Marv Gaye - The Sexual Healer Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMic

Contents:

• THE MEANG AND SOUL BEHD MARV GAYE’S “SEXUAL HEALG” SONG LYRICS

THE MEANG AND SOUL BEHD MARV GAYE’S “SEXUAL HEALG” SONG LYRICS

This supplementary edn of mos, stmentals, and alternate versns giv a sense of how Gaye redisvered his art the procs of makg Midnight Love. ” Midnight Love end up beg an album of precisn, but the early versns of “Rock’ After Midnight, ” “’Til Tomorrow, ” “Third World Girl” and “My Love Is Wag” show Gaye a looser, more ee-flowg mo. Marv Gaye.

"Sexual Healg, " the tle tune that leads off this two-disc, 21-track anthology, was as close as Marv Gaye ever me to mergg the sacred and secular sis of his plex personaly on rerd, and ranks as one of the most hont and translucent pop songs of the 20th century. Had the rt of this set simply lived up to that begng and s own subtle, The Love Collectn, this would have been an imprsive package, for few sgers uld make a love song (or any song, for that matter) reverberate as personally as Gaye.

Unfortunately, there are songs here that -- although they are marvelo -- have nothg at all to do wh love, like Gaye's ver of the Temptatns' "Cloud Ne, " the atmospheric, jazzy, and quietly edgy "Trouble Man, " and the geo (but hardly a love song) "Mercy Mercy Me (The Elogy).

OK, to be fair, Sexual Healg: The Love Collectn don't live up to the nceptual premise of s tle, but do feature the aforementned Marv Gaye classics (although not "Grapeve"), along wh lser material (and lser material om Gaye is still damn good), so is hardly a wash. Now 40 years after s release, the power of Marv Gaye’s 1982 h “Sexual Healg” is palpable and remas one of Gaye’s most regnizable songs.

Released on Gaye’s 17th and fal album Midnight Love, “Sexual Healg” reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B Sgl chart, where remaed for 10 weeks, earng Gaye two Grammys for Bt Male R&B Vol Performance and Bt R&B Instmental Performance. The son of a preacher, Gaye was a vout Prottant Christian, and often stggled wh his relig valu but found most of his succs wh songs focg on sexual sire.

When wrer and iend David Rz noticed Gaye had a large llectn of pornography, he told the sger that he need some “Sexual Healg.

” Gaye asked him to wre a few words, which were ed as lyrics the song.

In 1981 Marv Gaye retreated to the astal town of Ghent, Belgium, for some much-need relaxatn and to remove himself om ongog IRS issu and the end of his send marriage as he was stgglg wh an addictn to e and prsn. There for 18 months is where Gaye pleted “Sexual Healg, ” along wh Rz, who he had ially ved out to help him wre his bgraphy, Divid Soul: The Life of Marv Gaye. A known ladi’ man, who wrote many sexualized songs (a la “Let’s Get On”) “Sexual Healg” me naturally to Gaye, wh a pretty straight-forward msage:.

“Sexual Healg” was the first sgle Gaye released wh CBS Rerds after partg ways wh Motown Rerds after 20 years followg royalty disput and his divorce om Motown founr Berry Gordy’s sister.

Rz was never given wrg cred for the song, only thanked the ler not, which ed a rift his iendship wh Gaye. He later sued for cred and won the se after Gaye’s ath 1984. The wrg creds now clu Rz, Gaye, and Gaye’s keyboardist Oll Brown, who also ntributed to the song.

When Gaye returned to the U.

By late 1983, Gaye had moved wh his parents Marv Gay, Sr., and Alberta their Los Angel home and was killed by his father after an argument on April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday. Facebook (MarvGaye). Marv Pentz Gay, Jr.

To mark Midnight Love’s 15 year anniversary, CBS Rerds released this luxe edn which sheds light on Marv Gaye’s creative procs.

Songfacts®:Gaye wrote this Ostend, a rort town on the ast of Belgium. He stayed for 18 months before returng to the renown wrer David Rz gave Gaye the ia for this song. Gaye had a large llectn of pornography, to the pot that many of his iends felt he was addicted to porn.

When he noticed the llectn, Rz told Gaye he need some "Sexual Healg, " and Marv had him wre some words which beme the lyrics to the song. "Gaye had ved Rz to Ostend to help wre his bgraphy - Divid Soul: The Life of Marv Gaye. This broke his iendship wh Gaye, as Rz sued for a songwrer cred.

Co-poser Oll Brown, who was also Gaye's keyboard player, claimed he didn't have any knowledge of Rz's ntributn to the song tle, let alone any lyrics. After Gaye died, Rz won his se and got the cred, which now reads: Oll Brown/Marv Gaye/David had a lot of succs wrg very sexual songs and built a reputatn as a ladi' man, but he was the son of a preacher and stggled wh his relig valu. This nflict tormented him for years and spired the bgraphy tle Divid Soul: The Life of Marv Gaye, by David was one of the first songs to e the Roland TR-808 dm mache, and the first mastream h to do so.

Gaye and llaborator Gordon Banks programmed the mache, which was troduced 1980 but hadn't appeared on a h song until Aika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force showed up wh "Pla Rock" earlier 1982.