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“Dreaming” of the Supremes — 18 Comments

  1. “Dreamgirls” does turn into a morality play at the end, as opposed to the quasi-documentary/musical that constitutes most of the film, but — like all morality plays — it improves upon life. The film was a nice diversion at a difficult time.

  2. Thanks for the post. I grew up in the suburbs of Motown, watching “Swingin’ Time” on CKLW, but I didn’t see the SUpremes or even James Brown live until the 1980s.

    My brother, on the other hand, saw many such, including a 1960s concert by the Hardest Working Man in Show Business in Detroit’s Olympia, before an audience with similar ethnicity to the theatre you attended last night.

  3. Neo,

    You probably want to write “African-American” rather than “Afro-American.”

    “Afro-American” is not really in use any more, in the same way “colored” or “negro” has fallen out of fashion.

  4. My memories of Motown came out of the context of my exposure to what was then considered “Negro” music, such as the Mills Brothers, which later turned into an endless pageant of doowop groups, and pop standards like Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, and Ella Fitzgerald.

    When Motown first emerged, with groups like the Temptations, Smokey Robinson’s group (Miracles?), the Supremes, the Four Tops, and Stevie Wonder, what attracted me was not just the amped up velocity compared to most white music at the time (remember Leslie Gore?) but also the fabulous bass lines, and true counterpoint of treble and bass (“Reflections” from 1967 is a good example, but there were many; interestingly the Tops did a cover of “Reflections” that was terrific in its own way.) Later, I found out that the engine behind this aspect of Motown was James Jamerson and his Fender bass and the rest of the house band, dubbed “The Funk Brothers.”

    Motown was great: but the key was, and always is, good music and well thought out arrangements.

  5. I think the term of art these days is “African American”, but it is only used once or twice in a discourse; otherwise “Black” is employed and is acceptable.

  6. Oh, and by the way, Steve–the trouble with using the term “Black” in a post about the Supremes is that prior to its becoming acceptable it was considered a pejorative and demeaning term. In the 50s and even the early 60s, when the Supremes first were coming up, it would have been a no-no.

  7. Neo: I agree. It’s tricky because there are entire issues of self-esteem and selfhood involved. Even in the late ’50’s I could sense a hierarchy, where the N word was worst, colored was a bit better, negro was the term, and, if you spelled “Negro” with a cap you were a true progressive.

    I think the term “Black” (not “black”, caps are important in these things, at least to me: as a former Marine nothing pisses me off like seeing Marine spelled with a small “m” which, BTW, the NY Times always does, but not the Wapo) as a matter of fact, got going in the late ’60’s, for a lot of reasons, but the late lamented JAMES BROWN (“I dunno what I’m gonna post on the blog today, but, whatever it is, it’s got to be funky”)’s hit, “Say it Loud” had a lot to do with it.

    You make a very good point about anachronism, however, in intellectual discourse. I well remember a professor telling us that the German peasantry of the early 19th Century was sexist and male chauvinist.

  8. Oh, and by the way, Steve–the trouble with using the term “Black” in a post about the Supremes is that prior to it’s becoming acceptable it was considered a perjorative and demeaning term. In the 50s and even the early 60s, when the Supremes first were coming up, it would have been a no-no.
    neo-neocon | Homepage | 12.27.06 – 3:31 pm | #

    You know that hand thing? I think it might have been the basis for the gesture I frequently see from young black women. “Talk to the hand”. Or a simple gesture of annoyance where they hold the hand up, then snap their fingers as the hand sways left and right, as it goes down. All in all, it presents a curious and rather sharp body language gesture, not at all what you saw on the youtube video. Not relaxed, but sharp, tense, aggressive. Almost like a military salute in its precision and snappiness.

    You know, Neo, Bookworm had a huge discussion in her comments section on race before Christmas.

    Check out if have time

  9. I think I will be disappointed when I get around to seeing the movie, because I can’t imagine the music being as good as Motown was. Have I ever heard any of the songs from the Broadway play on the radio as a stand-alone hit?

  10. I won’t see it, that style of music isn’t to my taste. Eddie Murphy being able to sing doesn’t surprise me. His comedy has always included a lot of control over his voice. He did “party all the time” which became (was made into) a top 40 hit back in the 80s. and before that “boogie in my butt” which was a sorta proto-rap thing on one of his comedy albums. Both were done before such modern digital studio things like ProTools. Timing and being on key had to be right, that couldn’t be fixed the way it can nowdays.

  11. When Lew Alcindor became a Black Muslim, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar … and Tommy Smith plus (??) raised their black-gloved hands in salute while getting medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics…

    Negros (Negroes?) became Black.

    No matter what they call themselves or are called, if poor people don’t graduate from high school, don’t hold a job for a year, and don’t avoid sex outside of marriage — such a group of poor people will remain poor. (Black, white, brown; even Jewish)

    Motown had some great voices and music.

    Are there any famous black women singers who do NOT straighten their kinky hair? who have an “afro”?

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