Top 25 – Marvin Gaye

Forgie me for barely being around this week. Aside from the difficulty I had getting back in the swing, I’m trying to pull off about seven personal projects and a couple of professional ones. Long week, but it’s all good.
Especially after my ‘Horns work their way into the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
Now, the list.

I’m of the belief that Marvin Gaye’s the best male singer of the 20th century. I can’t think of anyone that could use his voice to cover such a range of emotions. But since he was crazy, he was a bit more in touch with that range of emotions than most people were. We’re all crazy in a way, so I don’t hold that against him. Rule for life–crazy people raise crazy kids.
And Marvin’s pops was throwed in la cabeza.
So here comes the list. I am including the stuff with Tammi Terrell for a couple of reason. For one, it’s a significant part of Marvin’s catalog. Second, so much of that stuff is absolutely unreal. Their chemistry may be the gold standard for a male/female duo.
(Somewhat unrelated, losing Terrell at such a young age is one of the great tragedies of black music. Really bothered James Brown, who makes it appear in his autobiography that they were romantically involved. Farbeit from me to question Mr. Dynamite’s pimpin’.)
25.Got to Give It Up. So overrated to me, even though it’s good. Sounds like too much other stuff. “After the Dance” is a better record, and it’s just a slower version of this one.
24.You Sure Love to Ball. Had this song come out today, it would have been called “You Sure Love to Bang” or something like that. “Ball” was an analogous slang term. Just threw that tidbit in there for all those hypocritical old folks in the house.
23.I Want You. And I want you to want me to. Just like I want you. Marvin, you’ll learn not to care if she wants you. Stop being greedy, get in where you fit in, then roll. Unless you were talking about love, and I didn’t hear a lot of love on that album.
22.Anger. One of the few songs on “Here, My Dear” that doesn’t appear on the record seventy-five times.
21.If I Should Die Tonight. Sorta out of place on Let’s Get It On, but Marvin’s bizarre associations with spirituality with his sex were to be expected. He sings the hell out of this, though.
20.Ain’t That Peculiar. You know, I’m really not that big a fan of Marvin’s solo Motown stuff pre-1971. The stuff’s cool, but it feels like a poor use of his prodigious talents. It wasn’t until they opened up the sound that Marvin could really flourish.
19.God Is Love. “Don’t go and talk about my father/God is my friend.” Another one of those lines that could easily be a double entendre when dealing with Marvin.
18.Mercy Mercy Me. You know, I might put this higher on the list if I ever do this one again, but I just don’t get off on songs about the environment. Just doesn’t hit me in that place. Maybe I’m not as much of a lefty as I thought I was.
17.Just to Keep You Satisfied. Most of Let’s Get It On is fun, just about gettin’ off some rocks and calling it a day. This one’s a bit of foreshadowing to his breakup from Anna Gordy. There’s not a lick of fun in this one, even if it sounds undeniably sexy. But it wins because of the emotional resonance Marvin always comes with.
16.Your Precious Love. My basic rule on Marvin and Tammi–the less pop, the better. The slower, the better. But always good.
15.After the Dance. I really want to go to the party in this song.
14.Here, My Dear. The leadoff from his really strange, angry, pathetic, vulnerable divorce settlement of the same name. I just like it.
13.What’s Going On. This is a wonderful record, but it’s really gotten played out. And there’s a similar and superior record on the same album (see #6). However, my man Eric Arnold once described it as “the smoothest protest record” ever made. And he’s probably right.
12.Is That Enough. This is the song Three 6 Mafia sampled for “Sippin on Da Syrup.” Highlight line–“what could I do?/The judge say she got to keep on livin’ the way she’s ‘customed to.” Divorce has never sounded less fun.
11.Trouble Man. “I been some places/I seen some faces/I got good connections/they dig my direction/what people say/they don’t bother me.” Story of my life, Jack.
10.Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler). I love this, but its title was co-opted by the fantastically overrated Nathan McCall for one of his fantastically overrated books. Shit, let’s move on before I get irate.
9.Soon I’ll Be Loving You. Hey, all you morons that decry the lack of conscience and decency in today’s music–what did you think when Marvin talked about giving head on this song? I don’t mean he danced around the topic. I mean he said he wanted to give Janis Hunter “head.” In fact, he spelled it out. H-E-A-D.
8.Come Get to This. One of the album cuts on Let’s Get It On. It’s sorta difficult to describe if you haven’t heard it, but Marvin makes singing sound so easy on this track. If you don’t own that album, get it. Specific recommendation is the remastered version.
7.You’re All I Need to Get By. You know the song from the first two notes you hear. You know the deal when you hear James Jamerson’s bass line. You feel it when you hear Marvin’s voice. You’re into it when you get to Tammi. You’re in the zone by the time you get to the bridge. And you should be looking for the rewind button when you get to the end.
6.What’s Happening Brother. I’ll take this one over its companion track, “What’s Going On.” The reason is that “What’s Going On” is so slogan-filled that it lacks nuance. “What’s Happening Brother” is a talk between he and (I figure) his brother back from Vietnam. The questions are so real and simple, but they say so much about what it’s like to get reacquainted with someone that went to fight Charlie for a few years. Right up there with Withers’ “I Can’t Write Left-Handed” on my list of great songs about Vietnam.
5.Sexual Healing. Song was written by David Ritz, who wrote a great bio of Marvin called Divided Soul. Granted, there’s a cheesy attempt at reggae in this, but it’s a wonderful track.
4.I Heard It Through the Grapevine. That bass line is unreal. Gladys Knight’s version came first, but this one’s the definitive version. Also comes with great logic for the kids–believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
3.Let’s Get It On. This one’s so famous that it’s almost cliche. Almost. Find me something wrong with this song and I’ll let you move into my house. Okay, I’m making that last part up.
2.Feel All My Love Inside. The criticisms of the I Want You album are justified. It sounds too much like Let’s Get It On. However, this is the dopest song on there. Supremely sensual without seeming raunchy, even though he’s talking about climbing walls and making sounds and stuff like that. If I had to pick one Marvin song to use to ply a woman from her drawers, this would be the one.
1.Distant Lover (live). I’m not sure where to begin about this song. There’s so much good about it. It’s wonderfully written, fantastically produced, and all that other stuff. But my goodness, Marvin sang his ass off on this one. The pleases he lets loose in this one are the gold standard for spontaneous utterances, the kind people spend all day in the studio trying to get right. And he got it right in concert. Wow. It should also be noted that this is from the live album released in the mid-seventies, not The Last Concert Tour. That last one is the best anti-drug commercial anyone could dream of.
*Special mention to The Star Spangled Banner at the All-Star Game. No one’s topped this rendition yet. And don’t nobody dare try to talk about that Whitney Houston version. Nobody.
And I’m gone. Really, the Elliott Wilson interview is coming. I promise.