Trouble Man [40th Anniversary Expand Edn] - Marv Gaye | Release Info | AllMic

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Trouble Man is a soundtrack and twelfth stud album by Amerin soul sger Marv Gaye, released on December 8, 1972, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Rerds. As the soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploatn film of the same name, the Trouble Man soundtrack was a more ntemporary move for Gaye, followg his landmark polilly charged album What’s Gog On. Gaye remaed very proud of this work, tellg journalist Pl Gambacci 1976:.

Ridg high on the succs of the landmark What's Gog On, Marv Gaye won a lucrative rerd ntract and total creative eedom for his next project.

Gaye nducts a full orchtra, cludg sci-fi synths and sultry horns, on the mostly stmental tracks, which traverse moods rangg om sctive to spenseful to jt pla ol. Flecked wh Gaye's angelic vols, Trouble Man transcends mere soundtrack fare. Marv Gaye.

In 1972, thgs were rapidly shiftg Marv Gaye's world. Wh Motown's offic migratg wt om Detro to Los Angel, Gaye followed su, begng work on Trouble Man, both the sre to a blaxploatn film of the same name and the soundtrack that would be his next album. Wh mimal sgg (Gaye sgs through only the tle track, addg agmentary volizatns mimally throughout the rt of the album), Gaye wrote, arranged, and nducted the entire soundtrack, workg wh both Motown players and a full orchtra over the urse of s rerdg.

It's been speculated by some that Trouble Man was a ncerted effort to move away om the expectatns of a rbon-py follow-up to the almost immeasurably high standards of What's Gog On, but 's bt to look at the rerd as an enty unto self rather than the next Marv Gaye album the cha.

Lookg at the album outsi the trends of s era and ward to the art that Gaye was sculptg shows Trouble Man as a mostly wordls statement on the rapidly changg tim for both young black Ameri and Marv's personal life. While 's been relegated to the lser stat of Gaye's one-off blaxploatn soundtrack, ris far above the wanrg wah-wah guars and dated bongos of s peers.

Trouble Man might not be as immediate or universally relatable as Gaye's soul-searchg on What's Gog On or his later sensual fixatns, but a ep listen will show 's very much part of the same overarchg geni that touched all of his work. Trouble Man shocked everyone who thought Gaye uldn't possibly liver a qualy soundtrack, while was only recent years that even hardre soul fans have realized how great M. The movie, however, is not remembered for the streetwise tective played by Robert Hooks but for the stellar soundtrack posed and produced by Marv Gaye.

The bluy tle track peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 1973 and later spired the bgraphy tle Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marv Gaye by Steve Charl Pettigrew first met Eddie Chan on a New York subway tra, the latter was clutchg a py of Marv Gaye's Trouble Man. Marv Gaye’s work for Trouble Man (yet another Shaft-style black film, this one dropped om sight soon after s release) falls somewhere between that of Hay and Mayfield.

While there’s no attempt to make a song-sre like that of Superfly — “Trouble Man, ” the tle song, is practilly the only cut wh lyrics and even the are spare — Gaye, like Mayfield, has created a sre strong enough to be pletely pennt of the film. Gaye’s first album sce his surprisg and novative What’s Go’ On more than a year ago, Trouble Man don’t take his mic a whole lot further and certaly sisteps the problem of how to follow up a sweepg life statement — aha!

Much of the other material is moody and more remiscent of Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me” or “Save The Children, ” wh Marv sgg a few l of lyrics or sttg that strangely ethereal voice of his.