Marv Gaye | Songwrers Hall of Fame

Contents:

• MARV GAYE
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER
• MARV GAYE'S SISTER CALLS OUT 'WICKED & VDICTIVE' QUCY JON
• 50 THGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARV GAYE'S WHAT'S GOG ON
• MARV GAYE AND 5 R&B ARTISTS OM THE ’60S AND ’70S
• HERE'S WHO INHERED MARV GAYE'S ESTATE WHEN HE DIED
• LOL R&B STAR RAHEEM DEVGHN TO HOST MARV GAYE TRIBUTE AT WOLF TRAP

MARV GAYE

Marv Gaye is different, different for one simple reason: he had immense talent, not jt as a sger but also as a songwrer that set him on a higher plane, as well as a social nscience that advoted change.

HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER

His new directn and newfound social nscns is bt heard on the h, ‘Abraham Mart & John’ which Gaye ma his own, spe the origal beg rerd by rock and roll survivor Dn (of the Belmonts fame). One of the most gifted, visnary, and endurg talents ever lnched to orb by the Motown h mache, Marv Gaye blazed the trail for the ntued evolutn of popular black mic.

Gaye later took up piano and dms and mic beme his pe om the nightmarish reali of his home life – throughout his childhood, his father beat him on an almost daily basis.

While tourg the Midwt, the group performed Detro, where Gaye’s graceful tenor and three-octave vol range, won the tert of fledgelg imprar Berry Gordy, Jr. Wh 1963’s ‘Pri and Joy’, Gaye sred his first Top Ten smash, but often found his role as a hmaker stiflg – his sire to bee a crooner of lh romantic ballads, ran direct opposn to Motown’s all-important emphasis on chart succs and the ongog battle between his artistic ambns and the label’s mands for a mercial product, ntued throughout Gaye’s long tenure wh the pany. Wh 1964’s Together, a llectn of duets wh Mary Wells, Gaye sred his first chartg album; the duo also notched a number of h sgl together, cludg ‘Once Upon a Time’ and ‘What’s the Matter Wh You, Baby?

MARV GAYE'S SISTER CALLS OUT 'WICKED & VDICTIVE' QUCY JON

As a solo performer, Gaye ntued to enjoy great succs, srg three superb Top Ten hs 1965; ‘A’t That Peculiar’, ‘I’ll Be Doggone’ and ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)’. However, Gaye’s greatt duets were to be wh Tammi Terrell, wh whom he sred a seri of massive hs, penned by the team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, cludg 1967’s ‘A’t No Mounta High Enough’ and ‘Your Prec Love’, followed by 1968’s ‘A’t Nothg Like the Real Thg’ and ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. The team’s succs was tragilly cut short 1967 when, durg a ncert appearance Virgia, Terrell llapsed to Gaye’s arms on-stage, the first evince of a bra tumour that abptly end her performg reer and fally killed her on March 16, 1970.

50 THGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARV GAYE'S WHAT'S GOG ON

Her illns and eventual loss, left Gaye eply shaken, marrg the chart-toppg 1968 succs of ‘I Heard It Through the Grapeve’, his biggt h and arguably the pnacle of the Motown sound. A highly percsive album, which rporated jazz and classil elements, to fe a remarkably sophistited and fluid soul sound, What’s Gog On was a nceptual masterpiece that brought Gaye’s eply held spirual beliefs to the fore. Explorg issu rangg om poverty and discrimatn to the environment, dg abe, and polil rptn; chief among the rerd’s ncerns was the nflict Vietnam, as Gaye stctured the songs around the pot of view of his brother Frankie, himself a soldier recently returned om bat.

The album’s succs guaranteed Gaye’s ntued artistic ntrol over his work helped loosen the res for other Motown artists, most notably Stevie Wonr, to also take mand of their own sti.

MARV GAYE AND 5 R&B ARTISTS OM THE ’60S AND ’70S

The long-simmerg eroticism implic much of Gaye’s work reached s boilg pot wh 1973’s Let’s Get It On, one of the most sexually charged albums ever rerd. Let’s Get It On also marked another signifint shift Gaye’s lyril outlook, movg him om the polil arena to a eply personal, even sular stance, which ntued to fe his subsequent work.

HERE'S WHO INHERED MARV GAYE'S ESTATE WHEN HE DIED

As a rult of a 1976 urt settlement, Gaye was orred to make good on missed alimony payments by rerdg a new album, wh the tentn that all royalti earned om s sal would then be award to his ex-wife. The 1978 rerd, a two-LP set sardonilly entled Here, My Dear, bterly explored the uple’s relatnship such timate tail, that Anna Gordy briefly nsired sug Gaye for the vasn of privacy. In 1981, longstandg tax difficulti and renewed prsur om the IRS forced Gaye to flee to Europe, where he began work on the amb In Our Lifetime, a eply philosophil rerd that ultimately severed his longstandg relatnship wh Motown after he claimed the label had remixed and eded the album whout his nsent.

It would bee the first Top 10 LP for Gaye, a major rerdg artist who’d had many h sgl but hadn’t reached higher than number 33 on the Top 200 album chart.

LOL R&B STAR RAHEEM DEVGHN TO HOST MARV GAYE TRIBUTE AT WOLF TRAP

The album was unlike anythg prevly released by a Black superstar: Wrten and produced by Gaye (a first for any Motown artist not named Smokey Robson) and clockg at jt over 35 mut, secured his spot as one of mic’s leadg Black trs of the . He wasn’t the first Black artist to produce challengg mic after assumg plete creative ntrol — Jam Brown had done and so had former Imprsns lear Curtis Mayfield — but Gaye, who butted heads hard wh Motown orr to pursue a new artistic directn (he was signed to the Motown imprt Tamla), was the first to do wh such a thematilly and milly hive statement.