 |
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 19:45 |
 |
|
MARVIN GAYE
Hi funky brothas!!
thanks to Toby Smith and JK i discovered
Marvin Gaye's music!!!
I love Marvin Gaye so much!!! he did magical music,
so deep and so cool. This is a thread about him.
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.
BORN: April 2, 1939, Washington, D.C.
DIED: April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, CA
One of the most gifted, visionary, and enduring talents ever launched into orbit by the Motown hit machine, the career of Marvin Marvin Gaye blazed the trail for the continued evolution of popular black music: moving from lean, powerful R&B to stylish, sophisticated soul to finally arrive at an intensely political and personal form of artistic self-expression, his work not only redefined soul music as a creative force but also expanded its impact as an agent for social change.
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (in the style of his hero Sam Cooke, he added the "e" to his surname as an adult) was born April 2, 1939 in Washington, D.C. The second of three children born to Marvin Sr., an ordained minister in the House of God a conservative Christian sect fusing elements of orthodox Judaism and Pentecostalism which imposes strict codes of conduct and observes no holidays he began singing in church at the age of three, quickly becoming a soloist in the choir. Later taking up piano and drums, music became Marvin Gaye's escape from the nightmarish realities of his home life throughout his childhood, his father beat him on an almost daily basis.
After graduating high school, Marvin Gaye enlisted in the U.S. Air Force; upon his discharge, he returned to Washington and began singing in a number of street-corner doo wop groups, eventually joining the Rainbows, a top local attraction. With the help of mentor Bo Diddley, the Rainbows cut "Wyatt Earp," a single for the Okeh label which brought them to the attention of singer Harvey Fuqua, who in 1958 recruited the group to become the latest edition of his backing ensemble, the Moonglows. After relocating to Chicago, the Moonglows recorded a series of singles for Chess including 1959's "Mama Loocie"; while touring the Midwest, the group performed in Detroit, where Marvin Gaye's graceful tenor and three-octave vocal range won the interest of fledgling impressario Berry Gordy Jr., who signed him to the Motown label in 1961.
While first working at Motown as a session drummer and playing on early hits by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, he met Gordy's sister Anna, and married her in late 1961. Upon mounting a solo career, Marvin Gaye struggled to find his voice, and early singles failed; finally, his fourth effort, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," became a minor hit in 1962, and his next two singles the 1963 dance efforts "Hitch Hike" and "Can I Get a Witness" both reached the Top 30. With 1963's "Pride and Joy," Marvin Gaye scored his first Top Ten smash, but often found his role as a hitmaker stifling his desire to become a crooner of lush romantic ballads ran in direct opposition to Motown's all-important emphasis on chart success, and the ongoing battle between his artistic ambitions and the label's demands for commercial product continued throughout Marvin Gaye's long tenure with the company.
With 1964's Together, a collection of duets with Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye scored his first charting album; the duo also notched a number of hit singles together, including "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You, Baby?" As a solo performer, Marvin Gaye continued to enjoy great success, scoring three superb Top Ten hits "Ain't That Peculiar," "I'll Be Doggone," and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" in 1965. In total, he scored some 39 Top 40 singles for Motown, many of which he also wrote and arranged; with Kim Weston, the second of his crucial vocal partners, he also established himself as one of the era's dominant duet singers with the stunning "It Takes Two."
However, Marvin Gaye's greatest duets were with Tammi Terrell, with whom he scored a series of massive hits penned by the team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, including 1967's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love," followed by 1968's "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By." The team's success was tragically cut short in 1967 when, during a concert appearance in Virginia, Terrell collapsed into Marvin Gaye's arms onstage, the first evidence of a brain tumor which abruptly ended her performing career and finally killed her on March 16, 1970. Her illness and eventual loss left Marvin Gaye deeply shaken, marring the chart-topping 1968 success of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," his biggest hit and arguably the pinnacle of the Motown Sound.
At the same time, Marvin Gaye was forced to cope with a number of other personal problems, not the least of which was his crumbling marriage. He also found the material he recorded for Motown to be increasingly irrelevant in the face of the tremendous social changes sweeping the nation, and after scoring a pair of 1969 Top Ten hits with "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" and "That's the Way Love Is," he spent the majority of 1970 in seclusion, resurfacing early the next year with the self-produced What's Going On, a landmark effort heralding a dramatic shift in both content and style which forever altered the face of black music. A highly percussive album which incorporated jazz and classical elements to forge a remarkably sophisticated and fluid soul sound, What's Going On was a conceptual masterpiece which brought Marvin Gaye's deeply held spiritual beliefs to the fore to explore issues ranging from poverty and discrimination to the environment, drug abuse and political corruption; chief among the record's concerns was the conflict in Vietnam, as Marvin Gaye structured the songs around the point of view of his brother Frankie, himself a soldier recently returned from combat.
The ambitions and complexity of What's Going On baffled Berry Gordy, who initially refused to release the LP; he finally relented, although he maintained that he never understood the record's full scope. Marvin Gaye was vindicated when the majestic title track reached the number two spot in 1971, and both of the follow-ups, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," also reached the Top Ten; the album's success guaranteed Marvin Gaye continued artistic control over his work and helped loosen the reins for other Motown artists, most notably Stevie Wonder, to also take command of their own destinies. Consequently, in 1972, Marvin Gaye changed directions again, agreeing to score the blaxploitation thriller Trouble Man; the resulting soundtrack was a primarily instrumental effort showcasing his increasing interest in jazz, although a vocal turn on the moody, minimalist title track scored another Top Ten smash.
The long-simmering eroticism implicit in much of Marvin Gaye's work reached its boiling point with 1973's Let's Get It On, one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded; a work of intense lust and longing, it became the most commercially successful effort of his career, and the title cut became his second number one hit. Let's Get It On also marked another significant shift in Marvin Gaye's lyrical outlook, moving him from the political arena to a deeply personal, even insular stance which continued to define his subsequent work. After teaming with Diana Ross for the 1973 duet collection Marvin and Diana, he returned to work on his next solo effort, I Want You; however, the record's completion was delayed by his 1975 divorce from Anna Gordy. The dissolution of his marriage threw Marvin Gaye into a tailspin, and he spent much of the mid-1970s in divorce court; to combat Marvin Gaye's absence from the studio, Motown released the 1977 stopgap Live at the London Palladium, which spawned the single "Got to Give It Up (Pt. 1)," his final number one hit.
As a result of a 1976 court settlement, Marvin Gaye was ordered to make good on missed alimony payments by recording a new album, with the intention that all royalties earned from its sales would then be awarded to his ex-wife. The 1978 record, a two-LP set sardonically titled Here, My Dear, bitterly explored the couple's relationship in such intimate detail that Anna Gordy briefly considered suing Marvin Gaye for invasion of privacy. In the interim, he had remarried and begun work on another album, Lover Man, but scrapped the project when the lead single "Ego Tripping Out" a telling personal commentary presented as a duet between the spiritual and sexual halves of his identity, which biographer David Ritz later dubbed the singer's "divided soul" failed to chart. As his drug problems increased and his marriage to new wife Janis also began to fail, he relocated to Hawaii in an attempt to sort out his personal affairs.
In 1981, long-standing tax difficulties and renewed pressures from the I.R.S. forced Marvin Gaye to flee to Europe, where he began work on the ambitious In Our Lifetime, a deeply philosophical record which ultimately severed his long-standing relationship with Motown after he claimed the label had remixed and edited the album without his consent; additionally, Marvin Gaye stated that the finished artwork parodied his original intent, and that even the title had been changed to drop an all-important question mark. Upon signing with Columbia in 1982, he battled stories of erratic behavior and a consuming addiction to cocaine to emerge triumphant with Midnight Love, an assured comeback highlighted by the luminous Top Three hit "Sexual Healing." The record made Marvin Gaye a star yet again, and in 1983 he made peace with Berry Gordy by appearing on a television special celebrating Motown's silver anniversary. That same year, he also sang a soulful and idiosyncratic rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game which instantly became one of the most controversial and legendary interpretations of the anthem ever performed; it was to be his final public appearance.
Marvin Gaye's career resurgence brought with it an increased reliance on cocaine; finally, his personal demons forced him back to the U.S., where he moved in with his parents in an attempt to regain control of his life. Tragically, the return home only exacerbated his spiral into depression; he and his father quarrelled bitterly, and Marvin Gaye threatened suicide on a number of occasions. Finally, on the afternoon of April 1, 1984 one day before his 45th birthday Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by the Reverend Marvin Gay, Sr. in the aftermath of a heated argument. In the wake of his death, Motown and Columbia teamed to issue two 1985 collections of outtakes, Dream of a Lifetime a compilation of erotic funk workouts teamed with spiritual ballads and the big-band inspired Romantically Yours. (Vulnerable, a collection of ballads which took over 12 years to complete, finally saw release in 1996.) With Marvin Gaye's death also came a critical re-evaluation of his work, which deemed What's Going On to be one of the landmark albums in pop history, and his 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame permanently enshrined him among the pantheon of musical greats. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
deesh
Joined: 23 Feb 2002
Posts: 2717
Location: +001
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 21:28 |
|
|
i too love marvin gaye.
his life was cut short and music was robbed of someone with so much soul and talent.
i still remember my mom being so upset when he was shot on that day.
he had so many inner demons.
from his solo songs to his collaborations, i admire him and hang my head.
he was great.
this is one of my favorite shirts in my collection (i collect shirt of people that died..dunno why?). it is of marvin gaye. the guy with me is part of the company that designed that shirt (www.ropeadope.com). it is all sold out now..great thread topic. you can't see it closely,but those are doves behind mr.gaye that are flying in the sky.
respect mr.gaye:
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 19:31 |
|
|
thanks for your answer so much!!!
unfortunately i dont know many people who loves Marvin Gaye as much as i love him; i am so happy to read your message!!!
i love Marvin Gaye with all my heart; his music lives inside of me!!!!
i am listening to "Come Live With Me Angel" from "I WANT YOU" album!!
a genious beautiful song!!!! its more than music!!!!! remember the last
3 minutes piece with cool hohner clavinet?? its so cool!!!!
thanks to J and Toby for that they adviced to check Marvin Gaye!!
i have front and back cover pictures
of Marvin Gaye's unreleased '1979 album
"Love Man".
very rare pics!!!!!
check it out:
as you remember,
after "Here my dear" album release Marvin begun work on another album, Lover Man, but scrapped the project when the lead single "Ego Tripping Out" a telling personal commentary presented as a duet between the spiritual and sexual halves of his identity, which biographer David Ritz later dubbed the singer's "divided soul" failed to chart. As his drug problems increased and his marriage to new wife Janis also began to fail, he relocated to Hawaii in an attempt to sort out his personal affairs. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jaminneapolis
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 822
Location: Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.
|
| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 07:56 |
|
|
"Sexual Healing", "Ain't to proud to ge" and "Mercy, Mercy, Me" are my 3 favorites of his. Sorry, that's probably not going too far out on a limb since I mainly only know his hits. But I do ponder how much more music he would have made if he was still alive, just like Kurt Cobain, and Brad Nowell (the former lead singer of Sublime).
_________________
Wouldn't 'ya like... To walk the sunny avenues of life? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sandisaster
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Midwest, Divided States
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 04:58 |
|
|
Yup, he's a true legend. I cry when I listen to him.
_________________
I AM NOT RIDICULOUS UP ON BLOCKS!!!
"Don't shoot me down...I'm hot tequila brown..." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 16:52 |
|
|
if you listen to "here my dear" 1978 and "I Want You" 1976 albums
they will blow your mind!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deesh
Joined: 23 Feb 2002
Posts: 2717
Location: +001
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 05:35 |
|
|
deesh!!! thanks so much for this cool link!!!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 05:47 |
|
|
deesh, thanks for your picture!
that pic on your t shirt is my favourite
pic of Marvin, i dream to find a big poster with this picture.
you know it feels so cool that i can talk to you about him,
because i love him so much, and i am such a fool i didnt check his music before. (i started to listen to him in spring or in last winter - and now i am getting high from his stuff).
btw if you love Marvin, check my thread about Leon Ware which is also in this section, Marvin used his songs for "I Want You" - all songs on "I Want You" are written by Leon; Marvin liked them so much when checked them, he asked Leon to give them to him.
I feel so happy i love him, this is fantastic feeling i am Marvin Gaye's fan !!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 05:53 |
|
|
chords progressions in tracks from "I Want You" album are so fantastic!
it gives me so much new understanding of things. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
deesh
Joined: 23 Feb 2002
Posts: 2717
Location: +001
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 19:01 |
|
|
gracias.
i feel you. i smile at the thought of the creations he would have invented musically if he were still alive. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 15:14 |
|
|
An interesting fact is that Marvin Gaye was jazz fan and he began his career as a jazz singer, but in 1962 he was persuaded to record R & B, and notched up his first hit single with the confident 'Stubborn Kind Of Fellow', a top 10 R & B hit.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
stickup_kid
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Posts: 24
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 17:09 |
|
|
there is talk of Jesse Martin playing Marvin in a biopic. it'd focus on his last years though because they can't secure rights to his Motown stuff. from what i understand it'll focus on the "Sexual Healing" era and shed some light on his death and the strife between he and his father |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:39 |
|
|
yes, i also heard about it.
sounds interesting..
| Quote: |
"Law & Order" star tunes in to Marvin Gaye movie
.....
More than just being the voice of a generation, Marvin Gaye proved to be its very heartbeat," Goodman said. "As a filmmaker, I was drawn to tell the story of a human being who was never fully realized, one with faults and foibles and an uncommon grace expressed every time he picked up the microphone."
Various producers have spent years trying to make a movie about Gaye. Originally, the project was intended to cover a larger portion of his life but was refocused on his final years because of rights issues with his Motown-produced records.
...... |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060206/...NlYwN5bmNhdA--
http://us.video.aol.com/video.index....ture/gay_music
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Zsoma
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 1369
Location: Hungary
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 20:31 |
|
|
This one is from the Montreux '80 dvd, it's a special show, like the Amsterdam '76. These are most have shows 
And the new documentary film mentioned above will be shot here in Hungary ! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
Editorial
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Private messages
Log in
