Biography of Marvin Gaye. Marvin gay Marvin singer

By the age of 15, he had mastered keyboards and drums and performed with various black street bands, including The Rainbows and Moonglows, who played rhythm and blues. In 1957 he joined the group "Marquees", which performed romantic jazz ballads and even released one album. In 1961, Marvin was noticed by Berry Gordy, the founder of the record label Motown Records, who was struck by his beautiful young voice three octaves deep, and offered a contract.

From 1962 to 1965 Marvin Gaye continued to work mainly in the style of "rhythm and blues", his most famous compositions were "Can I get a witness" (1963) and "Stubborn kind of fellow", included in the TOP10 reb. Then, according to the idea of ​​Motown producers, Marvin begins to record a duet such famous performers like Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. Among his compositions were mostly romantic blues and rhythmic dance jazz suites, including the famous "Baby don" t do it "(1967). In 1970, after tragic death his last partner Tammy Terrell from a stroke right on stage, Marvin dramatically changes his style. His new album"What" s going on "(1971), which was a mixture of jazz, funk and classics, touched on many serious issues, such as racism and drug addiction. Despite the concerns of Motown Records, this album was a huge success. The funk composition was especially popular" Mercy, mercy me". Thanks to the release of this album, Marvin Gaye gradually achieves creative and financial independence from Motown. And the next album, "Let" s get it on "(1973), becomes his most successful work.

Marvin Gaye paved the way for many talented funk artists on the stage. It was he who brought the young Stevie Wonder to the stage, and in 1973 his joint album with Diana Ross was released. Unfortunately, the evil that Marvin fought in his songs did not bypass him either. His recordings from the late 1970s betray his slowly deteriorating cocaine addiction. Fleeing from tax problems, in 1980 Marvin moved to Europe, where one of his last lifetime live albums "In our lifetime" was released soon. His last album "Midnight love" (1982) and the composition "Sexual healing" from it were awarded Grammy awards in the category "Best male vocal in the style of Rhythm & Blues". At the end of 1983, Marvin Gay fell into a prolonged drug depression and began to constantly talk about suicide. Unable to endure his torment any longer, in April 1984, Marvin's father shot and killed his son.

Discography:

1961 - The soulful of Marvin Gaye

1963 - That stubborn kind of fellow

1964 - When I "m alone I cry

1964 - Together (with Mary Wells)

1964 - Hello Broadway, this is Marvin

1965 - How sweet it is to be loved by you

1965 - A tribute to the great nat king cole

1966 Moods of Marvin Gaye

1966 - Take two (with Kim Weston)

1967 - United (with Tammy Terrell)

1968 - I heard it through the grapevine

1968 - You "re all I need (to get by) (with Tammy Terrell)

1969 - Easy (with Tammy Terrell)

1970 - That's the way love is

1971 - What's going on

1972 - Trouble man (film soundtrack)

1973 - Let's get it on

1973 - Diana & Marvin

1976 - I want you

1977 - At the London Palladium (live)

1978 - Here my dear

1981 - In our lifetime

Marvin Gay was born in 1939 in Washington DC to a Christian family. WITH three years sang in the church choir, then as a teenager he learned to play the organ. By the age of 15, he had mastered keyboards and drums and performed with various black street bands, including The Rainbows and Moonglows, who played rhythm and blues. In 1957, he joined the Marquees, which performed romantic jazz ballads and even released one album. In 1961, Marvin was noticed by Berry Gordy, founder of the record label Motown Records, who was struck by his beautiful young voice with a range of three octaves, and offered a contract.

From 1962 to 1965, Marvin Gaye continued to work primarily in the rhythm and blues style, his most famous compositions being "Can I Get a Witness" (1963) and "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", included in the TOP10 rab. Then, on the idea of ​​Motown producers, Marvin begins to record a duet with such famous performers as Mary Wells (Mary Wells), Kim Weston (Kim Weston) and Tammi Terrell (Tammi Terrell). Among his compositions were mostly romantic blues and rhythmic dance jazz suites, including the famous "Baby Don't Do It" (1967). In 1970, after the tragic death of his last partner Tammy Terrell from a stroke right on stage, Marvin dramatically changes his style. His new album "What's Going On" (1971), which was a mixture of jazz, funk and classical, touched on many serious issues, such as racism and drug addiction. Despite the concerns of Motown Records, this album was a huge success. The funk composition "Mercy, Mercy Me" was especially popular. Thanks to the release of this album, Marvin Gaye is gradually achieving creative and financial independence from Motown. And the next album "Let's Get It On" (1973) becomes his most successful work.

Marvin Gaye paved the way for many talented funk artists on the stage. It was he who brought the young Stevie Wonder to the stage, and in 1973 his joint album with Diana Ross was released.

Unfortunately, the evil that Marvin fought in his songs did not bypass him either. His recordings from the late 1970s betray his slowly deteriorating cocaine addiction. Fleeing from tax problems, in 1980 Marvin moved to Europe, where one of his last lifetime live albums "In Our Lifetime" was released soon.

His last album "Midnight Love" (1982) and the composition "Sexual Healing" from it were awarded the Grammy Award in the category "Best Male Vocal Rhythm & Blues".

Marvin's father, a priest, considering that the profession of a singer is a shame for his family, in one of the quarrels at the family table ... shot Marvin. April 1, 1984

In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Marvin 6th in the list of the most the greatest singers of all time, and 18th of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

How does it sound

Almost all of the 1960s Motown songs recorded by black Detroit players always sounded the same: until about 1965 they were recorded R'n'B hits, led by repeated guitar or piano chords, after - richly arranged high pop music with obligatory strings and brass. Even though Gay's hits are outwardly indistinguishable from all the rest of the label's material, it is he who seems to be the strangest performer of the entire Motown hit roster of that time. The reason for this is his unique, completely unimitated voice. Gay from the very beginning did not fit into the framework of that characteristic (emphasis on the second syllable) voice, which the head of Motown, Berry Gordy, was endlessly looking for. He could never deliver the lofty melodrama of Diana Ross of The Supremes, the street sass of David Ruffin of The Temptations, the deep sensuality of Lefty Stubbs of the Four Tops, and even more so the refined teenage tenderness of first Stevie Wonder and then Michael Jackson. Passed through the church choirs and doo-wap, Gay developed a special style - a wild, changing in the course of one song from baritone to tenor, a very gospel voice. Of similarly ranked singers from the 1960s, he can only be compared to Wilson Pickett - but if he sounded like a Neanderthal reaching the microphone, Gay sounded more like a man dazed by life's endless problems. In fact, many of his early hits are just about such problems: Gay scours the USA in search of a girl who has run away from him (“Hitch Hike”, which influenced everyone with its guitar rhythm-loss, from Lou Reed to Johnny Marr), learns from unfamiliar people about betrayal (“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, practically the best song of all time), tries to get along with thoughts of separation (“Can I Get a Witness”, by far the wildest song on early Motown). Even in lyrical or relatively calm things in which Gay speaks of one and indivisible love, notes of inner dissatisfaction and lack of reconciliation with oneself are still heard in his voice.

Place in history

It was Gay, along with Smokey Robinson, who was the first superstar of Motown - and in many ways shaped the famous sound of the label, which at the beginning of its history produced comic records, and lounge jazz, and country, and much more, and raised its internal bar to the beyond height. Released in 1970, "Super Hits" is still his best collection of hits. Albums at "Motown" of those years were traditionally weak point, although - in fairness - Berry Gordy once did not very successfully try to make an album artist out of Gay (see the records "Moods of Marvin Gaye" or "M.P.G.").

Example

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

Compilation of the best duets of Marvin Gay and Tammy Terrell - the greatest of the stellar tandem "Motown" of the sixties

How does it sound

Marvin Gay was not only an important solo artist for Motown, but also the most suitable singer on the roster for recording opposite-sex duets, a popular segment of pop music in the sixties. Back in 1964, his joint songs with Mary Wells "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You Baby became All-American hits. Two years later, thanks to the heavy R'n'B "It Takes Two", Gay repeated his success already in tandem with Kim Weston, and in 1967 he finally found a permanent partner - not very successful solo singer Tammy Terrell, the girlfriend of David Ruffin from The Temptations. Gay and Terrell wrote their duets separately from each other - which can be heard from the not very successful mixes of the songs themselves - but this did not prevent one hundred percent chemistry from being felt in their voices (groundless rumors about their romance followed immediately after the first hit of the couple). Most of the duo's material was second to none, but at least "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" were sixties duet classics on par with Lee's "Some Velvet Morning". Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra or "Je t'aime... moi non plus" by Gainsbourg and Birkin.

Place in history

"Greatest Hits" gives the best insight into Gay's career as a duetist - an important but short-lived and tragic career. Terrell, whom Gay, according to the memoirs of Motown workers, treated like his own sister, back in 1967, at twenty-two, was diagnosed with brain cancer - which by the end of the decade turned her into a wheelchair-bound, blind and deaf woman, and a year later he killed. Gay took the illness of his partner very hard - he went into a one and a half year depression, from which, however, he came out as a completely different person.

Example

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

One of the greatest albums of all time - nine unusual and timeless chamber soul songs

How does it sound

In mid-1969, when Terrell was already quite ill, Berry Gordy persuaded Gay to record another joint album with her - "Easy", released in September of that year. It was the recording of this disc that became Starting point for Gay in his crusade against the politics of Motown, which effectively controlled the lives of the label's artists. At first, he simply stopped communicating with Gordy (even the fact that Gay's wife was Anna Gordy, Berry's sister) did not help the chief of Motown, and then he completely announced that he was leaving music. He spent the spring of 1970 training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League and contemplating a career in sports - but, as a result of training, he turned out to be too old and weak for a career as an American football player, which, according to all of Gay's biographers, became very difficult for him. a serious blow. Around the same time, the hitherto always apolitical Gay began to keep a close eye on political events inside the USA - according to Anna Gordy, this interest was explained by the singer's meeting with his brother, who had returned from Vietnam at that time. In the summer, in a completely deafening depression, he recorded "What's Going On" - a sad piano soul song about the uncertainty within the country, between the lines of which the drama of the uncertainty of Gay's life was easily read. Berry Gordy refused to release the song as a single - and Gay had no choice but to boycott the label. "What's Going On" entered the market only at the beginning of 1971 - and became the best-selling Motown song in its entire history. Struck by the success of the song, Gordy booked the studio for Gay and - for the first time in the history of the company that always relied on in-house producers - gave the musician full carte blanche to record.

By the very title of "What's Going On" you can easily guess the state in which Gay was during the recording: the songs here seem to be out of focus. In each of them there is a melody that inherits all the signs of the Motown hits of the 1960s, but it is not always heard behind unusual, atypical arrangements for any soul album of those years: instead of funk, bass, flirting with psychedelic soul, here are rare and well-aimed piano chords, muffled percussion sound, light and lyrical saxophone. Gay's voice intensifies the defocus, firstly, singing much softer than on his previous hits, and secondly, in the course of the record several times indulging in lengthy half-sung-half-spoken monologues.

Place in history

“What’s Going On” now sounds like the forerunner of a million different things, from the introspective Stevie Wonder albums of the mid-1970s to the soft black radio music of the late 1980s and early 1990s; in 1971 it sounded like the most avant-garde pop music ever. However, one has only to hear three singles from this record - the title track, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)" - to understand that this is the avant-garde that in no case does not run away from the listener, but on the contrary, reaches out to him. On "What's Going On," Gay doesn't say anything important—most of his lyrics are about the commonplace of early 1970s peaceful political protest, ecology, and the hardships of lower-class African Americans—but he says it all more convincingly and more sensually than many.

Example

"What's Going On"

Soundtrack to Ivan Dixon's Blackplot "Man in Trouble" - based on the success of Isaac Hayes's "Shaft" and Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and almost entirely instrumental

How does it sound

"Trouble Man" is a rather masterful, but absolutely typical soundtrack for its time to a niche film for African Americans. The funky bass, sharp crescendos, the atmosphere of heavy night fatigue subtly present in the music - everything here seems to have been made based on the same "Shaft". The one exception is the lingering blues "Trouble Man", which Gay delivers with the impeccable persuasiveness of a troubled man.

Place in history

No need to be surprised that this album is present in Gay's discography. First, that was the era. Secondly, Gay himself just started in Motown as an instrumentalist (mainly drummer), arranger and producer - and "Trouble Man" gives a complete picture of these talents of his.

Example

Sexiest soul album ever

How does it sound

The best thing to say about this record is a quote from its booklet, written by Gay himself: “There is nothing wrong with consensual sex. I think we're being too strict with him. The genitals are just part of the amazing human body. SEX IS SEX and LOVE IS LOVE. Taken together, they complement each other. But sex and love are two completely different human necessities, and we should think of them that way.” "Let's Get It On" is really an album not about love, but about sex, about desire, about bodily cravings. Slow, ballad-driven, driven by very typical guitar creeps, it is quite similar to "What's Going On" in terms of its slightly ghostly sound, but as far as possible from its predecessor in mood, texture and form. The melodies here are much more tangible, the groove is much more sensual, in the lyrics there is not a drop of topicality, care or search for the truth, but exceptional hedonism. The key thing is "Distant Lover", just the slowest and most attractive, the most suitable music in the world not for sex itself, but for those caresses that occur after it.

Place in history

"Let's Get It On" is important for the contextual understanding of Gay as a person. Growing up in an extremely religious environment, as a child, Gay perceived any thoughts of bodily love as exclusively sinful - as a result, in adulthood he suffered from problems with potency and indecision in relationships with women. This record is also an important attempt for Gay himself to overcome his own complexes. Intimate - nowhere.

Example

"Let's Get It On"

Gay's duet album with Diana Ross, another Motown superstar

How does it sound

After Tammy Terrell's death, Gay vowed never to record duets again - but in the wake of the sudden success of "What's Going On" and under the influence of Anna Gordy, he somewhat revised his views. The record of duets with Diana Ross, created according to the good old principle of the Motown factory - other people's songs, third-party producers, control over every step of the performer - looked to him like fast way expand the audience even more and at the same time not strain. The second one didn’t work out very well - although both Ross and Gaia had tremendous experience in the Motown system, the album sessions turned out to be a living hell for both of them, who turned out to be completely different people. The first one turned out better - the record really sold a million copies, and Berry Gordy was very pleased. Now "Diana & Marvin" can not be listened to except as an attempt to earn extra money quickly. The song material here is rather weak, the arrangements tend towards lower category music for housewives, and there is no chemistry between the performers themselves - for some reason Gay yells all the time, and Ross, who is pregnant during the recording, seems to be preparing for motherhood and sings lullabies.

Place in history

Despite its rather low quality, this is still the only joint record of two pop music legends of its kind - and this alone is of considerable cultural interest.

Example

"My Mistake (Was to love you)»

Best live album in Gay's discography

How does it sound

It's hard to believe, but Gay, one of the most charismatic black singers of the sixties, was not particularly good as a live performer when he was a full-time artist on the Motown roster. There are two fundamental documentary evidence of this: the 1963 live album Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage and a recording of his concert at the Copacabana club, made in 1966, but released only forty years later. Both these records, to put it mildly, are not Sam Cooke's "Live at the Harlem Square Club" or Otis Redding's "In Person at the Whiskey a Go Go": the incredible introvert Gay was clearly afraid of a large audience and big scene and struggled for a long time to suppress these phobias. "Live!", recorded during the "Let's Get It On" tour, introduces us to the hardened Gay, who also performs to a mostly black audience in Oakland. Such a Gay is also far from an ideal concert performer (in particular, through a nine-minute medley of old Motown hits that he clearly dislikes, he makes his way with the ease of a person fulfilling debt obligations imposed by the court), but at least he is already able to forget about the public and sing as if only for himself . Proof - a chic version of "Distant Lover", merged with the theme from "Trouble Man" and performed no longer as a suggestive ballad, but as a real church hymn.

Place in history

Gay later released another live album - "Live at the London Palladium", traditionally considered better than "Live!". This, however, is far from an indisputable point of view: firstly, there is even more of the classic “Motown” on it than on “Live!” - in addition to the nine-minute solo medley, it also contains an eleven-minute (!) medley of duets, both of which Gay performs on obvious autopilot - and secondly, the song material on it is clearly weaker than what is presented on "Live!".

"Distant Lover"

Another Marvin Gay album about sex, this time about sex for love: during the recording of "I Want You", Gay was literally obsessed with a woman named Janice Hunter

How does it sound

Like a much more funky and powerful version of "Let's Get It On" with one big exception - practically total absence really great songs. If you subtract the infectious title track and the instrumental version of the song "After the Dance" (strikingly similar to Alexander Zatsepin's music for "The Secret of the Third Planet"), the bottom line on "I Want You" is found to be deeply sentimental and not completely structured songs, breaking off at times at the most unexpected times and bad sense devoid of any shame. Several times along the record, the listener is offered a recording of a certain orgasmic woman - a cheap move that would have come down to anonymous soundtracks for seventies porn films, but here it comes across as a calculated and clichéd trick, too pedaling the conceptual side of the record.

Place in history

Leaving aside the subjective view of the author of this "textbook" on "I Want You", it is impossible not to mention that the record is generally considered absolutely classic - along with "What's Going On" and "Let's Get It On". At least for this reason it is worth listening to - it is possible that the author's heart is simply deaf to the fusion of drive and tenderness, which is customary to hear in "I Want You".

Example

How does it sound

Devastated by an apparent lack of finances stemming from his spending habit and severe cocaine addiction, Gay saw working on "Here, My Dear" as a quick way to cash in on the money he owed to his first wife after his divorce—the record was supposed to be released. short and will consist mainly of various kinds of pop standards. However, as soon as the sessions for the album had just begun, the musician was suddenly immensely fascinated by the work - and he began to compose something completely different. The result was a double album of semi-improvised songs in the format of diary entries - with lyrics openly talking about Gay's domestic and marital problems. Naturally, "Here, My Dear" failed miserably. Naturally, critics adore him - including the author of these lines. Even more spontaneous than "What's Going On", even less structured than "I Want You", narcissistic and betraying the singer's completely non-status self-pity "Here, My Dear" is a concentration of all the flaws of Gay's seventies music - and brings them to the point of no return, turning them into virtues. key, repeated in different options as many as three times the song on "Here, My Dear" is called "When did you stop loving me? When did I stop loving you?" - and the music of the disc seems to be looking for an answer to this eternal question in vain. Although the album is based on classic light funk, Gay breaks into doo-wap at different moments, quotes his old songs, turns to space motives obviously borrowed from George Clinton, leaves the listener face to face with many minutes of saxophone solos. This whole kaleidoscope of light styles is accompanied by lyrics clearly composed by Gay on the go about the complete collapse and disappointment in life, which cannot be prevented by a newfound love ("Falling In Love Again") - resulting in not even a record, but a monodrama of unheard of power.

Place in history

"What's Going On" and "Let's Get It On" are unattainable peaks in Gay's work, but "Here, My Dear" is a key album for understanding him as a person. A deeply imperfect person - but, unlike many, not afraid to bring these imperfections to the general public.

Example

"When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You"

A disco album intended to be a concept recording of God and the world through the eyes of Marvin Gay, remixed and remastered by Motown without permission from the musician

How does it sound

Immediately after "Here, My Dear" Gay, already completely bankrupt and breaking even with Janice Hunter, under the command of an army of Motown producers recorded a full-fledged disco album called "Love Man" - but managed to withdraw it at the last moment, left for London and, armed with kilograms of cocaine, he remade the disc into a concept album about the structure of all living things. Then things that were not very clear happened: somehow the entire master of the album ended up at Motown, which remixed the already finished songs, removed the Far Cry item from the tracklist and changed the already finished design of the disc, at the same time removing it from its planned name - “In Our Lifetime? - question mark. After that, Gay finally broke with his label and stopped communicating with him in any way - and called the disc released as a result "ridiculous." In 2007, "In Our Lifetime?" was re-released on two discs, which reveal the original mix of Gay, and the version of "Motown", and the album "Love Man", and even the single "Ego Tripping Out", recorded before the musician left for London. And what is the result? Firstly, Gay's anger can clearly be attributed to his not being the best of health and addiction to drugs - if between his version of "In Our Lifetime?" and the label mix there are differences, then quite minimal. Secondly, the album "Love Man" is not as bad as one might think. Yes, this is a shameless attempt to drive Gay into the framework of a club disco - but, except for the terrible lyrics, the attempt is, frankly, not bad; not Donna Summer, but not Rod Stewart either. As for “In Our Lifetime?” itself, this disc plays even stronger on the contrast of music (disco, but much less obvious and even in places close to what was released by ZE Records in those years) and lyrics (absolutely depressing and sometimes even frighteningly gloomy) than "Here, My Dear", turns out to be almost the most funky and in a good way danceable in Gay's discography - and there are no bad songs at all.

Place in history

Gay's most underrated album. "In Our Lifetime?" is far from "What's Going On", but it's not at all clear why the reputation of this record does not go beyond an amusing incident in the career of a great singer.

Example

Gay's last lifetime album, which suddenly brought him back to the charts

How does it sound

After the story with "In Our Lifetime?" Gay moved to live in Belgium - where he recorded his final disc. Devoted, as in the best of times, to sex and rhythm, “Midnight Love” is no longer even soul, funk, disco, but real synthpop with Caribbean motives. Drum machines blare, synths sing, and the extremely provocative-sounding Gay plays the role of the man in whose house the best party in the world is about to begin. At first, this gives a strange impression: it is impossible to believe that this frivolous, stuffed with intonations of songs from Hollywood films of the eighties about surfing and romance novels on golden beaches, the album really belongs to the pen of Gay, who always aspired to high spiritual dramaturgy. Then you get used to it - and it turns out that the lightness of "Midnight Love" is only good for this record. This is best seen in the main hit "Sexual Healing" - a surprisingly beautiful and personal song, without its strange arrangement, it would have lost its naturalness and probably become a little more ponderous.

Place in history

Two years after the release of "Midnight Love" Gay was shot dead by his own father - and the last disc of the singer, who survived a lot of trouble and saw a lot of trouble, turned out to be, ironically, the most inconsistent with his biography. Therefore, if there is anything to close the story about Gay, it is his performance of the US anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game. Incredible performance - and well showing what scale it was a man.

Hi all. Marvin Gaye, the person this article will be about. He worked in musical genre rhythm and blues. You may have heard his songs somewhere before.

Don't forget to watch Marvin Gaye's video at the end of the article. Unfortunately, he has already died, but his songs still live with us to this day. In the last issue of our blog, I touched on the topic.

Marvin stood at the origins of rhythm and blues, he is also an arranger, american singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and music producer. Not having lived one day before the age of forty-five, he died at the hands of his father in a family quarrel.

Moments of his life:

• Youth
• First solo recordings
• Black people fighting for their rights
• Not long before death

Youth

Full name Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. Born in Washington on April 2, 1939. His father was a conservatory minister for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As in many families, he beat his son for the sake of his morals. After high school, Marvin Gaye was drafted into the US Air Force. After the service, he sang in various bands, one of them was The Rainbows.

In 1961, while touring Detroit, the band attracted the attention of a young producer, Berry Gordy. He offered to sign a contract with his new label Motown. In the same 1961, Marvin Gay signs with Anna Gordy (17 years older than him), she is Berry's sister.

Solo recordings

Young Marvin saw himself as the new Sinatra, but his colleagues saw his future in dance numbers. In 1963, his recording of "Pride and Joy" reached the top ten of some charts.

Marvin Gaye recorded more than fifty albums, 39 of them got into 40 best songs USA, most of these songs he wrote and processed himself. In 1965 he became one of the successful Motown performers, which included his work: "I'll Be Doggone", "Ain't That Peculiar" and "How Sweet It Is".

The most popular song was "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", which was released in 1968 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Marvin Gaye's singles used Amy Winehouse and Elton John.

Marvin was a master of romantic duets. In 1964 he recorded an album as a duet with Mary Wells, and in 1967 with Tammi Turrell. In March 1970, due to the discovery of a brain tumor in Turrell and subsequent death, Gay fell into deep depression which lasted for the rest of his life.

Fight for your rights

During these difficult years, Motown artists avoided the social heat of passion. Misunderstandings with his wife and conflicts with his brother-in-law led to the fact that Marvin Gaye recorded almost nothing.

In 1971, Marvin Gaye returned with a new album, What's Going On. These works were influenced by the stories of his brother, who recently returned from the Vietnam War. The essence of this album is as follows - "guys, let's live together" (world peace).

This album featured classical music and jazz motifs, plastic and sophisticated sound that changed soul music. If you are interested in soul music, you can read an article about a girl with a gorgeous voice.

After working on the disc, Marvin writes a jazz soundtrack for the film "Trouble Man". This film is about the active years of the struggle of blacks for their rights.

Not long before death

By the end of his life, Marvin Gaye managed to divorce twice and experienced what taxes and alimony are. Moves to Hawaii to clean up and regain craving for creative activity (I would look at you after 2 difficult divorces). At the new place, he becomes addicted to cocaine. In 1981, he began work on a new project "In Our Lifetime", which was released for sale without his consent.

After leaving Motown, he recorded a new album, Midnight Love. The song "Sexual Healing" was meant to be "an accompaniment for making love" (very interesting to listen to). In 1983, the whole world liked it (which may very well be).

Marvin Gaye died from a gunshot during a ridiculous quarrel with his father. He lived 44 years of his difficult life.

Conclusion

Marvin Gaye was a good man, about whose life I told you a little today. Where he grew up, what he did, was fond of, to whom he was married and how many times he divorced. We also learned about the album "Midnight Love", under which it is recommended to make love (I will definitely listen to it).

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

Marvin Gaye - Ain't no Mountain High Enough

Thank you for reading me