Love Child/Keep An Eye/How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone/Does Your Mama Know About Me/ Honey Bee(Keep On Stinging Me)/Some Things You Never Get Used To/He’s My Sunny Boy/You’ve Been So Wonderful To Me/(Don’t Break These(Chains Of Love)/You Ain’t Livin’ Till You’re Lovin’/I’ll Set You Free/Can’t Shake It Loose
On Love Child The Supremes cast aside their usual glitzy image for the newly fashionable ghetto look. The dynamic title track was a US chart topper but surprisingly only managed to reach No. 15 in the UK. (US:14 UK:8)
"I suppose the problem with The Supremes' albums had always been the desire of Berry Gordy to give the group a cross-demographic appeal. As a result of this, the wonderful singles we got were not indicative of what was contained on the albums. Album-wise, there were always the hits, plus some boring cover versions and some totally inappropriate show tunes with an eye on appealing to white audiences. If you got into The Supremes through their singles, then you probably expected more of the same on their albums, not endless versions of West Side Story and Rogers & Hart. Either way, in 1968, this was fully realised with this album, Love Child. The rest of the album is actually in keeping with the style of the singles, which is great. On the album cover, the girls look black and ghetto, reflecting the mood of the civil rights movement."
"Probably the best of the Diana Ross and The Supremes albums. There is quite a bit of variety here, an excellent mix of pop and soul. And, this album features some of the absolute best background vocal work of Mary and Cindy. How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone is a minor masterpiece."
"The Love Child album steers away from their earlier sound and looks more like a showcase for Ross' talents. It lacks the group-oriented sound of their earlier releases, but still its a credible album and showed The Supremes comfortably adapting to the ever-changing musical tastes of the 1960s."
"A lot of Motown acts suffered from the loss of the genius songwriting and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. Anxious to keep the 'Motown sound' alive and thriving, Berry Gordy appointed some remarkably talented new in-house songwriters including Deke Richards and Frank Wilson who penned the chart topping Love Child. This was The Supremes first real musical offering to explore relevant social issues."
No comments:
Post a Comment