Marv Gaye – 10 of the bt | Motown rerds | The Guardian

Contents:

• MARV GAYE'S 10 GREATT SONGS EVER, RANKED
• MARV GAYE’S WIFE REVEALS HOW HE TORTURED HER
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• THE STORY BEHD THE MURR OF MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• VIO OM ED SHEERAN NCERT IS ‘SMOKG GUN’ MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE: ATTORNEYS
• ED SHEERAN-MARV GAYE PYRIGHT TRIAL TO BEG NEW YORK
• MARV GAYE – 10 OF THE BT

MARV GAYE'S 10 GREATT SONGS EVER, RANKED

Taken far too soon, Marv Gaye's mic took on var styl, om upliftg duets to heartbreakg ballads to socially-nsc 've taken his 10 very bt songs for the ultimate Marv Gaye troductn:. Wrten by the famo Holland–Dozier–Holland tr at Motown, this gave Marv Gaye his biggt h at the time song's tle was spired by one of Jackie Gleason's signature tchphras: "How Sweet It Is!

Released on Motown's Tamla label 1966, this duet between Marv and Kim Wton scrib var thgs life - such as dreams, love and wish - beg far better wh two people stead of more: The tragic story of Marv Gaye and the untimely ath of a soul legendIn 1990, Rod Stewart and Ta Turner teamed up for a ver versn, takg to number five the UK. Origally by Dn, this song was a tribute to four inic Amerins who were assassated: Abraham Lln, Mart Luther Kg Jr, John F Kennedy and Robert Gaye vered the song 1970, and was one of his first experiments socially-nsc mic, a year before his What's Gog On? Songwrers Ashford & Simpson scribed this song as their 'goln egg' which got them their first Motown Sprgfield wanted to rerd first, but the duo turned her down so that they uld secure Motown, and land wh Marv and Tammi Terrell, who sred a big h wh their origal more: Tammi Terrell - The tragic life story of a Motown sger and how Marv Gaye never got over her athThree years later, Diana Ross achieved her first solo US number one wh a ver versn g a different arrangement.

MARV GAYE’S WIFE REVEALS HOW HE TORTURED HER

Album, this song is one of mic's most poignant anthems regardg the was a ln-seller, and was later vered by Robert Palmer 1990 as part of a medley wh Gaye's song 'I Want You'. The tle track of his 1973 album, beme Marv's biggt h and one of his sgature wh Ed Townsend, was origally nceived as a relig song after Townsend had recently fished rehab, before Gaye transformed to an emotnal plea about love and sexual liberatn. This song was -wrten by Renaldo 'Obie' Benson, Al Cleveland, and Marv Gaye, and produced by Gaye marked Gaye's parture om the Motown Sound of his prev output, towards more personal more: The Story of...

However, is Marv Gaye's versn om 1968 that beme the most inic, spe the fact that Motown chief Berry Gordy was not nvced would be a h at more: Marv Gaye's isolated vols om 'I Heard Through the Grapeve' will give you tglIt beme a h for a send time 1985, after s e the inic Levi's advert featurg a certa Nick Kamen at a lndrette. Janis Hunter was a mother of two her early 20s when her longtime lover, father of her children and one of the world’s most lted-after soul sgers, Marv Gaye, suggted an amoro liaison wh another uple. “After the Dance, ” a memoir by Gaye’s mistrs-turned-wife Jan Gaye, wrten wh David Rz, rells a love affair propelled by jt the sorts of md gam.

Marv Gaye’s immense, unniable talent for sgg and songwrg, and his equally impossible-to-dismiss sex appeal, were acpanied by creasgly heavy dg e — eebasg e eventually did him — and erratic moods, a nstant tug of war between thrills, love, lt and terror. Her mother, Barbara, was iends wh Ed Townsend, Gaye’s producer, and he brought her to the stud to watch Gaye rerd. Mutually enamored, Gaye brought Hunter to an Italian rtrant Hollywood, where he bribed the waer $20 to brg his unrage date aprit sours.

50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER

Soon after, they ma love for the first time Gaye’s sparse one-bedroom apartment, which had a “hio gold uch” where Gaye’s assistant, a junkie named Abe, had taken up rince. Soon, Hunter began to see how Gaye thrived on the emotnal turmoil of those around him and learned the pth of his jealoy and posssivens. But if Gaye grew quickly acceptg of his dghter, his attu toward Hunter — specifilly her new, jt-gave-birth body — changed.

THE STORY BEHD THE MURR OF MARV GAYE

Gaye got over his body hangups (for a while), and they settled to fay life, spendg their days high on ke and pot as Gaye wrote and produced new mic.

Notg a chemistry between Hunter and Maze sger Frankie Beverly, Gaye did everythg he uld to set up an illic liaison between the two. When Beverly me for a vis, Gaye not only booked him a room at a lol motel but booked the adjog room for Hunter, sayg he need her out of the hoe so he uld foc on mic.

After a long, ugly and expensive legal battle, Gaye was fally divorced om Anna Gordy, and married Hunter — now Jan Gaye — October 1977. Gaye — now almost 40 — plaed to his 22-year-old wife about her saggg breasts and her stretch marks, explag, “There’s a big difference between pleasure and excement. They had vic fights, cludg one time when Gaye, behd the wheel wh both kids the r, began to swerve and threatened to “drive this thg off the road!

MARV GAYE

Soon after, Gaye left Jan and the kids behd on a planned trip to Hawaii wh his fay, begng a pattern that would repeat over the years of Gaye leavg LA and his fay behd, only to implore them to jo him once at his statn. In time, torn by Gaye’s cel treatment, Jan slept wh Beverly and also hooked up wh Teddy Penrgrass, Gaye’s ma mil rival. Courty of Jan Gaye The next five years saw Gaye, Jan and their children embroiled nasty back-and-forth battl, cludg, after Jan brought the kids to see Gaye Hawaii, his refg to let Frankie leave, g Jan to not see her son for over a year.

Gaye, out of his md on e, would tell Jan that the “end days” were approachg or acce her of sendg her father or gang members to try to kill him. As a child, mician Devon Gilfillian remembers his father, a profsnal weddg sger, harmonizg wh Marv Gaye’s inic “What’s Gog On” album their livg room. In a recent terview for a new CNN documentary about Gaye’s work, tled “What’s Gog On: Marv Gaye’s Anthem for the Ag, ” the Grammy-nomated artist and activist relled redisverg the album jt before headg to a prott Nashville last summer.

Elsewhere, Steve Turner (the thor of Gaye’s bgraphy Trouble Man) tailed the emotnal and physil abe Gaye and his siblgs suffered at the hands of their father. In the years sce his ath, everyone om Charlie Puth and Elton John to Thomas Rhett has ma mentn of Gaye their songs, makg clear jt how fluential Gaye was to mic as a whole. Marv Gaye’s classic 1971 rerd What’s Gog On turns 50 this month, which means more people than ever will have ocsn to note how timely is.

WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE

“He uld have wrten What’s Gog On yterday, ” poet Nikki Gvanni noted an terview last tumn, explag that the ver portra of her 2020 llectn, Make Me Ra, pays homage to Gaye’s album ver, picturg Gvanni a raat, her llar upturned. The rerd’s endurance – most movgly displayed by Nelson Manla, who, shortly after his release om prison 1990, reced l om the album at Tiger Stadium Detro – has practilly bee a one is wrong, of urse, to say that Gaye’s album cuts as eply today as did 1971. A dively spired work driven by social rage – one that braid doo-wop harmoni, jazz and the hymns Gaye had loved as a child – What’s Gog On was also Gaye’s claratn of creative pennce om Berry Gordy’s Motown mache.

After a of polished pop hs, Gaye, now his early 30s, revealed there was a lot on his md: the outrage of the war Vietnam (What’s Happeng Brother? The surgent subject matter was acpanied by a change Gaye’s personal style: he stopped wearg ti and grew a beard.

”What’s Gog On remas val, above all, for how turns away om that “Ameri” and stead addrs the tle qutn to a closer-kn group – those people gathered at the hoe party Gaye stag the album’s openg moments; the “mother, mother” and “father father” he lls out to (and that the party settg might emboln him to ndidly addrs).

VIO OM ED SHEERAN NCERT IS ‘SMOKG GUN’ MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE: ATTORNEYS

” the speaker asks What’s Happeng Brother?, checkg the claims of those power agast the thory of everyday Black is one thg to celebrate Gaye’s endurg and prcient mo of creatn; another to appld the ntued ronance of his album’s ncerns. We should not be sangue, for stance, that Gaye’s unrstated blu crique of “trigger-happy policg” has stayed so relevant; or that anti-Black vlence has so persisted over the last 50 years that remas necsary for Black artists and everyday people to approach the task of survivg and thrivg Ameri wh the energy, elegance and grace that Gaye molled this landmark work.

ED SHEERAN-MARV GAYE PYRIGHT TRIAL TO BEG NEW YORK

This, any se, is the imprsn I get when watchg Gaye troduce the tle track at the Montrx jazz ftival the summer of 1980. Maybe he was tired – was the last song of a long set – but the 40-year-old Gaye, his illed whe shirt and sequned red su jacket, appears to not jt work the crowd but panr to wh some ntempt: “This was our very first No 1 rerd ever the world, ladi and gentlemen. Photograph: US Army/Getty ImagThis is precisely the kd of galvanisg work that Gaye was dog wh What’s Gog On, for his own people his own time – a historil pot that is often obscured when we fixate on the rerd’s timelsns.

Gaye’s crique of the Vietnam war, for example, which was rmed by his brother Frankie’s experienc of the nflict, was disarmgly distctive. ”Vcent se Gaye’s actns as “the drivg force” behd Stevie Wonr’s polil turn at Motown, as well as the rigoro funk of Sly and the Fay Stone and the righteo soul of Aretha Frankl’s 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black. The stars, along wh untls ssn micians, were “dog their bt work ever at this ccial moment time” – settg the standard, the se of Gaye and his llaborator David Van De Pte’s meticulo strg, nga, bass and vol arrangements – for what Vcent lls “soul mic as high art” be sure, What’s Gog On is an impecbly posed sue.

Listen to how Gaye cranks the volume back up jt as the tle track starts to fa out – a sign of rilience as well as a petty refal to let a track that Gordy hated end whout a fight. ” Here is a nvivialy you make jt by showg up, where you don’t have to know someone to be glad they Gaye the stud 1973. Photograph: Jim Brt/Getty ImagWhat I listen for now are moments like the, which, spe repeated plays, ver versns and sampl of Gaye’s songs, still sound disrdant and unrolved.

MARV GAYE – 10 OF THE BT

(oh, for the children), ” Gaye sgs, makg his way up a hntg and haltg mil sle, as if toward a future jt out of reach. In this portn of the rerd, timg and melody e unmoored, as Gaye mak room for hard, even spairg qutns: is possible to “save a world that is sted to die”? If at first Gaye seems ncerned wh parsg good om bad actors, “those of who simply like to socialise” v “those of who tend the sick and heed the people’s cri, ” he also gathers them all to an affirmative, right-on roll ll that mellows out to an oblique paean to sex: “And my darlg, one more thg / If you let me, I will take you to live where love is kg.

The squawkg tenor saxophone solo wh which Wild Bill Moore tears through Mercy Mercy Me might be the most dramatic performance of the “holler” Gaye sgs about Inner Cy Blu – but which Gaye himself livers, at the end of that song, as a stylised cry: “Owwww!

” It often seems to me that that holler, the culmatn of the growlg ton Gaye sgs on the track, should be fiercer, more unhged. What Gaye performs stead is the virtuosic, ant ntrol required, the midst of panic, of Black people Ameri, no ls than that other war elements are not easily absorbed or nscripted to narrativ about Gaye’s moment or our own; precisely bee they are the rerd’s jagged edg, they keep reachg out to grab listeners through time. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe heirs of Ed Townsend, who -wrote “Let’s Get It On” wh Marv Gaye, had acced the pop star of pyg “Thkg Out Loud.