(Da Capo)

www.dacapopress.com

BY GILLIAN G. GAAR

Mark Ribowsky's book corrects a grave injustice - the previous lack of any full scale biography of the Supremes, the most successful girl group of the 1960s (Ribowsky speculates that being female meant their work wasn't taken seriously by historians). True, there have been memoirs by Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Berry Gordy, not to mention biographies of Ross, Gordy, Flo Ballard, and Motown, as well as the Supremes' mythologization in the musical Dreamgirls. But no one had previously tackled the Supremes story from an objective point of view.

Ribowsky's tale fully lives up to the book's subtitle. Ross comes in for the harshest treatment, an ambitious "pretentious phony" who overcomes her "shrill and adenoidal" voice to plant herself center stage in both the group and the boss' bed. Not that Wilson or Ballard are exempt by any means, respectively portrayed as acquiescently passive and blatantly self-destructive (Gordy, meanwhile, is so besotted by Ross he doesn't realize he's "shaping a monster").

Ribowsky does a good job of untangling the group's early, pre-Motown days, as well as balancing the numerous conflicting accounts of events. His biggest coup was winning the confidence of one of the Ballards' cousins, who offers an inside look at the saddest Supreme. And for all its triumphs, the story is a sad one, blasting through any notions that there was sisterly solidarity in the Supremes, or familial community at Motown. As in any business, everyone was out for themselves, and the bad feelings that linger make this a most bittersweet look at what can happen when dreams come true.