Marv Gaye: You're the Man review – 'lost album' ss at crossroads of soul | Mic | The Guardian

Contents:

• MARV GAYE’S LOST ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ FOLLOW UP, ‘YOU’RE THE MAN,’ SET FOR RELEASE
• ‘YOU’RE THE MAN’: ‘LOST’ MARV GAYE ALBUM DEF AN ERA OF SOUL MIC
• MARV GAYE’S LOST ALBUM FDS HIM AT THE PEAK OF HIS CREATIVY
• HOW DO YOU FOLLOW A MASTERPIECE? MARV GAYE TRIED WH 'YOU'RE THE MAN'
• MARV GAYE'S UNRELEASED ALBUM 'YOU'RE THE MAN' TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY
• WHAT WAS THE LAST ALBUM MARV GAYE RERD BEFORE HE DIED?
• HEAR SALAAM REMI’S SLICK REMIX OF MARV GAYE’S ‘SYMPHONY’
• A LONG-LOST MARV GAYE ALBUM OM 1972 HAS BEEN UNEARTHED
• MARV GAYE
• SONG YOU NEED TO KNOW: MARV GAYE, ‘TRY IT, YOU’LL LIKE IT’
• MARV GAYE’S LOST ALBUM GETS RELEASE DATE DES AFTER BEG SHELVED
• MARV GAYE’S ‘LOST’ 1972 ALBUM YOU’RE THE MAN RELEASED FOR THE FIRST TIME
• MARV GAYE: YOU'RE THE MAN REVIEW – 'LOST ALBUM' SS AT CROSSROADS OF SOUL

MARV GAYE’S LOST ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ FOLLOW UP, ‘YOU’RE THE MAN,’ SET FOR RELEASE

Marv Gaye’s Lost ‘What’s Gog On’ Follow Up, ‘You’re the Man, ’ Set for Release. Marv Gaye’s 1972 lost album, You’re the Man, will fally be released March 29th, jt days before what would’ve been the mician’s 80th birthday, April 2nd.

You’re the Man was supposed to be the follow-up to Gaye’s 1971 classic, What’s Gog On.

‘YOU’RE THE MAN’: ‘LOST’ MARV GAYE ALBUM DEF AN ERA OF SOUL MIC

Gaye rerd the tracks for the would-be rerd Detro and Los Angel durg a particularly prolific perd, but none of them – save the tular sgle – were released at the time.

Gaye origally rerd “My Last Chance” around 1972, and though was never released, the song was revised as “I Love You Secretly” for the Miracl’ 1973 album, Renaissance. In the Neti, Motown issued a quiet storm-style mix of the track, which beme a mor posthumo h for Gaye, while 2001 the origal versn fally appeared on a bt-of pilatn. The physil versn of the rerd wh new ler not om Gaye bgrapher, David Rz, who exam “Gaye’s eply personal ternal nflict as a source of creative vigor and emotnal burn as he experienced What’s Gog On‘s massive succs and all that me wh .

MARV GAYE’S LOST ALBUM FDS HIM AT THE PEAK OF HIS CREATIVY

Along wh issug You’re the Man, an expand versn of Gaye’s 1965 album, A Tribute to the Great Nat Kg Cole, is set to arrive digally March 15th.

The arrival of You’re The Man, a “lost” Marv Gaye album om his transnal year of 1972, may have been be the rult of some reful reassemblg of largely prevly released material. This was a time which both the artist and Motown were gog through dramatic chang: Gaye the wake of his masterwork, What’s Gog On, and the label wh s root-and-branch relotn om Detro to Los Angel. One of Gaye’s most cisive performanc.

HOW DO YOU FOLLOW A MASTERPIECE? MARV GAYE TRIED WH 'YOU'RE THE MAN'

At the outset, the polilly-charged “You’re The Man” opens wh wah-wah guar, a vtage, fect Gaye groove and distct echo of “Inner Cy Blu.

The new llectn is also home to one of Gaye’s most cisive performanc on “Piece Of Clay. ” Not released until the 1995 anthology The Master, was om the pens of Motown songwrers Gloria Jon and Pam Sawyer, but molds to Gaye’s personal dimensns wh stark tth. That feelg returns later when Gaye clar on “I’m Gog Home” that he’s lookg forward to a fay rnn where he will see “ar old Dad.

Many moments on You’re The Man showse Gaye’s stctive abily to uch iron-fist sentiments velvet-glove melodi, wh harmoni om his doo-wop apprentichip. Then the album’s flagship track, “My Last Chance, ” newly remixed by SaLaAM ReMi, prents Gaye at his most irristibly, charmgly romantic.

MARV GAYE'S UNRELEASED ALBUM 'YOU'RE THE MAN' TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY

Marv Gaye – Photo: Motown/EMI Hay Archive.

You’re The Man also clus both sis of the 1972 Christmas sgle that Gaye planned and ncelled, wh the long mix of s A-si, “I Want To Come Home For Xmas” (an impassned and tensely btersweet plea om a prisoner of war), and a reloted mix of s stmental flip “Xmas In The Cy.

WHAT WAS THE LAST ALBUM MARV GAYE RERD BEFORE HE DIED?

A send versn of “You’re The Man” is a fascatg unterpot to the earlier cut, as Gaye velops his rmed and impassned take on the Ameri of the early 70s, mg at one pot: “Maybe what this untry needs is a lady print.

” Delivered as a “double clutch” dance, has a special spotlight for bandlear Haton Bohannon; one almost imag Gaye leavg the stage as the group take the piece home. Listen to the bt of Marv Gaye on Apple Mic and Spotify. Marv Gaye relax the stud on Aug.

HEAR SALAAM REMI’S SLICK REMIX OF MARV GAYE’S ‘SYMPHONY’

The notn of a “lost” Marv Gaye album om 1972 evok feelgs roughly ak to learng that Billy Wilr wrote and shot a whole movie between Some Like It Hot and The Apartment only to scrap durg the edg procs, or that durg his 1993–94 “retirement” season, Michael Jordan was actually secretly playg extremely tense pickup gam and also filmg them. In realy, the material on You’re the Man, the famoly aborted Marv Gaye LP that would have fallen directly between the tw masterpiec of What’s Gog On (1971) and Let’s Get It On (1973), isn’t really all that lost—many of the tracks have been floatg around var ntexts for years. But the album, released by Motown this week 47 years after s notorly fickle creator pulled the plug, is a wele addn to the official Gaye disgraphy, as well as a val document of the creative pnacle of one of Amerin mic’s most exquise talents.

You’re the Man’s tle track, a sthg nunciatn of Richard Nixon that may be the most explicly polil posn of Gaye’s reer, is probably the album’s bt-known song and was tend as s lead sgle.

A LONG-LOST MARV GAYE ALBUM OM 1972 HAS BEEN UNEARTHED

” Gaye was no stranger to crossover succs: His 1968 rendn of “I Heard It Through the Grapeve” spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100, and more recently What’s Gog On—an album that he had to fight Motown to get released—had placed three sgl the Top 10. 50, a showg that reputedly stung Gaye so much he cid to scrap plans for the rerd, acrdg to ler not provid by Gaye bgrapher and mic scribe extraordaire David Rz.

Instead he turned his attentns to his sre for the blaxploatn flick Trouble Man (the film flopped, but Gaye’s soundtrack is magnificent) along wh the material that would bee Let’s Get It On, the hight-sellg album of his reer. ) It’s possible that Motown, leery of Gaye’s growg power and polil outspokenns, didn’t ph the sgle as aggrsively as might have. ) In any event, ’s hard to blame Marv Gaye for his tratn.

The vol is a masterpiece of righteoly paranoid fury: “We don’t want to hear no more li/ about how you planned a promise, ” sgs Gaye, an apparent reference to Nixon’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War. It’s drenched jazz fluenc, and s arrangements and performanc pay tribute to Gaye’s idols like Nat Kg Cole and Frank Satra while still soundg utterly cuttg-edge, a qualy due no small part to the formidable work of Motown ssn micians like Joe Msa, Wild Bill Moore, and the parable Jam Jamerson. There’s also a tremendo amount of mil operatn happeng here, a ccial aspect of Gaye’s whole reer that’s often obscured by his reputatn as a broodg, seclud geni.

MARV GAYE

The fluence of Gaye’s brother, Frankie, whose experienc Vietnam had spired much of What’s Gog On, is still prent as well: “I Want to Come Home for Christmas” opens like a standard holiday-homickns ballad, before revealg that the song’s narrator is fact a prisoner of war. As noted above, if you’re a Marv Gaye pletist, there won’t be all that much here that’s new to you—many of the tracks llected, like “The World Is Rated X, ” “I’m Gog Home (Move), ” and “We Can Make It Baby, ” have been prevly released on boxed sets like 1995’s The Master: 1961-1984 or as bon tracks on var luxe reissu.

There are pots where one imag the notorly exactg Gaye hollerg om the great beyond, “This stuff sound pretty great the first place!

And if you’re not a Gaye pletist, well, I highly remend beg one, and the meantime go listen to this album!

SONG YOU NEED TO KNOW: MARV GAYE, ‘TRY IT, YOU’LL LIKE IT’

“Piece of Clay” is one of the greatt vol performanc Gaye’s talog, and s after the sger’s ath at the hands of Marv Gay Sr., the song’s openg le—“Father, stop/ cricizg your son”—n’t help but send chills.

MARV GAYE’S LOST ALBUM GETS RELEASE DATE DES AFTER BEG SHELVED

The rerdg featur multiple vol tracks om Gaye, sometim harmonizg, sometim sgg unison, and equently engagg ll-and-rponse wh himself, a ftg arrangement for an artist who ntaed multus. This April 2 would have been Gaye’s 80th birthday. Gaye’s 1980s reer is one of mic’s great what-ifs.

The life that was vlently cut short that bafflg April day was a troubled and immensely plited one, but You’re the Man is a powerful remr that the world Marv Gaye left behd is immeasurably more betiful for the gifts he btowed upon .

Marv Gaye Tried Wh 'You're The Man'. Marv Gaye (and admirers) London the mid-1970s.

MARV GAYE’S ‘LOST’ 1972 ALBUM YOU’RE THE MAN RELEASED FOR THE FIRST TIME

In 1972, Marv Gaye began rerdg a follow-up to his megah album, What's Gog On. Gaye's label, Motown, was eager to see the hs keep on g — but succs had given the artist newfound creative ntrol, and he didn't want to generate a rbon py of the album he had jt put out. Gaye had produced and -wrten What's Gog On s entirety, but for the new songs he sought out a flock of producers and arrangers, om such emergent talents as Willie Hutch, Gloria Jon and Fonce Mizzell to seasoned veterans like Hal Davis and Gene Page.

" Dpe pilg more than enough songs to fill an LP, Gaye, for reasons we may never really know, ultimately cid to send most of them down to the vlt. After all, you have Gaye, at peak form, pairg his lible voice wh some of the bt soul productn of the era.

MARV GAYE: YOU'RE THE MAN REVIEW – 'LOST ALBUM' SS AT CROSSROADS OF SOUL

It may have taken 47 years to fally surface a proper way, but You're the Man is still a powerful, ronant remr of the greatns that was Marv Gaye.

Marv Gaye's Lost Album, 'You're The Man, ' Due Out March 29 The album's songs have long sce end up other plac, but have never been released the way that Gaye had tend — hear a sgle om the album now.