Medley: The Music In the Mirror/What I Did For Love/I Hope I Get It/Dance: Ten, Looks: 3 (Live At The Ahmanson Theatre/1976)

The good old days... the good old days
Boy I have incredible memories.
15 good years, with my partners.
Mary Wilson. Florence Ballard.
And Cindy Birdsong
The good old days... oh, yes.

Badada. Baby Love.

Where have you been all my life?
And then it came time...
It came time for me to step out on my own.
The first step.
It reminds me of a game I used to play as a kid.
A game called May I.
Did you ever play it, Mother May I?
May I take one giant step and the leader would answer.
No you may not, Ross.
You may take three weeny baby steps.
May I?
Yes, you may.
Sometimes, in my eagerness to get to the goal.
I might take a step without asking his permission.
And he'd yell. "Go back, Ross!"
You didn't say may I.
So there I was, all alone. On my own.
Asking, May I.
Stretching to take that one... giant... step.
And all I want was for someone to sing for.
To make me feel I belonged.
To give me the change...

To look forward to saying.
Hey Listen!
They're playing my song.
Play me the music.
Give me the chance to come through.
All I ever wanted.
Was the music and the chance to sing for you.
Let me have something to live for.
Let me be all that I dare.
Reach out and touch...
Touch me in the morning.
Reach Out and I'll be there.
Play me the music.
Play me the music.
Give me the chance to come through.
All I ever wanted.
Was the music and the chance to sing and dream!
Give me the chance to come through.
All I ever wanted.
Was the music and the chance...
Before the day is done.
The sweetness and the sorrow.
It is as if I always knew.
And I won't forget.
What I did for love.
What I did for love!
Love! Love is never gone.
As we travel on. Love is what we remember.
Look my eyes are dry.
The gift is ours to borrow.
I do what I have to do.
Can't forget.
Don't regret.
What I did for love!

When you do thing for love.
You know what? Anything can happen.
And it did.
It came time for me to take another step.
The same kid from my childhood.
Kept yelling at me.
"May I, may I, may I, may I, may I."
Yanking at me asking...

Who am I anyway?
Am I my resume?
And I ain't thousand pictures of a person I don't know.
What do I want to be?
What should I try to be?
What would it mean to be a lady on the screen?!
To be an actress, a serious actress.
Now that was serious stuff.
It would mean commitment.
Dedication.
Study.
So I enrolled in a serious acting class.
With a lot of other serious actors.
And I had a teacher who was, very serious.
He said, OK kids.
Today we are gonna get up on that stage.
And we're going to do improvisation.
Improvo... what?

Everyday for a week we would try to be a table.
Be a sportscar, ice cream cone.
The teacher. He would say. Very good, except.
Diana. Try, Diana. All alone.
So I dug right down to the bottom of my soul.
To see how my ice cream felt.
I dug back down to the bottom of my soul.
And I tried. To act.

So the kids in the class said.
Ooh, I feel chocolate.
Hey, I feel vanilla.
He said okay, Ross.
What do you feel?
And I said nothing.
I ain't feeling nothing.
A deep down nothing.
It's all my teacher had.
Everybody felt something.
But I felt nothing.
Except the feeling that this bullshit was absurd.

Okay, so what's it to be a serious actress.
Then I came to Hollywood.
Hollywood, here I come.
I went to a lot of parties, premiers, supermarket openings.
And I met a lot of very important people.
And I soon learned, to be a movie star.
I wasn't...
They told me I wasn't fully developed.
So I took a look at the competition, you know.
I knew the day was by.
I said okay, Diana. At least you can try.

It was then I decided.
To call the doctor.
For my appointment to buy, what?
Tits and ass!
Should I try 'em fancy pants.
Dram up that deviant.
Do the nose with it.
Tits and ass!
You can't knock out someone others ass.
Shake the new maracas and your fine.
Tits and ass.
Can change your life, the way they changed mine.
Wouldn't cost a fortune either.
Wouldn't hurt my sex life either.
It's a gas.
I have never seen it fail.
Corus girl and movie star.
Oh, I.
Tits and ass, oh yeah.
Tits and ass can change your life!

I'm breaking my neck with that shake.
Okay.
So it's not going to be any doctor's office.
Nor any acting class.
If I'm gonna get it.
I guess it's going to come up from somewhere else.
And I hoped it was there.
Somewhere, maybe scattered all over my childhood.
In the games we used to play.
Why was it so important for me to take one giant step?
You know, I think things never really changed.
I had an incredible teacher in elementary school.
Who told me what she thought the Great C. meant. Cheat.
For those that will do half.
When all is called for.
For them whom slip and slide through life at the edge of their mind.
Never ones pushing in to the interior
To find out what wonders were hiding there.
Being contented, drift along on what ever is getting by.
Cheating them self.
Cheating the world and cheating nature.
You see, I was in at a nice point in my life.
When I realized it was wonderful to be young and black.
But to be gifted and to know what you wanted to do.
That was doubly dynamic, doubly important.