jean did. By the end, she was doing that stevie song. But they didn't really let her showcase on a piece that's just perfect for her

like this song. I've never liked this song really but DAMN!!! this is just a stunning performance and shows what could have been done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjGRP5nXDtw

[blackguy69]

You mean when she did knocks me off my feet.

we've talked plenty about how the live shows for MSS were a mess. For the Susaye solo, they simply pulled old songs out of their set list like He Aint Heavy and People. Both were old songs jean did. By the end, she was doing that stevie song. But they didn't really let her showcase on a piece that's just perfect for her

like this song. I've never liked this song really but DAMN!!! this is just a stunning performance and shows what could have been done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjGRP5nXDtw

[blackguy69]

You mean when she did knocks me off my feet.

[marv2]

Thank you for this. I remember her doing this . So very nice!

[RanRan79]

we've talked plenty about how the live shows for MSS were a mess. For the Susaye solo, they simply pulled old songs out of their set list like He Aint Heavy and People. Both were old songs jean did. By the end, she was doing that stevie song. But they didn't really let her showcase on a piece that's just perfect for her

like this song. I've never liked this song really but DAMN!!! this is just a stunning performance and shows what could have been done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjGRP5nXDtw

I've never liked the song either and Susaye singing it didn't change that. I couldn't make it through the whole thing.

[RanRan79]

I liked Susaye's voice but my friends hated it. One of them said she sounded like a screeching cat! I prefer Susaye in the background more than on lead. To my ears, Scherrie and Mary had good lead voices on the right material--but Susaye's voice really added some extra excitement to many of those tracks. I actually heard Let Yourself Go on the radio exactly once back then. Years ago Susaye told me she thought that song was too fast which sort of surprised me. I would be a lousy producer. A song like Let Yourself Go could be done so many different ways--how does one choose?

I'm not a fan of Susaye's lead voice either, although I'd have to be deaf not to recognize how talented she is. I find that she adds more to the backing vocals that gives those songs a certain sound they might have been missing for sometime. But she was more than capable of singing lead, and honestly, between her talent as a vocalist and her songwriting abilities, she probably never should've been a Supreme in the first place. She should have been out on her own.

[sup_fan]

I'm not a fan of Susaye's lead voice either, although I'd have to be deaf not to recognize how talented she is. I find that she adds more to the backing vocals that gives those songs a certain sound they might have been missing for sometime. But she was more than capable of singing lead, and honestly, between her talent as a vocalist and her songwriting abilities, she probably never should've been a Supreme in the first place. She should have been out on her own.

Susaye is most certainly one of the most talented, vocally, of the supremes. she does have a very unique tone and sound quality. it's an unusual tone and maybe not quite to everyone's liking. but damn - that woman was talented. I just don't know that there was really sufficient time for the producers and her to get into a rhythm. although they clearly did find ingenious ways to leverage her abilities.

ear candy - this was totally new for the Sups sound. her ad libs and extras on Walking, Wheel, the ending of Sweet Dream Machine.

Come into my life - Obviously HE and Walking weren't written with her in mind. I'd like to think that Come Into My Life was. it's very interesting how they segue her vocals into the synthesizer.

new and different approaches to background - on the LYG EE set, there's the unreleased version of I Don't Want to Lose You where Susaye adds much more bg vocals. Then they used her to do the soprano echo part on We Should Be Closer

there's a little thing that i just love on Sweet Dream. during Susaye's verse, it's so subtle you'll easily miss it. she sings "You take me high, you take me low." on the word High, she does a slide DOWN. and then on Low, she flips her voice UP! it's just those little things that help display her amazing talents