‘I Want You’: Marv Gaye’s Hot, Sweaty 1976 Album | uDisver Mic

Contents:

• ‘I WANT YOU’: MARV GAYE’S CARNAL CLASSIC
• 45 YEARS AGO: MARV GAYE STIRS UP A STORM ON ‘I WANT YOU’MICHAEL GALLUCCIMICHAEL GALLUCCIPUBLISHED: MARCH 16, 2021TAMLASHARETWEETMARV GAYE WAS STILL A PRETTY GOOD PLACE, PERSONALLY AND PROFSNALLY, EARLY 1976 AS HE WAS PREPPG THE RELEASE OF HIS 14TH ALBUM, I WANT YOU.HIS LAST UPLE OF ALBUMS – 1971'S WHAT'S GOG ON AND 1973'S LET'S GET IT ON – WERE CRIL AND MERCIAL HS, WH THE LATTER LP'S TLE TRACK GOG ALL THE WAY TO NO. 1. IN BETWEEN THOSE TWO RERDS, HE WROTE AND PRODUCED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR TROUBLE MAN. A TLY SOLO ACHIEVEMENT, TROUBLE MAN SERVED AS SOME SORT OF NSOLATN AFTER WHAT'S GOG ON'S SEQUEL, YOU'RE THE MAN, WAS SHELVED BEE OF S POLIL LEANGS.GAYE ALSO EMBARKED ON A SUCCSFUL TOUR AND RERD THE LAST OF HIS POPULAR DUET ALBUMS, THIS ONE WH DIANA ROSS, AROUND THIS TIME. WH TWO YEARS, WOULD ALL E TUMBLG DOWN, AS A MSY DIVORCE, DG ABE, ANOTHER NCELED RERD AND DWDLG SAL PILED UP. BUT 1976, ALL WAS STILL RELATIVELY GOOD.BACK 1970, WHEN HE WAS ASSEMBLG THE SONGS AND IAS THAT WOULD RULT WHAT'S GOG ON, GAYE WAS LEADG A NEW ARTIST-DRIVEN MPAIGN AT MOTOWN, WHICH SLOWLY AND TENTATIVELY BEGAN TO LOOSEN S GRIP ON SOME S STABLE OF STARS. GAYE – WHO'D BEEN AROUND OM NEARLY THE START OF THE PANY, SGG ON HIS OWN HS AS WELL AS PENNG SONGS FOR OTHERS – WASN'T GIVEN TOTAL NTROL OF HIS MIC UNTIL TROUBLE MAN, BUT FOR THE MOST PART HE WAS TSTED WH HIS VISN.THG IS, GAYE DIDN'T ALWAYS TST THAT VISN HIMSELF. IN SOME WAYS, THAT LED TO YOU'RE THE MAN REMAG UNRELEASED AT THE TIME ( FALLY GOT AN OFFICIAL RELEASE 2019). AND WHEN HE WAS PUTTG TOGETHER MIC FOR HIS NEXT ALBUM 1975, HE SOUGHT HELP OM PRODUCER LEON WARE, A MOTOWN STAFFER WHO'D RECENTLY SRED SOLO HS FOR MICHAEL JACKSON AND THE SMOKEY ROBSON-LS MIRACL. HE END UP PLAYG A BIG PART  SHAPG WHAT EVENTUALLY BEME I WANT YOU.BUT THE ALBUM'S RE – LIKE LET'S GET IT ON, THE SONGS WERE ABOUT SEX – WAS ALL GAYE. HIS MARRIAGE TO THE SISTER OF HIS MOTOWN BOSS BERRY GORDY WAS GOG THROUGH S FAL STAG AS HIS RELATNSHIP WH JANIS HUNTER, WHOM HE MET DURG THE LET'S GET IT ON SSNS WHEN SHE WAS 17, WAS HEATG UP. TRACKS LIKE "FEEL ALL MY LOVE INSI" AND "SOON I'LL BE LOVG YOU AGA" (WHICH CLUD THE LE "I'M GONNA GIVE YOU SOME HEAD") REFLECTED HIS TENTNS.LISTEN TO MARV GAYE'S 'I WANT YOU'GAYE AND WARE HOLED UP THE ARTIST'S NEWLY OPENED MARV'S ROOM STUD LOS ANGEL, WHERE THEY, ALONG WH MOTOWN'S FUNK BROTHERS SSN MICIANS, SPENT CHUNKS OF 1975 AND EARLY 1976 WORKG ON THE ALBUM. LIKE HE'D BEEN DOG ON HIS PREV RERDS, GAYE MULTI-TRACKED HIMSELF SGG DIFFERENT PARTS.HE ALSO BEGAN EXPERIMENTG WH A SYNTHIZER, WHICH PLEMENTED THE NEW MIL DIRECTN WARE STARTED STEERG TOWARD. MORE EXPANSIVE AND SWEEPG THAN MUCH OF GAYE'S PREV WORK, MANY OF THE SONGS ON I WANT YOU TOOK A SLOW-BURN APPROACH TO S MELDG OF SOUL, FUNK AND DIS. (THE OPENG TLE TRACK, FOR EXAMPLE, IS A THIRD OVER BEFORE GAYE STARTS SGG.) ELEMENTS OF JAZZ AND DOO-WOP ALSO FOUND THEIR WAY TO THE MATERIAL, BRIDGG GAYE'S '60S AND EARLY '70S MIC WH A NEW FUTURE.THIS ALL ADD UP TO A SLIGHTLY DISJOTED BUT MOSTLY PTIVATG ALBUM THAT SEEMED LIKE ANOTHER TURNG POT FOR THE ARTIST, EVEN UPON S RELEASE ON MARCH 16, 1976. THE THREE-YEAR BREAK SCE HIS LAST LP CERTALY HAD SOME EFFECT HERE, BUT THE MIL LEAP HAD ALMOST AS MUCH TO DO WH GAYE AND WARE'S BED VISN.THERE WEREN'T A WHOLE LOT OF ALBUMS THAT SOUND LIKE I WANT YOU AT THE TIME, BUT THE S SCE, THE ALBUM'S "QUIET STORM" SOUND SPIRED A GENRE, AS WELL AS AN ENTIRE MOVEMENT OF NEO-SOUL ARTISTS THE '90S AND BEYOND. THE EP BASS, SPACEY SOUNDSP AND GROOVE-BASED BEATS A WAY WERE JT A STEP OR TWO AHEAD OF THE BURGEONG DIS SCENE, BUT THE OVERALL PICTURE SEEMS MUCH WIR NOW.NOT THAT THE ALBUM WAS APPRECIATED AS MUCH BACK THEN. IT H NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD'S SOUL CHART AND NO. 4 ON THE LP CHART (AS THEY WERE LLED AT THE TIME) AND DID MANAGE TO SELL A LN PI. SOMEONE OF GAYE'S STATURE ALMOST ALWAYS CHARTED WELL G OFF A PREV SUCCS, AND THE ALBUM'S FIRST SGLE, THE TLE TRACK, MA TO NO. 1 AND 15, ON THE RPECTIVE SOUL AND POP CHARTS – WHICH ALSO HELPED STIR TERT.BUT I WANT YOU DIDN'T CLICK WH FANS THE WAY WHAT'S GOG ON AND LET'S GET IT ON DID. THOSE NTROVERSIAL LYRICS CERTALY DIDN'T HELP SPREADG THE WORD ON RAD OR NNECTG WH MORE NSERVATIVE-MD LISTENERS. AND SPE THE NO. 1 STUD SGLE "GOT TO GIVE IT UP" OM THE OTHERWISE LIVE AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM ALBUM 1977, THE NEXT YEAR'S HERE, MY DEAR AND 1981'S IN MY LIFETIME NTUED A DOWNWARD TURN GAYE'S REER THAT EVENTUALLY PICKED UP WH 1982'S MIDNIGHT LOVE AND PECIALLY THE "SEXUAL HEALG" SGLE BEFORE HIS 1984 ATH.IT WASN'T LONG, THOUGH, BEFORE I WANT YOU AND, EVEN MORE NOTABLY, HERE, MY DEAR BEME RNERSTONE RERDS GAYE'S LATE REER. THE LATTER WAS AN TENTNALLY UNMERCIAL DOUBLE RERD SIGNED TO NTRACTUALLY FULFILL A DIVORCE-SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT. I WANT YOU, AT TIM, N SOUND LIKE A SIAR MERCIAL KISS-OFF, BUT ME OM AN ENTIRELY OPPOSE SPOT GAYE'S LIFE, WHEN HE WAS A MUCH BETTER PLACE. IT'S DIFFICULT, 'S HORNY AND 'S FELY NOT FOR EVERYONE. BUT 'S ALSO ON THE VERGE OF SOMETHG REALLY EXCG AT TIM. TOP 100 '70S ROCK ALBUMS
• KEY TRACKS: MARV GAYE’S I WANT YOU

‘I WANT YOU’: MARV GAYE’S CARNAL CLASSIC

Marv Gaye. I Want You, while a Top Ten smash for Marv Gaye 1976, is not as generally as well-known as s precsors for several reasons.

45 YEARS AGO: MARV GAYE STIRS UP A STORM ON ‘I WANT YOU’MICHAEL GALLUCCIMICHAEL GALLUCCIPUBLISHED: MARCH 16, 2021TAMLASHARETWEETMARV GAYE WAS STILL A PRETTY GOOD PLACE, PERSONALLY AND PROFSNALLY, EARLY 1976 AS HE WAS PREPPG THE RELEASE OF HIS 14TH ALBUM, I WANT YOU.HIS LAST UPLE OF ALBUMS – 1971'S WHAT'S GOG ON AND 1973'S LET'S GET IT ON – WERE CRIL AND MERCIAL HS, WH THE LATTER LP'S TLE TRACK GOG ALL THE WAY TO NO. 1. IN BETWEEN THOSE TWO RERDS, HE WROTE AND PRODUCED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR TROUBLE MAN. A TLY SOLO ACHIEVEMENT, TROUBLE MAN SERVED AS SOME SORT OF NSOLATN AFTER WHAT'S GOG ON'S SEQUEL, YOU'RE THE MAN, WAS SHELVED BEE OF S POLIL LEANGS.GAYE ALSO EMBARKED ON A SUCCSFUL TOUR AND RERD THE LAST OF HIS POPULAR DUET ALBUMS, THIS ONE WH DIANA ROSS, AROUND THIS TIME. WH TWO YEARS, WOULD ALL E TUMBLG DOWN, AS A MSY DIVORCE, DG ABE, ANOTHER NCELED RERD AND DWDLG SAL PILED UP. BUT 1976, ALL WAS STILL RELATIVELY GOOD.BACK 1970, WHEN HE WAS ASSEMBLG THE SONGS AND IAS THAT WOULD RULT WHAT'S GOG ON, GAYE WAS LEADG A NEW ARTIST-DRIVEN MPAIGN AT MOTOWN, WHICH SLOWLY AND TENTATIVELY BEGAN TO LOOSEN S GRIP ON SOME S STABLE OF STARS. GAYE – WHO'D BEEN AROUND OM NEARLY THE START OF THE PANY, SGG ON HIS OWN HS AS WELL AS PENNG SONGS FOR OTHERS – WASN'T GIVEN TOTAL NTROL OF HIS MIC UNTIL TROUBLE MAN, BUT FOR THE MOST PART HE WAS TSTED WH HIS VISN.THG IS, GAYE DIDN'T ALWAYS TST THAT VISN HIMSELF. IN SOME WAYS, THAT LED TO YOU'RE THE MAN REMAG UNRELEASED AT THE TIME ( FALLY GOT AN OFFICIAL RELEASE 2019). AND WHEN HE WAS PUTTG TOGETHER MIC FOR HIS NEXT ALBUM 1975, HE SOUGHT HELP OM PRODUCER LEON WARE, A MOTOWN STAFFER WHO'D RECENTLY SRED SOLO HS FOR MICHAEL JACKSON AND THE SMOKEY ROBSON-LS MIRACL. HE END UP PLAYG A BIG PART  SHAPG WHAT EVENTUALLY BEME I WANT YOU.BUT THE ALBUM'S RE – LIKE LET'S GET IT ON, THE SONGS WERE ABOUT SEX – WAS ALL GAYE. HIS MARRIAGE TO THE SISTER OF HIS MOTOWN BOSS BERRY GORDY WAS GOG THROUGH S FAL STAG AS HIS RELATNSHIP WH JANIS HUNTER, WHOM HE MET DURG THE LET'S GET IT ON SSNS WHEN SHE WAS 17, WAS HEATG UP. TRACKS LIKE "FEEL ALL MY LOVE INSI" AND "SOON I'LL BE LOVG YOU AGA" (WHICH CLUD THE LE "I'M GONNA GIVE YOU SOME HEAD") REFLECTED HIS TENTNS.LISTEN TO MARV GAYE'S 'I WANT YOU'GAYE AND WARE HOLED UP THE ARTIST'S NEWLY OPENED MARV'S ROOM STUD LOS ANGEL, WHERE THEY, ALONG WH MOTOWN'S FUNK BROTHERS SSN MICIANS, SPENT CHUNKS OF 1975 AND EARLY 1976 WORKG ON THE ALBUM. LIKE HE'D BEEN DOG ON HIS PREV RERDS, GAYE MULTI-TRACKED HIMSELF SGG DIFFERENT PARTS.HE ALSO BEGAN EXPERIMENTG WH A SYNTHIZER, WHICH PLEMENTED THE NEW MIL DIRECTN WARE STARTED STEERG TOWARD. MORE EXPANSIVE AND SWEEPG THAN MUCH OF GAYE'S PREV WORK, MANY OF THE SONGS ON I WANT YOU TOOK A SLOW-BURN APPROACH TO S MELDG OF SOUL, FUNK AND DIS. (THE OPENG TLE TRACK, FOR EXAMPLE, IS A THIRD OVER BEFORE GAYE STARTS SGG.) ELEMENTS OF JAZZ AND DOO-WOP ALSO FOUND THEIR WAY TO THE MATERIAL, BRIDGG GAYE'S '60S AND EARLY '70S MIC WH A NEW FUTURE.THIS ALL ADD UP TO A SLIGHTLY DISJOTED BUT MOSTLY PTIVATG ALBUM THAT SEEMED LIKE ANOTHER TURNG POT FOR THE ARTIST, EVEN UPON S RELEASE ON MARCH 16, 1976. THE THREE-YEAR BREAK SCE HIS LAST LP CERTALY HAD SOME EFFECT HERE, BUT THE MIL LEAP HAD ALMOST AS MUCH TO DO WH GAYE AND WARE'S BED VISN.THERE WEREN'T A WHOLE LOT OF ALBUMS THAT SOUND LIKE I WANT YOU AT THE TIME, BUT THE S SCE, THE ALBUM'S "QUIET STORM" SOUND SPIRED A GENRE, AS WELL AS AN ENTIRE MOVEMENT OF NEO-SOUL ARTISTS THE '90S AND BEYOND. THE EP BASS, SPACEY SOUNDSP AND GROOVE-BASED BEATS A WAY WERE JT A STEP OR TWO AHEAD OF THE BURGEONG DIS SCENE, BUT THE OVERALL PICTURE SEEMS MUCH WIR NOW.NOT THAT THE ALBUM WAS APPRECIATED AS MUCH BACK THEN. IT H NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD'S SOUL CHART AND NO. 4 ON THE LP CHART (AS THEY WERE LLED AT THE TIME) AND DID MANAGE TO SELL A LN PI. SOMEONE OF GAYE'S STATURE ALMOST ALWAYS CHARTED WELL G OFF A PREV SUCCS, AND THE ALBUM'S FIRST SGLE, THE TLE TRACK, MA TO NO. 1 AND 15, ON THE RPECTIVE SOUL AND POP CHARTS – WHICH ALSO HELPED STIR TERT.BUT I WANT YOU DIDN'T CLICK WH FANS THE WAY WHAT'S GOG ON AND LET'S GET IT ON DID. THOSE NTROVERSIAL LYRICS CERTALY DIDN'T HELP SPREADG THE WORD ON RAD OR NNECTG WH MORE NSERVATIVE-MD LISTENERS. AND SPE THE NO. 1 STUD SGLE "GOT TO GIVE IT UP" OM THE OTHERWISE LIVE AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM ALBUM 1977, THE NEXT YEAR'S HERE, MY DEAR AND 1981'S IN MY LIFETIME NTUED A DOWNWARD TURN GAYE'S REER THAT EVENTUALLY PICKED UP WH 1982'S MIDNIGHT LOVE AND PECIALLY THE "SEXUAL HEALG" SGLE BEFORE HIS 1984 ATH.IT WASN'T LONG, THOUGH, BEFORE I WANT YOU AND, EVEN MORE NOTABLY, HERE, MY DEAR BEME RNERSTONE RERDS GAYE'S LATE REER. THE LATTER WAS AN TENTNALLY UNMERCIAL DOUBLE RERD SIGNED TO NTRACTUALLY FULFILL A DIVORCE-SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT. I WANT YOU, AT TIM, N SOUND LIKE A SIAR MERCIAL KISS-OFF, BUT ME OM AN ENTIRELY OPPOSE SPOT GAYE'S LIFE, WHEN HE WAS A MUCH BETTER PLACE. IT'S DIFFICULT, 'S HORNY AND 'S FELY NOT FOR EVERYONE. BUT 'S ALSO ON THE VERGE OF SOMETHG REALLY EXCG AT TIM. TOP 100 '70S ROCK ALBUMS

Third, Gaye hadn't rerd nearly three years and crics were onto somethg else -- exactly what, retrospect is anybody's gus. From the amazg Ernie Barn ver patg "Back to Sugar Shack" to the Coleridge-Taylor Perkson strg and horn arrangements to Leon Ware's exotic productn that relied on keyboards as well as dms and bass as rhythm stments, I Want You was a giant leap for Gaye. But the most astonishg thgs about I Want You are s timacy ( was dited to and rerd ont of Gaye's future send wife, Jan), silky elegance, and seamls textur.

Gaye worked wh producer Leon Ware, who wrote all of the origal songs on the album and worked wh Gaye to revise them, th lendg Gaye a -wrg cred. The tle track is a monster two-step groover wh hand percsn playg unterpot to the strgs and horns layered agast a spare electric guar solo, all before Gaye begs to sg on top of the funky backbeat. Art Stewart's engeerg rounds off all the edg and mak Gaye's already sweet croong stment to the te gra the voice of sctive need.

KEY TRACKS: MARV GAYE’S I WANT YOU

"Feel All My Love Insi" and "I Want to Be Where You Are" are anthems to sensualy wh strgs creepg up unr Gaye's voice as the guars move through a seri of chunky chang and dms punctuate his every syllable. I Want You is as necsary as anythg Gaye ever rerd.

As thor Michael Eric Dyson wrote his book, Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Lov, and Demons of Marv Gaye:. Gaye’s obssn wh the woman her late teens is nearly palpable the sensual textur that are the album’s ral and lyril signature.

After pretty much releasg an album a year sce 1961, Marv Gaye slowed down the mid-70s. Followg his stylistic rebirth at the start of the , the once prolific Gaye creasgly began to agonize over new material. After a three-year gap, Gaye emerged 1976 wh his 14th solo album, releasg at a time when the clubs were eher mblg to the sounds of punk or shakg unr the weight of bodi on the dis dancefloor.

Not that Gaye red. As s ver art, a 1971 patg by Ernie Barn, entled Sugar Shack, ma abundantly clear, there was no room for manver between Gaye’s erotic fantasi and the barely supprsed mands of his urg. Gaye had stggled to rerd a follow-up to Let’s Get It On, but then he met Leon Ware, songwrer for Michael Jackson, The Miracl, and Mnie Riperton, among many others, and a man who was then workg on his own sexually-charged excursns.

Fdg that Ware’s visn was the perfect channel for his own obssn wh Janis Hunter – spiratn for “Let’s Get It On” and, subsequently, the woman wh whom Gaye embarked on a long-term affair – the pair worked on the songs together, Gaye pourg his most tense sir to every groove.

Dmmer Jam Gadson is as laidback and the pocket as ever, workg up effortls groov for percsn duo Bobbye Hall Porter and Eddie “Bongo” Brown to fl and out of; sumptuo strgs take proceedgs om the sweat shack to the dis and back aga, unrsrg Gaye’s sensual flights of fancy. It’s all so perfect that Gaye himself steps asi on several ocsns, allowg the band to riff on an “After The Dance” stmental and stoke the flam wh reprisals of the “I Want You” theme.

4 the US but baffled many: this wasn’t a llectn of songs, was a symphony, which, like the very sir that drove Gaye forward, had ebbs and flows, light and sha. Yet s mix of quiet-storm soul, terstellar dis, and Gaye’s tritely multi-tracked, doo-wop-bted vols, laid the blueprt for the R&B and neo-soul stars of the 90s and 00s, among them D’Angelo, whose update on I Want You rulted the lennial masterpiece Voodoo.

Buy or stream Marv Gaye’s I Want You. Updatg his highly percsive but strg-lan groove for the dis set, Gaye clearly vised 1976’s I Want You as a makeout album.

And the Ao-Caribbean ngas of “I Want You” and bossa nova lilt of “Sce I Had You” support a mix of rhythm and bety that ref to box self —punctuated by Gaye’s own murmurg, the sound flows like a sweet, sctive stream. Facebook (MarvGaye).