As all Ross fans know, we are split into two highly divisive camps when it comes to the work of J. Randy Tarraborelli. Many fans feel that his epic tome "Call Her Miss Ross" contributed heavily to Diana's commercial backlash that started in the late 80s and lasted until she broke the spell in 2006/2007 with "Blue" and "I Love You", which led into the Kennedy Center Honors and the BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
Therefore, it is indeed ironic - and mysterious - that Randy's updated book on the life and career of Diana Ross was published in 2007, that same watershed year.
Many fans swore not to buy this book and believe me, the online community was in an uproar that Randy would dare publish yet another book (his third) on Diana, fearing that he would further besmirch her character. But those fans should know that he has changed. His approach to Ross this time around is kinder and gentler. And I will say this - he seems to have an awareness of the hurt and damage his previous book ('that book') may have caused... at least in the minds of Miss Ross' many diehard, loyal fans.
A more balanced perspective is presented which not only portrays Diana with more humanity, but simultaneously manages to give more respect to Mary Wilson and Berry Gordy. Certainly, they, along with Diana, do indeed deserve our respect. Motown was instrumental as a large part of the public face of the Civil Rights movement, something that has shockingly been largely forgotten. The children of today need to know their history, and this new book has more respect for that history.
As a white man, Tarraborelli may not have been sensitive enough to the way his previous books on Motowners came across. But, having worked as a reporter for the magazines Soul and Black American, he surely has an appreciation for Black culture and music. It's not to say that a Black celebrity should be treated with kid gloves in biographies or their shortcomings sugar-coated, but 'Call Her Miss Ross' read more like a soap opera than a true biography. Missing from that book was a sense of history, of cultural context. This new book is more understanding towards that end.
J. Randy Tarraborelli makes a much, much stronger case in this new Ross bio for her important - and undervalued - contributions to racial equality in the American civil rights movement. He makes much more of a sincere effort to place her amazing, groundbreaking achievements in their proper socio-historical context. He spends far less time navel-gazing at trite issues of non-interest (such as whatever he projected that Diana thought about Filipa Kumlin-Naess; who cares), and has edited out many of his more sensational "stories" passed down through the grapevine, such as Diana's supposed odd behavior on the set of "The Wiz" (writing feverish messages to herself on her mirror in lipstick, and - ludicrously - not respecting Lena Horne, which is not very believable.) Whereas 'Call Her Miss Ross' shamefully portrayed Diana Ross as little more than a nouveau riche Black barbie doll and a venal, aspiring socialite, this new book paints Ross as the proud 'black and comely' modern-day Sheba that gave the young Oprah Winfrey the will to dream.
In short, toned down is the unverifiable, sensationalized rumor-mongering that made 'Call Her Miss Ross' so scandalous; in its place are different stories, just as interesting, but which ring truer, and read more as true biography as opposed to caricature bordering on character assassination. After all, the real crime of CHMR was that it not only made Ross out to be a bitch, but a ditz. And if there is anything Diana Ross isn't, it's stupid.
One wonderful add to this new book is the extensive discography in the back. This is actually one of the best parts of the book, for those of us who love Diana's MUSIC. He lays out the inside scoop on every album she ever did: the concepts for them, the cover art, single choices, aborted singles, alternate album titles, promotional tactics, and he tells us of treasures that still lie in the vaults. He also gives very detailed chart information, which is always a treat for us chart buffs out there. He was assisted in this research by the marvelous George Solomon, who has produced many Diana Ross/Supremes re-issues since the '80s.
In short, this book is very balanced - actually much closer to Tom Adrahtas' recent "A Lifetime To Get Here" (published also in 2007) than to "Call Her Miss Ross".
"Okay. Gotta go. Love you. Bye." :)
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Good Job
This updated bio from Randy Taraborrelli isn't bad. In fact I would venture to say it's good. I've had my negative feelings for Taraborrelli over the years, especially after reading Call Her Miss Ross when it was first published. At that time part of me felt like a protective fan ready to be Ross's bodyguard against people trying to cash in on her life; the other part was happy to have something to balance out Mary Wilson's scathing and one-sided view points in her memoirs: Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme. Even after I realized that Mary basically published her diaries that she kept since she was 17, it still felt like cherry picked indictments against my favorite singer Ross.Randy did help to balance Mary by filling in parts that Mary conveniently left out, like how the ousting of Flo wasn't a Diana-Berry soapy drama, it was a Diana/Mary/Berry trio, and to be completely objective, Flo herself. Even a man on Pluto could see how that chapter would end. I also liked that he included Diana's lending money to Mary when she needed it, and the fact they were friends up until Mary's memoirs, even after the Motown 25 mess. Quite honestly, in the Mary/Diana story, they both have equal parts to blame (which Randy also covers). Despite Mary's shenanigans about Ross, it's clear to any observer that she admired her childhood best friend, and even borrowed some of her best qualities when she (Mary) fought to keep the Supremes going in the 70's, fought Motown for the rights to own the Supremes name, and fought for her own survival in a very tough business. In hindsight, if Diana and Mary had spoken and maybe spent some time together (not much lol), but some, the Supremes segment of Motown 25, Mary's memoirs, and Diana's Return to Love tour would have all turned out differently. In the former, Mary would have dressed in black/white like Diana and Cindy Birdsong; she wouldn't have purposely had her mic turned up so she could over sing Diana, and all 3 would have stood on stage together after all agreeing and practicing before hand. In the latter, Mary's scathing memoirs would have included some friendship talk with Ross and a more balanced view of the past and present, and the Return to Love Tour wouldn't have been a Ross and replacements show, or even a Ross and all 6 other living members of the Supremes (which was actually a concept at one point). It would have been Diana, Mary, and Cindy in a tour de force concert, celebrating both the Supremes 40th anniversary, and Diana's 30th anniversary as a solo act. An entire generation of fans (both Gen X and Gen Y) as well as baby boomers would have paid the top dollar ($250) to see this once in a lifetime event. Till this day, some fans still talk about what could have been. Many of whom would have seen Diana, Mary, and Cindy perform live for the first time. I personally saw the RTL tour in Philly and bought 2 top dollar tickets for myself and my mother and we loved every minute of it, but before that show started practically all the fans in my row of pristine seats were lamenting about not seeing Mary and Cindy.Randy's probably the best biographer I've read of Ross. That's a hard task for anyone, because I've always seen Diana as an extremely private, pragmatic, and perhaps a little too inflexible person when it comes to telling her story. I knew her memoirs Secrets of a Sparrow would be a good read, most likely positive and inspirational, but I also knew it wouldn't be very candid. It's not in her DNA. I thought that before the book came out, and kept that opinion after I read it. Supremes' childhood fan Tony Turner had an interesting bio of the Supremes called All That Glittered, that was soapy and borrowed from Mary's memoirs, but it was clear he loooved Flo. To the point that it's not clear what was truth and what was hyperbole in his book. That leaves Randy's bio. In Call Her Miss Ross, there was way too much editorializing for my comfort. When you're reading a bio, most of the time you want to read it like a fly on the wall observing these past events. You're not always looking for the author to insert his opinion on just about everything. It's distracting at best. I think Randy did a much better job with that in this updated bio of Diana. He covers 4 full chapters of her life (childhood, Supremes, Solo, and Post 80's).This book covers everything up to 2014. To know that since 2014, at the age of 70, Ross has also received the American Musican Awards Lifetime Achievement award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and set a new record of attendance at Brooklyn's renovated King's Theater, and residency in Las Vegas, went to number 1 again on the itunes dance charts, and created a hugely successful perfume fragrance, are all testaments to her enduring talent and legendary status.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2012
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2018
This updated bio from Randy Taraborrelli isn't bad. In fact I would venture to say it's good. I've had my negative feelings for Taraborrelli over the years, especially after reading Call Her Miss Ross when it was first published. At that time part of me felt like a protective fan ready to be Ross's bodyguard against people trying to cash in on her life; the other part was happy to have something to balance out Mary Wilson's scathing and one-sided view points in her memoirs: Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme. Even after I realized that Mary basically published her diaries that she kept since she was 17, it still felt like cherry picked indictments against my favorite singer Ross.
Randy did help to balance Mary by filling in parts that Mary conveniently left out, like how the ousting of Flo wasn't a Diana-Berry soapy drama, it was a Diana/Mary/Berry trio, and to be completely objective, Flo herself. Even a man on Pluto could see how that chapter would end. I also liked that he included Diana's lending money to Mary when she needed it, and the fact they were friends up until Mary's memoirs, even after the Motown 25 mess. Quite honestly, in the Mary/Diana story, they both have equal parts to blame (which Randy also covers). Despite Mary's shenanigans about Ross, it's clear to any observer that she admired her childhood best friend, and even borrowed some of her best qualities when she (Mary) fought to keep the Supremes going in the 70's, fought Motown for the rights to own the Supremes name, and fought for her own survival in a very tough business. In hindsight, if Diana and Mary had spoken and maybe spent some time together (not much lol), but some, the Supremes segment of Motown 25, Mary's memoirs, and Diana's Return to Love tour would have all turned out differently. In the former, Mary would have dressed in black/white like Diana and Cindy Birdsong; she wouldn't have purposely had her mic turned up so she could over sing Diana, and all 3 would have stood on stage together after all agreeing and practicing before hand. In the latter, Mary's scathing memoirs would have included some friendship talk with Ross and a more balanced view of the past and present, and the Return to Love Tour wouldn't have been a Ross and replacements show, or even a Ross and all 6 other living members of the Supremes (which was actually a concept at one point). It would have been Diana, Mary, and Cindy in a tour de force concert, celebrating both the Supremes 40th anniversary, and Diana's 30th anniversary as a solo act. An entire generation of fans (both Gen X and Gen Y) as well as baby boomers would have paid the top dollar ($250) to see this once in a lifetime event. Till this day, some fans still talk about what could have been. Many of whom would have seen Diana, Mary, and Cindy perform live for the first time. I personally saw the RTL tour in Philly and bought 2 top dollar tickets for myself and my mother and we loved every minute of it, but before that show started practically all the fans in my row of pristine seats were lamenting about not seeing Mary and Cindy.
Randy's probably the best biographer I've read of Ross. That's a hard task for anyone, because I've always seen Diana as an extremely private, pragmatic, and perhaps a little too inflexible person when it comes to telling her story. I knew her memoirs Secrets of a Sparrow would be a good read, most likely positive and inspirational, but I also knew it wouldn't be very candid. It's not in her DNA. I thought that before the book came out, and kept that opinion after I read it. Supremes' childhood fan Tony Turner had an interesting bio of the Supremes called All That Glittered, that was soapy and borrowed from Mary's memoirs, but it was clear he loooved Flo. To the point that it's not clear what was truth and what was hyperbole in his book. That leaves Randy's bio. In Call Her Miss Ross, there was way too much editorializing for my comfort. When you're reading a bio, most of the time you want to read it like a fly on the wall observing these past events. You're not always looking for the author to insert his opinion on just about everything. It's distracting at best. I think Randy did a much better job with that in this updated bio of Diana. He covers 4 full chapters of her life (childhood, Supremes, Solo, and Post 80's).
This book covers everything up to 2014. To know that since 2014, at the age of 70, Ross has also received the American Musican Awards Lifetime Achievement award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and set a new record of attendance at Brooklyn's renovated King's Theater, and residency in Las Vegas, went to number 1 again on the itunes dance charts, and created a hugely successful perfume fragrance, are all testaments to her enduring talent and legendary status.
Randy did help to balance Mary by filling in parts that Mary conveniently left out, like how the ousting of Flo wasn't a Diana-Berry soapy drama, it was a Diana/Mary/Berry trio, and to be completely objective, Flo herself. Even a man on Pluto could see how that chapter would end. I also liked that he included Diana's lending money to Mary when she needed it, and the fact they were friends up until Mary's memoirs, even after the Motown 25 mess. Quite honestly, in the Mary/Diana story, they both have equal parts to blame (which Randy also covers). Despite Mary's shenanigans about Ross, it's clear to any observer that she admired her childhood best friend, and even borrowed some of her best qualities when she (Mary) fought to keep the Supremes going in the 70's, fought Motown for the rights to own the Supremes name, and fought for her own survival in a very tough business. In hindsight, if Diana and Mary had spoken and maybe spent some time together (not much lol), but some, the Supremes segment of Motown 25, Mary's memoirs, and Diana's Return to Love tour would have all turned out differently. In the former, Mary would have dressed in black/white like Diana and Cindy Birdsong; she wouldn't have purposely had her mic turned up so she could over sing Diana, and all 3 would have stood on stage together after all agreeing and practicing before hand. In the latter, Mary's scathing memoirs would have included some friendship talk with Ross and a more balanced view of the past and present, and the Return to Love Tour wouldn't have been a Ross and replacements show, or even a Ross and all 6 other living members of the Supremes (which was actually a concept at one point). It would have been Diana, Mary, and Cindy in a tour de force concert, celebrating both the Supremes 40th anniversary, and Diana's 30th anniversary as a solo act. An entire generation of fans (both Gen X and Gen Y) as well as baby boomers would have paid the top dollar ($250) to see this once in a lifetime event. Till this day, some fans still talk about what could have been. Many of whom would have seen Diana, Mary, and Cindy perform live for the first time. I personally saw the RTL tour in Philly and bought 2 top dollar tickets for myself and my mother and we loved every minute of it, but before that show started practically all the fans in my row of pristine seats were lamenting about not seeing Mary and Cindy.
Randy's probably the best biographer I've read of Ross. That's a hard task for anyone, because I've always seen Diana as an extremely private, pragmatic, and perhaps a little too inflexible person when it comes to telling her story. I knew her memoirs Secrets of a Sparrow would be a good read, most likely positive and inspirational, but I also knew it wouldn't be very candid. It's not in her DNA. I thought that before the book came out, and kept that opinion after I read it. Supremes' childhood fan Tony Turner had an interesting bio of the Supremes called All That Glittered, that was soapy and borrowed from Mary's memoirs, but it was clear he loooved Flo. To the point that it's not clear what was truth and what was hyperbole in his book. That leaves Randy's bio. In Call Her Miss Ross, there was way too much editorializing for my comfort. When you're reading a bio, most of the time you want to read it like a fly on the wall observing these past events. You're not always looking for the author to insert his opinion on just about everything. It's distracting at best. I think Randy did a much better job with that in this updated bio of Diana. He covers 4 full chapters of her life (childhood, Supremes, Solo, and Post 80's).
This book covers everything up to 2014. To know that since 2014, at the age of 70, Ross has also received the American Musican Awards Lifetime Achievement award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and set a new record of attendance at Brooklyn's renovated King's Theater, and residency in Las Vegas, went to number 1 again on the itunes dance charts, and created a hugely successful perfume fragrance, are all testaments to her enduring talent and legendary status.
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