Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance View Post
It was bone chilling when I first heard it as a 15 year old. It was odd and astonishingly plodding, sounding like a funeral dirge. The rest of the album played but I could not get that dratted thing out of my head. I didn't hate it but it was hard to fit it into my idea of Motown. In the end, I kept going back to it a lot. Inside a couple days I found I liked this slice of Motown Gothic.

For one thing, the snail's pace of the tune gives Diana plenty of room to practically luxuriate over words and phrasing, as if she were really exploring all the interpretive possibilities. That's something I love about Diana- when she was given the right song at a relaxed tempo, she could linger over syllables, making a pop single sound like jazz.

The otherworldly- sounding backing by Mary, Flo and Lamont are absolutely necessary here. It's just the right compliment for the music and Diana. Contrast and compare the Gladys Knight & The Pips' version sung over the same track; theirs is good but to me, something is lost. Diana and the Sups nailed it. I only wish they would have added the strings we heard on the expanded edition version.
Yes, the added strings gave this song new life.

I actually still believe "Gone" doesn't make sense on the HDH album. Neither does "Remove This Doubt" and "Love Is In Our Hearts". All three sound extremely dated by this point. [[I know Diana's lead for "Love Is In Our Hearts" was recorded in 66, but the track is from 64.) I personally feel their inclusions mess up the flow of the album. Add to that my disdain of the Supremes' "Heat Wave" and "Same Old Song", neither of which were cut with the quality of the originals, and the HDH album is even more lopsided IMO than the A Go Go. But of course, that isn't the point of this thread.

Excellent commentary about Diana's singing on "Gone". I agree 100 percent. Gladys and the Pips' version is also good, but Gladys doesn't sound nearly as broken down as Diana. I suspect that the song's lyrics, like a lot of songs, are left up to the interpretation of the listener. One might listen to this and hear Diana singing of the guy that moved on. But the dirge feel of the song, IMO, makes it all the more clear that this guy is dead. And that makes Diana's lead even more moving for me. Again, we don't usually hear her this way.