The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard | Date: 28 April 2011, 08:36
|
The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard
By Peter Benjaminson
* Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
* Number Of Pages: 240
* Publication Date: 2008-04-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1556527055
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781556527050
Product Description:
The Supremes were the most successful female vocal group in history. Of the three original members--Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard—two told their life stories in bestselling books. Only Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the group, remained silent. But, in the months before her 1976 death, Flo actually did tell her own side of the Supremes story—and the story of her entire life—to Peter Benjaminson, who recorded her words on tape.
In this book, for the first time, is Flo Ballard’s entire heartbreaking tale, revealing: the suprising identity of the man who raped her before she entered the music business; the details of her love-hate relationship with Motown Records czar Berry Gordy—and an account of their first and only date; her serious drinking problem and ignored pleas for treatment; her never-ending desire to sing lead and how she was prevented from doing so; her attempts to get her life back on track after being brutally expelled from the Supremes; and much more.
Flo Ballard traveled around the world in luxury, chatting with royalty and heads of state, applauded by millions. But when she died at the age of 32, she was a lonely mother of three just barely recovered from years of poverty and despair. Though we may mourn the extended silence of such a profound talent, at least now we can begin to understand how and why it happened.
Summary: Missed opportunity
Rating: 1
The author had an opportunity to legitmately add to the Supremes' story because of his access to Flo late in her life. But when you get so many basic, clearly known facts wrong ( who sang backup on which songs, basic chronologies, etc. ) the entire venture's veracity has to be called into question.
This is a poor read both in terms of entertainment and reliable information.
Summary: so far............
Rating: 3
First of all Kudos to Amazon...I got my book in 3 days!!! Now.....Im 23 so the supremes were before my time, but a friend of mine recently purchased The Supremes Definitive performances on DVD, and after that and seeing Dream Girls, I became very interested in Flo. I began to gooogle her and read about her, and how she was ousted from the supremes because of her drinking problems,weight,and other issues, then i saw DreamGirls, and I was very interseted. When I bought the book, I was a little dissapointed that Benjaminson did not go into depth on things that micht embarass Flo, but in my opinion thats what makes good reading...people want to know EXACTLY what went wrong, for example Benjaminson says in the book Birdsong had subbed for Flo on occasion...but my question is why? was she drunk? was she sick? what was really going on? Even though I am only on chapter 11 (the night Flo was fired from the supremes)I still feel like the entire story of Florence Ballard the Supreme is missing pieces, wether from embarassment or to allow flo to RIP, I still feel like Im missing somethng from her life as a supreme.....RIP FLO!!!
Summary: Berry Gordy, Jr., Diana Ross and other unscrupulous charactors would strip Flo Ballard of her fame, fortune and dignity.
Rating: 4
It is a story that is all too familiar to those who have studied the early history of rock and roll. Greedy record label owners and executives would conspire to cheat artists out of the royalties they were entitled to. Not surprisingly during this period many black artists
were victimized by this practice at labels like Herman Lubinsky's Savoy records in New Jersey and Syd Nathan's King records in Cincinnati. In the late 1950's, Berry Gordy Jr. had been bouncing around the record business trying to find his niche. Although he had written a couple of hits for Jackie Wilson Gordy quickly discovered that songwriting was really not all that lucrative. Berry Gordy Jr. had much bigger ambitions. He looked at the musical landscape in America and determined that there was a boatload of money to be made marketing black music to affluent white teenagers. And so with several hundred dollars of borrowed money Gordy founded Motown Records in Detroit. The year was 1960. He dubbed his modest recording studios in an old house in the Detroit suburbs "Hitsville, USA". Now there was a ton of talent in Detroit in those days and Berry Gordy was very adroit at recognizing it and getting these artists to sign with Motown. Before long the fledgling label had inked the likes of The Temptations, The Miracles and Mary Wells. Soon Motown records was off and running and making a huge impact on the Billboard Hot 100. It seems that every group in the city wanted to sign with Motown. Among them was a talented teenaged quartet that called themselves the Primettes. The group consisted of Betty McGlown, Mary Wilson, Diane Ross and the founder of the group Florence Ballard. It was this group that was destined to become the Supremes. In "The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard" author Peter Benjaminson chronicles the history of one of the world's most successful vocal groups. In this book readers will discover the tragic story of how over time Florence Ballard became marginalized and was eventually dismissed from the group that she had formed. It is truly a heartbreaking story.
Now unlike many of the other aforementioned acts at Motown the path to stardom for the Primettes proved to be rather long and arduous. Everyone assumed that the highly talented and vivacious Flo would be the lead singer of the group but Diane (later Diana) Ross had the same aspirations. Most objective observers agreed that Flo was by far the more talented vocalist. The girls honed their skills in local nightclubs while awaiting the opportunity to record and would ultimately became a trio and at Flo's suggestion change their name to The Supremes. When their chance to record finally presented itself the results were less than spectacular. After several failed attempts the group finally scored their first hit record in 1963 with "When The Lovelight Starts Shining In His Eyes". Unfortunately for Florence Ballard it was Diana Ross singing lead on their first hit. Over the years Diana had caught the attention of Berry Gordy and now Gordy seemed committed do everything in his power to make sure that Diana Ross would sing lead on just about every important Supremes recording. Understandably, Florence Ballard was very unhappy with the fact that she seemed to be losing control over the group that she had founded. In the summer of 1964 The Supremes caught fire with a tune called "Where Did Our Love Go" that zoomed all the way to the top of the charts. Over the next three years the trio would find themselves at the top of the Billboard charts 9 more times. It was a remarkable achievement! It seemed to everyone that The Supremes were on top of the world but trouble was lurking in the background. For one thing the contract that the girls had signed with Motown was extremely stingy and forced the girls to pay virtually all of the expenses the group incurred out of their rather meager royalties. It seems that Berry Gordy had taken a page out of the Lubinsky/Nathan playbook and was much more concerned with his own interests than that of the group. In addition, for a variety of reasons the girls were increasingly at each other's throats. Flo Ballard was particularly unhappy because it was clear to her that her role in the group had been diminished by Berry Gordy and that her ability to continue in the group was being threatened. Finally in 1967 things came to a head and Florence Ballard was fired from The Supremes. Amazingly, neither Diana Ross nor Mary Wilson nor anyone else at Motown uttered a single word of protest.
Flo's lif
|
DISCLAIMER:
This site does not store The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard on its server. We only index and link to The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
|
 |
|
Comments (0)
All
