FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
IN THIS PHOTO: Marvin Gaye recording at Golden West Studios in Los Angeles in 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Britt/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images
Part Twenty-Four: Marvin Gaye
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NEXT week I am including…
PHOTO CREDIT: Eugene Adebari/REX/Shutterstock
Carole King in this feature, as I am aware that I have included a lot of male artists – and there are some great women of music that I need to cover! In this edition of A Buyer’s Guide, I am focusing on the best albums from Marvin Gaye; an underrated record of his, and a book relating to him. The Motown pioneer died in 1984, but he remains one of the most influential and important artists ever. If you need help navigating his illustrious back catalogue, then I think I can help out. Sit back and enjoy the very best albums from one of the music world’s…
GREATEST voices.
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The Four Essential Albums
Moods of Marvin Gaye
Release Date: 23rd May, 1966
Label: Tamla
Producers: Smokey Robinson/Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Clarence Paul
Standout Tracks: Take This Heart of Mine/One More Heartache/Your Unchanging Love
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-Moods-Of-Marvin-Gaye/master/260642
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4pfaSNzd1uXEumYj6VAzF0?si=UQl9Z0STT6yZLTXMCyz-sw
Review:
“After Marvin Gaye recorded tributes to Broadway and Nat King Cole in the previous two years, Motown fans may have had their suspicions raised by an LP titled Moods of Marvin Gaye. Yes, there are a few supper-club standards to be found here, but Gaye moves smoothly between good-time soul and adult pop. Most important are his first two R&B number ones, "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Particular," both from 1965 and both produced by Smokey Robinson. Berry Gordy's right-hand man also helmed "Take This Heart of Mine" and "One More Heartache," another pair of big R&B scores, and just as good as the better-known hits. As for the copyrights not owned by Jobete, the chestnut "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" certainly didn't need another reading, but Gaye's take on Willie Nelson's after-hours classic "Night Life" was inspired. Marvin Gaye was improving with every record, gaining in character and strength of performance, and Moods of Marvin Gaye is a radically better record than its predecessors” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Ain’t That Peculiar
What's Going On
Release Date: 21st May, 1971
Label: Tamla
Producer: Marvin Gaye
Standout Tracks: Save the Children/Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)/Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-Whats-Going-On/master/66631
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6qX4eoPWGteMdJMqGOwPTs
Review:
“Easily one of the greatest albums of all time, What’s Going On is nothing short of a masterpiece. Like Bob Marley’s Exodus, it mixes gritty social commentary and anguished dissatisfaction with expressions of religious devotion; indeed, the singer once stated that the album had been written by God, with Gaye merely the vehicle selected to deliver its messages. And like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, its non-standard musical arrangements, which heralded a new sound at the time, gives it a chilling edge that ultimately underscores its gravity, with subtle orchestral enhancements offset by percolating congas, expertly layered above James Jamerson’s bubbling bass. For a singer that had built his career on pop records written by others, What’s Going On was a very bold departure, and considering that Motown boss Berry Gordy was flatly against issuing it, Gaye’s determination in seeing the project to fruition is certainly something to be celebrated.
Ten years ago, for the 30th anniversary reissue, Universal unearthed the album’s alternate early mix, done in Detroit, shortly before Marvin and Motown shifted camp to Los Angeles; this less-cluttered mix is highly instructive, allowing listeners to hear the disc from a new vantage point. The 30th set also had a live bonus set, taken from a 1972 performance; but this time around, the collected bonus tracks include original mono mixes of the album’s 45 RPM single releases, plus some unreleased outtakes from the LP, as well as an entire second CD of funk jams Marvin cut with Hamilton Bohannon’s band. Much of this material has never been released before. This time around, the Detroit mix of the album has been relegated to vinyl only (good news for those who prefer that format to compact disc), while the accompanying LP-sized booklet has brief essays by biographers David Ritz and Ben Edmonds, giving a bit of context to the proceedings.
In any form, What’s Going On is an album that everyone should have in their collection; no matter how many times you play it, there is always something else to discover, from the post-Vietnam psychosis of What’s Happening Brother to the pusher’s ode of Flyin’ High; from the terror of Mercy Mercy Me to the hopefulness of Right On and the righteous indignation of Inner City Blues. If you’ve already got both mixes of What’s Going On, the funk jams make this release a welcome package; if you haven’t heard the album for a while, or never got your hands on the Detroit mix, this 40th anniversary edition is a must-have” - BBC
Choice Cut: What’s Going On
Let’s Get It On
Release Date: 28th August, 1973
Label: Tamla
Producers: Marvin Gaye/Ed Townsend
Standout Tracks: Please Don't Stay (Once You Go Away)/Come Get to This/You Sure Love to Ball
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-Lets-Get-It-On/master/66602
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6AmnVWOxXYucWxgidEgwhy
Review:
“After brilliantly surveying the social, political, and spiritual landscape with What's Going On, Marvin Gaye turned to more intimate matters with Let's Get It On, a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy. Always a sexually charged performer, Gaye's passions reach their boiling point on tracks like the magnificent title hit (a number one smash) and "You Sure Love to Ball"; silky and shimmering, the music is seductive in the most literal sense, its fluid grooves so perfectly designed for romance as to border on parody. With each performance laced with innuendo, each lyric a come-on, and each rhythm throbbing with lust, perhaps no other record has ever achieved the kind of sheer erotic force of Let's Get It On, and it remains the blueprint for all of the slow jams to follow decades later -- much copied, but never imitated” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Let’s Get It On
Here, My Dear
Release Date: 15th December, 1978
Label: Tamla
Producer: Marvin Gaye
Standout Tracks: Angel/Is That Enough/Time to Get It Together
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-Here-My-Dear/master/66800
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7wkzcu3G3L35OownBenoas
Review:
“After a scene-setting intro—“I guess I’ll have to say this album is dedicated to you”—the story begins in earnest with, fittingly, a doo-wop song. “I Met a Little Girl” boasts all the longing and vocal stacking of Gaye’s beloved ’50s music, but with the perspective flipped—he’s singing not as a green teen but as a man in his late 30s who has tried and failed at love, and is no closer to figuring it out. Gaye exquisitely sings all of the parts himself, creating an echo chamber of hurt. Though the singer spoke out against the women’s liberation movement of the era, there’s a generousness to his voice and sentiments, and a shared blame. “Then time would change you,” he squeals, “as time would really change me.” The song is nearly zen in its wistfulness, with a sumptuous arrangement and languid pace. Later, on a track called “Anger,” Gaye still takes the longview, condemning the soul-destroying properties of rage rather than giving into them. Perhaps the slow crumble of Gaye’s marriage across more than a decade allowed him a certain distance, and a way to make this very personal album feel like much more than one man’s loss.
Like much of Gaye’s ’70s work, Here, My Dear is a groove album. Voices, instruments, and hooks don’t jump out as much as they lay in the cut waiting to be discovered. Though it can sound redundant at first, its unvaried instrumentation and tempo strengthen the thematic bonds within. Three tracks called “When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You,” are worked into the suite, all with the same easy sax funk, as if Gaye keeps returning to the question in hopes of a definitive answer. Spacious jazz backgrounds make tracks like “Sparrow” and “Anna’s Song” luxuriate in memories and idylls gone by—even when Gaye breaks character by screaming “An-na!” the vamp barely breaks its stride, acting as something of a calming agent” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: A Funky Space Reincarnation
The Underrated Gem
I Want You
Release Date: 16th March, 1976
Label: Tamla
Producers: Marvin Gaye/Leon Ware/Arthur ‘T-Boy’ Ross
Standout Tracks: I Want You (Vocal)/Feel All My Love Inside/I Wanna Be Where You Are
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-I-Want-You/master/66739
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0EM4Q0JUVZ8FNqmT5CI2E7
Review:
“But the most astonishing things about I Want You are its intimacy (it was dedicated to and recorded in front of Gaye's future second wife, Jan), silky elegance, and seamless textures. Gaye worked with producer Leon Ware, who wrote all of the original songs on the album and worked with Gaye to revise them, thus lending Gaye a co-writing credit. The title track is a monster two-step groover with hand percussion playing counterpoint to the strings and horns layered in against a spare electric guitar solo, all before Gaye begins to sing on top of the funky backbeat. It's a party anthem to be sure, and one that evokes the vulnerability that a man in love displays when the object of his affection is in plain sight. Art Stewart's engineering rounds off all the edges and makes Gaye's already sweet crooning instrument into the true grain in the voice of seductive need. "Feel All My Love Inside" and "I Want to Be Where You Are" are anthems to sensuality with strings creeping up under Gaye's voice as the guitars move through a series of chunky changes and drums punctuate his every syllable. In all, the original album is a suite to the bedroom, one in which a man tells his woman all of his sexual aspirations because of his love for her. The entire album has been referenced by everyone from Mary J. Blige to D'Angelo to Chico DeBarge and even Todd Rundgren, who performed the title track live regularly. By the time it is over, the listener should be a blissed-out, brimming container for amorous hunger. I Want You and its companion, Ware's Musical Massage, are the pre-eminent early disco concept albums. They are adult albums about intimacy, sensuality, and commitment, and decades later they still reverberate with class, sincerity, grace, intense focus, and astonishingly good taste. I Want You is as necessary as anything Gaye ever recorded” - AllMusic
Choice Cut: Since I Had You
The Final Album
Midnight Love
Release Date: October 1982
Label: Columbia
Producer: Marvin Gaye
Standout Tracks: Midnight Lady/’Til Tomorrow/Joy
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-Midnight-Love/master/66820
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3gPlX9Zs3tXZZKNCyoOkSm
Review:
“First off, Marvin Gaye is one of the most expressive singers ever, as far as conveying emotions in a clear, touching way. He also has an absolutely beautiful voice. So him singing anything is a joy. An example of the power of his singing is the Midnight Love ballad "'Til Tomorrow." He starts off with a really silly spoken bit where Gaye speaks to his lover in French. Then he sings, and immediately articulates one hundred times more feelings than the spoken word part even hinted at.
The songs here, with the exception of "Sexual Healing," aren't really as good or as important as some of the fantastic pop songs he recorded over the years. Still, there's some interesting musical turns, like the P-Funkish "Midnight Lady" and the Bob Marley-influenced "Third World Girl," lyrics that suggest a man looking for the joy and healing missing from his life (which, it goes without saying, makes his murder two years later seem even more tragic), and that unmistakable voice. A few of these songs would sound absolutely fabulous in less glitzy arrangements, like "Joy," where he beautifully lists off the joys of life over an overloaded funk track, and "My Love is Waiting," a pretty love tune with some religious overtones.
It's hard to criticize an album for the context it arose from. In the early 1980s, this sort of glossy musical backdrop was dominant in the field of pop music. Midnight Love was Marvin Gaye's attempt at a commercial comeback, and thus fits right into the commercial sound of the time. I personally think that sort of sound got in the way of some excellent songs that would have been better served by different production tactics and arrangements. Still, Midnight Love has some great moments, and has its place both in Marvin Gaye's fine catalog and in the history of R&B” – Pop Matters
Choice Cut: Sexual Healing
The Marvin Gaye Book
Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye
Author: David Ritz
Publication Date (First Published): 1st March, 1985
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Synopsis:
“Drawing from interviews conducted before Marvin Gaye's death, acclaimed music writer David Ritz has created a full-scale portrait of the brilliant but tormented artist. With a cast of characters that includes Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder, this intimate biography is a definitive and enduring look at the man who embodied the very essence of the word soul” – Goodreads