Diana Ross & The Supremes: Love Child - 1968
From November 1968, this was the album which saw it all change for Diana Ross & The Supremes, they no longer used the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland and released an album including comparatively mature, hard-hitting, maybe controversial themes as opposed to simply pop singles about boy/girl love.
It also saw (to the consternation of Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong) Diana Ross dominating the vocals. Indeed, on the album's two singles and a fair few others, the "other two" did not feature, lesser-known Motown vocal group The Andantes taking over the duties. The album saw the group going the same way as The Beatles in the same year, with not all group members involved, which in many ways was a shame.
The two singles were great ones, mind - particularly the shocking (for the time) Love Child, about a young girl's reticence about possibly getting pregnant and facing the many hardships of being a single mother and the more conventionally-themed solid Motown pop of Some Things You Never Get Used To. (Incidentally, the follow-up single which did not appear on this album, I'm Livin' In Shame, was also a thought-provoking, socially-aware song. It appeared on the next album). The album was originally conceived as a Temptations-style socially conscious one, (take look at the Detroit housing project-set cover for a start, which totally broke the Motown mould thus far) but in the end some more poppy material crept in.
Anyway, let's take a look at the rest of the songs. Keep An Eye was a Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson song and it was a good one - a brooding, cynical but highly atmospheric warning about your best friend taking your man. this weren't no Baby Love, that's for sure. How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone also has a downbeat, soulful vibe to it. Once more, it is certainly not good time fare.
Does Your Mama Know About Me, originally by Bobby Taylor, is a slow ballad but one that conveys a message about social disapproval , possibly based on racial grounds or single motherhood. In many ways, some of the songs on this album were the first Motown ones to confront such issues head on, before the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder took it all much further. There was still room for a bit of classic Motown pop, however, and it was delivered here in the irresistible Martha Reeves-esque Honey Bee (Keep On Stinging Me).
Smokey Robinson's He's My Sunny Boy featured Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong (quite right too) and you can tell. There is a joyous feeling throughout. You've Been So Wonderful is back to Diana Ross handling the main vocals - although Mary and Cindy are credited - but is a good, upbeat piece of Motown with a nice deep bassline. Equally impressive, bass and melody-wise is the groovy little number (Don't Break These) Chains Of Love. (A typically Motown bracketed title there too). Lest we forget, the legendary James Jamerson is on bass throughout the album and every track is enhanced by his rumbling presence.
