The Ballads of Marv Gaye on JSTOR

Contents:

• MARV GAYE: LOVE SONGS: BEDROOM BALLADS
• LOVE MARV: THE GREATT LOVE SONGS OF MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE: LOVE SONGS

MARV GAYE: LOVE SONGS: BEDROOM BALLADS

Marv Gaye. This brief, 12-track pilatn is a samplg of Marv Gaye's ballads, drawg om the early '60s (such as 1961's The Soulful Moods of Marv Gaye) through the mid-'70s (namely 1976's I Want You), as well as om posthumo archival releas (like 1985's Romantilly Yours).

The set appeals most to those who own a h-oriented anthology and want to dig eper to the phase of Gaye's reer when the sger aspired to follow the pop footsteps of Nat Kg Cole. This article foc on Marv Gaye's volvement wh mic related to the “middle of the road” (MOR) market wh the Amerin mic bs between 1961 and 1979.

LOVE MARV: THE GREATT LOVE SONGS OF MARV GAYE

From 1961 to 1966, addn to his work as a teen idol, Gaye performed regularly supper clubs, released four albums of standards material, and rerd dozens of other related songs that were eventually shelved. Gaye's tert ballads nnects to a different tradn of Amerin mic om his soul hs, drawg on the legacy of 1920s croong, mastream swg volists like Frank Satra, and Ain Amerin forebears such as Nat “Kg” Cole and Sam Cooke.

This article mak a number of new claims about Gaye's reer trajectory: that his method of posg wh his voice the stud—buildg up plex textur om multiple tak and posg lyrics and melody directly to tape—began as early as 1967, well before his better-known experiments for What's Gog On 1970; that the popular, sexualy-charged mic of his fal was an extensn of his work wh romantic balladry the 1960s; and that his tert standards ntued much farther to his reer than is suggted by his official disgraphy. If the midle-priced Marv Gaye pilatn Love Songs: Bedroom Ballads seems to have two tl grafted together, that's not appropriate to the album's ntents.

MARV GAYE: LOVE SONGS

The album's love songs are the seven romantic standards Gaye labored over for more than a and never released durg his lifetime, tracks that fally were issued 1997 unr the tle Vulnerable.

Workg wh lh strg arrangements arranged by Bobby Stt, Gaye rewr the melodi of faiar songs like "The Shadow of Your Se" (heard here wh a prevly unreleased alternate vol), renrg the material h and claimg for his own. The "bedroom ballads" portn of the album, terspersed wh the other songs, nsists of six tracks that appeared origally on Gaye's albums Let's Get It On, I Want You, In Our Lifetime, and Here, My Dear.

Wrten or -wrten by Gaye himself, the songs employ the sger's mixture of romance wh blunt eroticism, notably on tun wh tl like "You Sure Love to Ball" and "Funk Me, " and on "Sce I Had You, " which ntas an asmic background vol track that uldn't be bettered by Donna Summer.

Gaye llaborator and bgrapher David Rz nceived this pilatn, which is te to Gaye's romantic sensibily, a batn of sophistitn and physily. Marv Gaye has long been acknowledged as the “Crown Prce” of the Motown Corporatn.

Begng as a ssn dmmer for the label (after a brief “doo-wop” reer Harvey Fuqua’s MoonGlows and the Ravens), Gaye emerged as the label’s signature male solo volist wh the release of “Stubborn Kd of Fellow” and a strg of soul-pop dti like “How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You”, “Can I Get a Wns”, and “Hch Hike”. By the mid-1960s, Motown began to nscly pair Gaye wh female volists like Mary Wells and Kim Wton, fally creatg the legendary pairg of Gaye and Tammi Terrell, who have bee the very fn of romantic duets the pop mic dtry. After Terrell’s ath 1970 of a bra tumor, Gaye embarked on an aggrsive and amb shift his reer, rerdg the ground-breakg “prott” album What’s Gog On (1971).

Two years after s release Gaye aga shifted gears, rerdg one of the most majtic tom of rnal pleasure ever wh the hugely fluential Let’s Get It On (1973).

Bee of the rerdg and the mercial succs of the tle sgle, Gaye has forever been known — even some 18 years after his ath — as the “Love Man”. The new llectn Love Songs: Bedroom Ballads draws upon this legacy, pilg some of Gaye’s most acplished, yet largely obscure, love ballads.

Material for Love Songs: Bedroom Ballads is largely drawn om two sourc, Gaye’s now legendary Vulnerable ssns and I Want You (1975), his soulful celebratn of asmic ecstasy. I Want You was Gaye’s first stud disc after Let’s Get It On (Marv Gaye Live and his duet album wh Diana Ross were released between), and Gaye seemed hell-bent on phg the proverbial sexual envelope as the rerdg is laced wh not so subtle sexual nuendo, cludg the nsc cisn to layer some of the tracks wh the sounds of female asm (former Delphonics lear Major Harris had his only major h, “Love Won’t Let Me Wa”, g the same strategy.

On “Soon I’ll Be Lovg You Aga”, -wrten wh Ware and the late T-Boy Ross (Diana’s brother) Gaye opens the song wh the lovely lyric, “Dream of you this morng, then me the dawng and I thought you were here wh me... The song functns as a grand e-on which Gaye later adms, “although I never gave up no head (before) / But there’s always a first time you know / I’ve ma up my md soon I’ll be lov’ you”.