important work in color
1963: Meet the Supremes. 1964: A Bit of Liverpool. 1965: Where Did Our Love Go? * The Supremes Sing Country Western and Pop * More Hits by the Supremes * We Remember Sam Cooke * The Supremes at the Copa * Merry Christmas. 1966: I Hear a Symphony * Supremes a Go Go. 1967: Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland * Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart * Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 and 2. 1968: Reflections * Love Child * Sing and Perform Funny Girl * Live at the Talk of the Town * Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations * TCB (with the Temptations). 1969: Let the Sunshine in * Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations Together * Cream of the Crop * Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations On Broadway * Greatest Hits, Volume 3. 1970: Farewell * Right On: The Magnificent Seven (with the Four Tops) * New Ways … but Love Stays. 1971: Return of the Magnificent Seven * Touch * Dynamite (with the Four Tops). 1972: Floy Joy * The Supremes Produced and arranged by Jimmy Webb. 1974: Anthology. 1975: The Supremes. 1976: High Energy * Mary, Scherrie & Susaye.
In the eighties, the Big Chill generation belatedly recast Motown music as hip, one sign of this generations’ early rush towards senility. In the sixties, many of the same people were opting for adventuresome music by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Joni Mitchell, rather than that of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Andy Williams, and, yes, Motown. And for good reason. The difference between pop’s teen angst and the old-timers adult angst really wasn’t all that much. Teen/adult angst as served up by Motown, mirrored pop angst in general, with its confusion of clichés that revolved around a wobbly axis of sentiment: I’ll love you forever/I don’t love you anymore/I’ll never love again/I can’t help falling in love – oddly dreamy subject matter for our rather puritanical world.
But Motown didn’t pretend to be an artistic entity: it was an entertainment corporation, and entertainment in Motown’s book was whatever it could get people to buy. What people bought from Motown were loads of dreck along with an occasional nugget of gold. The nuggets were released as singles, then spread out cunningly amongst the albums to lure the masses. The Supremes, according to the discography in the Mary Wilson biography Where Did Our Love Go?, recorded, a perhaps unprecedented, seventeen albums of material that went unreleased, including, among other things, an album of Disney songs. The vast majority Supremes’ recordings were less than mediocre, so it is safe to assume the unreleased material is best left unheard. Motown was good at getting music onto vinyl, and coming up with the hit single necessary to move units, but personality, craft and exactitude were forsaken for uniformity, speed and product. Even so, there was a lot of talent involved in Motown’s arrangements. Though the line-up was ever-changing, many of Motown’s songs were worked out rhythmically by a hard-working, undercredited core of players that included keyboardist Earl Van Dyke, bass player James Jamerson, guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina, and drummer Benny Benjamin. Arrangements were built around them by Paul Riser, Henry Cosby, James Carmichael, David Van Petitte, Gil Askey. This resulted in music that is quintessentially Motown, music that actually gets a person hankering to hear the vibraphone on "Stop! In the Name of Love;" the baritone sax on 'Back in My Arms Again"; the strings on "Love Child;" and the dark harmonies of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Some of Motown’s live albums – The Supremes at the Copa, for instance, or The Four Tops Live, are almost breathtakingly tight, and showcase the flashy, rehearsed technique Motown shared with Broadway music. Motown arrangements were generally restrained and tasteful. In fact, it is this restraint which was the downfall of Motown music as art, setting in relief the crude, yet much more vital aesthetic of Stax/Volt music, and the devil-may-care pretensions of stomping rock monstrosities from the new musical environment. Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding and many of Atlantic’s recording artists seemed larger than their music. With Motown, solos were truncated, ad-libbing was impossible, and straying from the corporate ethic (love songs) was unheard of (until social-political songs became corporate interests). Getting down and dirty went against Motown’s superficial sense of elegance. (If the Supremes’ are r&b, then so is Petulia Clark.) Down in Alabama, Wilson Pickett and the Muscle Shoal’s session men could perform "Born to Be Wild" and blow the Steppenwolf song apart; the Four Tops, back, in the supposedly more sophisticated Detroit, recorded "If I were a Carpenter," "Michele" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and the songs became string-laden concessions to the white marketplace and much needed filler for this month’s release.
The Supremes may have been the most willingly molded of Motown’s groups. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard never experienced the artistic frustrations Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye had at crucial points in their careers. In the (two) auto-biographies released by Mary Wilson long after the decline of the Spremes, Wilson has nothing to say about the endless recording sessions, the working habits of the Motown hit-factory, the skills of players, etc. Her main complaint seems to be that Diana Ross got too much of the attention. Wilson’s book suggests that the girls were more interested in boyfriends and shopping, than music. On the early hits, Diana Ross has a high-pitched, extremely girlish, voice that distinguished her from the more traditionally bluesy voices of her band mates. Initially disliked by the powers-that-be at Motown, her voice quickly became recognized as perfect for the Suprems’ girl-group formula. Early hits like "A Breath Taking Guy," "Let Me Go the Right Way," "Standing at the Crossroads of Love" and "Baby Love," are totally without passion, but make up for it with a sort of whining teenage insistence. Most of the Supremes best songs were written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, and make up the majority of Supremes’ songs that are remembered. The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team was responsible for a three and a half year span of their most potent hits. These hits include "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," "Standing at the Crossroads of Love," "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Back in my Arms Again," "I Hear a Symphony," "You Can’t Hurry Love," "You Keep Me Hanging On," and "Reflections." Corporate stock in the Supremes took a nose-dive when that talented threesome left Motown to start their own label.
Despite the nostalgic appeal, many of the Supremes’ greatest hits weren’t all that great. 'Where Did Our Love Go?" and "Baby Love" are choruses in search of verses and bridges. "When the Lovelight Starts Shining in His Eyes" has handclaps recorded so loud they capsize all the rest of the instrumentation. "Ask Any Girl," "Reflections" and "Nothing But Heartaches" are bland examples of Holland-Dozier-Holland work: 'Nothing But Heartaches" has that patented Motown drumbeat – the snare drum smacking on every single beat – that could be either irresistible or leaden depending upon the arrangement.
Almost all of the Supremes work, with the exception of the absolute best, is easily dismissed. As with most Motown acts, the Supremes released three or, maybe, four songs per album, which were worth hearing – depending on your tolerance for tuneful – if not too arty –love songs. And like most other Motown acts, the Supremes never made a great album – although a few are less bad than others. This seemed pretty normal circa 1963, when the Supremes started, but with the emphasis being placed more and more on albums as the sixties progressed, Motown seemed unnaturally old-fashioned in focusing on commodity at the expense of craft. A particular drag on the Supremes career were theme albums like A Bit of Liverpool, The Supremes Sing Funny Girl, The Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart, The Supremes Sing Country Western and Pop, and We Remember Sam Cooke. These albums functioned as filler in the Supremes’ career in a way that novelty tunes like "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson" served as song filler on the Beach Boys’ Shut Down, Vol. 2 album – instead of little holes connecting good work, these were banal voids in the Supremes’ career. Outside of the hits, there is little material worth checking out by the Supremes. Peak years for the Supremes were 1965 and 1966. Where Did Our Love Go? (1965) collected a backlog of catchy Supreme songs and is a bit sturdier than most Supreme albums. Supremes a Go Go (1966) is a tolerable example of the girl-group sound and includes charming Motown takes on "These Boots are Made for Walking" and "Hang On Sloopy." Also worth a look are the talents of Holland-Dozier-Holland on The Supremes Sing … album, or any of the hits packages that focus on the songwriting team’s efforts.
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