Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Supremes - Mary, Scherrie & Susaye (reprise)



Just took down the files on the "anniversary" post.. And as promised now, a repost of the very first Disco Delivery entry..

As I said on the original post, "Mary, Scherrie & Susaye" is quite honestly one of my favourite albums ever, of all time.. If anything, certainly one of the most underrated, overlooked albums ever released by Motown or The Supremes. Last month, after listening to the album again, I took a look at the old entry and it just felt so incomplete, it was practically crying out for something more... Given that it's one of my favourite albums I felt a little justice was in order and that it deserved to be just as verbose and long-winded as all the others.. So with that I edited some things, added some extra description, put back some details that I took out in subsequent edits at the time...

Needless to say, the entry is more to my satisfaction now. Though I figure since I did all that, I might as well repost the music in case some of you missed out the first time around.. So just for the repost, I've added another track - "Sweet Dream Machine" which I didn't put on the original entry.. Not the most discofied track on the album, but definitely not one to be missed.. If you liked the dark disco-funk of "Come Into My Life," or the joyous abandon of "Let Yourself Go" or any of the other great tracks on the album, don't sleep on this one..

Anyway, without further ado, here it is:

Disco Delivery #1: The Supremes - Mary, Scherrie & Susaye (1976, Motown)

And in case you end up craving more.. Here, courtesy of the Supremes 70's Blog (many more great videos there!) and YouTube are some Supremes video treats from a rare, early music video project that the ladies did:


The Supremes - You're My Driving Wheel
Uploaded by ivyfield


The Supremes - Let Yourself Go
Uploaded by gmcclo1974

I have to say, as much as I love seeing these ladies on video doing their thing to usher in the video age, some of the choreography on "You're My Driving Wheel" is pretty darn hilarious: the "driving wheel," those robot moves, what were they thinking!? Put that together with a pregnant Mary and her giant, awkward maternity sequins, the relatively primitive video concept and it's all just a little rough around the edges... That said, they do manage to get it together quite beautifully on "Let Yourself Go." Either way though, seeing this lineup in action is a rare, fabulous and charming visual treat.. Someone put the 70s Supremes on DVD already, dammit!

PREVIOUS RELATED ENTRIES:
ONE YEAR, ONE MONTH AND ELEVEN DAYS OF DISCO DELIVERY.. (FEBRUARY 21, 2007)
DISCO DELIVERY #1: THE SUPREMES - MARY, SCHERRIE & SUSAYE (1976, MOTOWN) (JANUARY 10, 2006)

CATEGORIES: RE-DELIVERIES, VISUAL DISCO

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Found your blog on a link clicking tangent. What a blast from the past. This album was required listening in my house as a child. The videos were excellent; I never knew they existed. I'll give you a shoutout in my next post.

Tommy said...

Hey, thanks for the comment and the shout-out! I'll be sure to add your blog to my links too..

soulbrotha said...

Oh my God, Tommy. I always loved Driving Wheel but never knew who sang it. I'll be damned.
But that video??! Hee-la-ree-uss!!!
The girl on the right(Susaye?) must have just learned those steps 5 minutes before the director yelled "Action!", cause the poor thing is all over the place! The "driving wheel" dance is funny, but the REAL holler is the "robot" that poor preggers Mary can't seem to do cause her belly is in the way!! LOL!!
By the end, it looks like the director just threw up his hands and said "Fug it"!

This is a camp masterpiece!

soulbrotha said...

Watching the second video, Let Yourself Go, confirmed what I thought I saw in the first video, and that is that Mary is lip-synching to some of the lead parts! What was THAT about?

Tommy said...

LOL.. Glad you enjoyed it Richard!

Yeah that's Susaye! I'm guessing it was a combination of what you said - being ill prepared, and her just plain hamming it up for the camera lol.. She even admitted as much in a recent interview, about how she would try to get herself noticed.. I think in her second book even Mary mentioned Susaye's tendency to, shall we say, step out of the choreography once in a while haha.

You're right about that Robot dance lol! That had me in stitches! That's got to be the most ridiculous section in the whole routine.. I can't believe that escaped me in the original description! Tooo funny.. Anyway, I just edited the post and added that 'robot moves' tidbit. I just couldn't leave it out..

As far as Mary lip-syncing to the lead vocals. I can see how it can look like that, with the low quality audio submerging the harmonies a bit.. But I dunno though - after watching it again, it looks like whenever her mouth is moving so is Susaye's.. Though given how the whole thing is just a little bit all over the place, it's entirely possible haha..

BoogieMan said...

Whew, almost missed this one! Sorry, been dreadfully busy lately. These are really great tracks and, not all that easy to come by, either. The Supremes, during the Diana Ross era, were one of my childhood, music preferences. A well timed music post, (in light of the Dreamgirls resurgence), Tommy.

Tommy said...

Thanks for the comment, DDJ! :)

Speaking of Dreamgirls, I actually have yet to see it.. I'll have to make some time one of these days..

Despite these being some of the Supremes lesser known tracks, I've been getting a good response so far.. Given that and the whole Dreamgirls thing, I think another disco Supremes entry is in order.. :)

soulbrotha said...

Hey Tommy!

I just stumbled onto a blog site called Trash Disco and the blogger posted the entire Supremes album!! I left a message for him telling him about your blog as well. Check it out:

http://trashdisco.blogspot.com/

And wouldn't you know it? He has another blog that is TOTALLY devoted to the Supremes:

http://supremes70s.blogspot.com/

Tommy said...

Hey Richard, thanks for letting me know about Trash Disco..

I didn't know it was the same guy behind the 70's Supremes Blog. I've had that blog on my links for a little while now. He did a post linking to my original "Mary, Scherrie & Susaye" entry a while back..

Anonymous said...

When I was a little boy, I used to dance to all the motown oldies (Supremes, Tempations). At my tenth birthday party my sister bought me a ''MARY, SCHERRIE AND SUSAYE '' album. I was TRULY,TRULY DUMBFOUNDED!!! I had no idea the Supremes were even together at that time, and I can remember constantly staring at the front cover photo of the three posing in front of the backlight. Even today at age 41, when I see the album cover, I still get ''the chills'' because I can still recall the astonishment I had when I first got the album.

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