Marvin Gaye : Rights, Relations & The Great Society
Jun 14, 2019 21:06:27 GMT
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Post by petrolino on Jun 14, 2019 21:06:27 GMT
Marvin Gaye
'That's The Way Love Is' (Released: January 1970 / Label: Tamla)
"As a teenager in the 1950s, Marvin Gaye learned how to love from doo-wop songs, three-minute odes to innocence that didn’t curdle or grow up or live beyond their own pining harmonies. They were pure, and Gaye wanted to be pure too. “I was in love with the idea of love,” he once said. Which is sweet. But the fantasy of pop music should be just that—a fantasy. Believe it to the letter, and wait for your world to crumble. Vows break. Sadness sours. Divorce looms. Gaye was aware of these perils, but he spent much of his life haplessly wishing them away. His music always told a different story."
- Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork
Marvin Gaye
'What's Going On' (Released: May 1971 / Label: Tamla)
"It wasn't a case of being big-headed or temperamental that kept me from doing interviews during the last three years. I was terribly disillusioned with a lot of things in life and life in general, and decided to take time out to try to do something about it. In a sense the rumours suggesting I had quit were true; I had retired, but only from the personal-appearance end. I did that because I had always felt conspicuous onstage and I'm not the sort of person who likes to be an exhibitionist.
I spent the three years writing, producing and reflecting. Reflecting upon life and upon America especially – because that's where I live – its injustices, its evils and its goods. Not that I'm a radical – I think of myself as a very middle-of-the-road sort of person with a good sense of judgment. I think if I had to choose another profession I'd like to be a judge because I'm very capable of determining what's right and what's not.
The album and single show the sort of emotion and personal feelings I have about the situations in America and the world. I think I've got a real love thing going. I love people, I love life and I love nature and I can't see why other people can't be like that. I can remember as a child I always kept myself to myself and I always dug nature. I used to fool around with worms, beetles and birds, and I used to admire them while the other kids were playing sports. It was like some strange force made me more aware of nature. Those kids playing sports were also showing love – love for sport. And if we could integrate all types of love into one sphere we'd have it made."
- Marvin Gaye speaking with Phil Symes in 1971 (from Rock's Backpages)
Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells
'Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)' - Marvin Gaye
'Let's Get It On' (1973) (Released: August 1973 / Label: Tamla)
"Ed Sheeran is facing a $100 million lawsuit that alleges he copied Marvin Gaye. The lawsuit claims that Sheeran’s 'Thinking Out Loud' copies “the melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping” of Gaye’s 'Lets Get It On'.
A similar suit was filed over the songs in 2016 by the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote 'Let's Get It On' with Gaye. The result of the claim is currently unknown, reported the BBC. 'Thinking Out Loud' is also not the only song of Sheeran’s to face such allegations. In 2016 the singer settled out of court over a claim that his single 'Photograph' copied a song by US musicians Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, 'Amazing'.
The suit has been filed by the company Structured Asset Sales, who bought one-third of the copyright to 'Let's Get It On'. In the late 1990s the company offered money upfront to musicians in exchange for selling off their future income, according to the Guardian. Robin Thicke, who was successfully sued by the Gaye family in 2015 for copying Marvin Gaye’s 'Got To Give It Up' in his single, 'Blurred Lines', tweeted Sheeran yesterday to say, “call me”."
A similar suit was filed over the songs in 2016 by the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote 'Let's Get It On' with Gaye. The result of the claim is currently unknown, reported the BBC. 'Thinking Out Loud' is also not the only song of Sheeran’s to face such allegations. In 2016 the singer settled out of court over a claim that his single 'Photograph' copied a song by US musicians Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, 'Amazing'.
The suit has been filed by the company Structured Asset Sales, who bought one-third of the copyright to 'Let's Get It On'. In the late 1990s the company offered money upfront to musicians in exchange for selling off their future income, according to the Guardian. Robin Thicke, who was successfully sued by the Gaye family in 2015 for copying Marvin Gaye’s 'Got To Give It Up' in his single, 'Blurred Lines', tweeted Sheeran yesterday to say, “call me”."
- Abigail Wishart, Mixmag
'Let's Get It On' - Marvin Gaye
'I Want You' (Released: March 1976 / Label: Tamla)
"I was working at the time with Arthur “T-Boy” Ross. I had a song called “I Want You,” plus we had written two or three other songs. Out of the four songs, there were three that we loved. As it turned out, while we were doing the demo, Berry Gordy came in and he heard “I Want You,” and took it directly to Marvin Gaye. Marvin fell in love with the song. Three or four days later after hearing the song, we were in the studio. In the process of doing “I Want You” in the studio, we were talking and having a good time. When he and Jan[is] were in another room, I started playing songs I did with Minnie Riperton. Marvin came in and asked me, “What is that you’re playing?” I replied, “It’s my new album.” He proceeded to stay in that room with me for a couple of hours. We listened at least four or five times.
When he was leaving the room, he turned to me and asked, “Who wrote those songs?” I replied, “I wrote them all myself.” He said, “I love this, man. Would you do my whole album?” I replied, “That is a great idea, but Berry will never go for that.” He turned around with this look in his eye and said, “We don’t have to tell him.” [laughs] That collaboration turned out to be the most enjoyable, important and enduring experience of my entire life. I’m very happy that, after hearing my album, Marvin made the decision to make it his, and really, ours."
When he was leaving the room, he turned to me and asked, “Who wrote those songs?” I replied, “I wrote them all myself.” He said, “I love this, man. Would you do my whole album?” I replied, “That is a great idea, but Berry will never go for that.” He turned around with this look in his eye and said, “We don’t have to tell him.” [laughs] That collaboration turned out to be the most enjoyable, important and enduring experience of my entire life. I’m very happy that, after hearing my album, Marvin made the decision to make it his, and really, ours."
- Leon Ware, Red Bull Music Academy
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
'All The Way Around' - Marvin Gaye
'Here, My Dear' (Released: December 1978 / Label: Tamla)
"There must be parallel universes in which it's a good idea to marry the boss's sister. There must be universes where it's a good idea to marry the boss's sister when you're in your twenties, she's 17 years older, and the boss is the owner of the biggest black music corporation in the world. It certainly must have seemed like a fantastic idea at the time to Marvin Gaye, when he hitched his wagon to Anna Gordy in 1964 with the blessing of the ruler of the Motown corporation, her sibling, Berry. At that stage, Gaye had only a handful of hit records to his name.
The divorce petition was duly filed by Anna 12 years later, by which time Marvin was a deeply conflicted international superstar, trailing bad habits and two small children by another woman with whom he was distractedly in love. We may presume that, by then, Anna was thoroughly browned off. The unhealthiest of Marvin's habits was the cocaine one, and coke habits can be expensive. So when Anna demanded a million dollars in settlement, Gaye could only plead poverty. He just didn't have the cash. Instead, his lawyer came up with the idea of offering Anna the $305,000 advance made by Motown against Gaye's next album, plus the first $295,000 it would inevitably turn in profit. Anna bought the deal. The judge duly wrote the order and the weirdest album deal in history was struck. What followed was even weirder.
Let us put ourselves in Gaye's shoes. Faced with such an imperative, most of us might well quail, utter a few resentful oaths and then knock out a routine piece of work in double-quick time, fulfilling the letter of the contract but no more – not least because there'd be no financial reward for whatever work was done. Not Marvin. Gaye decided that the righteous thing to do was use the opportunity to write a "poison pen" missive in musical form to punish the missus in public. He would warrant himself emotionally with the indignant thought that Anna was denying him access to their child. The album he would make would give a detailed account of the breakdown of the marriage, calculated to cause maximum hurt to Anna and embarrassment to Berry. He got down to work in 1977.
Gaye's best biographer, David Ritz, has written the liner-note to a new edition of the album, Here, My Dear (it has been remastered and coupled with a disc of outtakes, off-cuts and alternate remixes). Ritz was an astute observer of the Marvin method and his take on the curious transformation which took place as the singer immersed himself in the project rings floridly true. "In the course of creating this ode of rebuttal and revenge," he writes, "something very different happened. Art overwhelmed anger, and healing, the by-product of courageous introspection, was miraculously achieved." Which is another way of saying that what came out at the end didn't exactly match up with what went in at the beginning.
Here, My Dear is about as self-pitying and self-serving as a work of art can get. It is inconsistent in its perspectives, indulgent of its author's religious sentimentalism, deluded in its prospectus of what a marriage can be. Some of it is juvenile. It's saved from being pusillanimous only by the determination of the wounded Gaye to be as big-hearted as he could bring himself to be in the circs, and by the courage he exhibited – perhaps unwittingly – in revealing his own weakness of mind.
The album is one long baroque non sequitur. It is also fantastically beautiful. If nothing else, Here, My Dear represents the apotheosis of the gospel-soul tradition, in which sophisticated, shudderingly elaborate vocal harmony stands for the outreach of the human spirit in the general direction of the ineffable."
The divorce petition was duly filed by Anna 12 years later, by which time Marvin was a deeply conflicted international superstar, trailing bad habits and two small children by another woman with whom he was distractedly in love. We may presume that, by then, Anna was thoroughly browned off. The unhealthiest of Marvin's habits was the cocaine one, and coke habits can be expensive. So when Anna demanded a million dollars in settlement, Gaye could only plead poverty. He just didn't have the cash. Instead, his lawyer came up with the idea of offering Anna the $305,000 advance made by Motown against Gaye's next album, plus the first $295,000 it would inevitably turn in profit. Anna bought the deal. The judge duly wrote the order and the weirdest album deal in history was struck. What followed was even weirder.
Let us put ourselves in Gaye's shoes. Faced with such an imperative, most of us might well quail, utter a few resentful oaths and then knock out a routine piece of work in double-quick time, fulfilling the letter of the contract but no more – not least because there'd be no financial reward for whatever work was done. Not Marvin. Gaye decided that the righteous thing to do was use the opportunity to write a "poison pen" missive in musical form to punish the missus in public. He would warrant himself emotionally with the indignant thought that Anna was denying him access to their child. The album he would make would give a detailed account of the breakdown of the marriage, calculated to cause maximum hurt to Anna and embarrassment to Berry. He got down to work in 1977.
Gaye's best biographer, David Ritz, has written the liner-note to a new edition of the album, Here, My Dear (it has been remastered and coupled with a disc of outtakes, off-cuts and alternate remixes). Ritz was an astute observer of the Marvin method and his take on the curious transformation which took place as the singer immersed himself in the project rings floridly true. "In the course of creating this ode of rebuttal and revenge," he writes, "something very different happened. Art overwhelmed anger, and healing, the by-product of courageous introspection, was miraculously achieved." Which is another way of saying that what came out at the end didn't exactly match up with what went in at the beginning.
Here, My Dear is about as self-pitying and self-serving as a work of art can get. It is inconsistent in its perspectives, indulgent of its author's religious sentimentalism, deluded in its prospectus of what a marriage can be. Some of it is juvenile. It's saved from being pusillanimous only by the determination of the wounded Gaye to be as big-hearted as he could bring himself to be in the circs, and by the courage he exhibited – perhaps unwittingly – in revealing his own weakness of mind.
The album is one long baroque non sequitur. It is also fantastically beautiful. If nothing else, Here, My Dear represents the apotheosis of the gospel-soul tradition, in which sophisticated, shudderingly elaborate vocal harmony stands for the outreach of the human spirit in the general direction of the ineffable."
- Nick Coleman, The Independent
Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
