Inside Marvin's heart and head, wars raged on. He talked about giving up music and becoming a monk. He talked about being a bigger sex symbol than Elvis. Marvin Gaye's extraordinary career matched his extraordinary life, a mixture of blessings and banes, dazzling success and inscrutable pain. His biography and discography are twin reflections of the same dualty: the artistic and personal struggle to heal the split between head and heart, flesh and spirit, ego and God. Meanwhile, the music lives on for the pleasures of its beauty and the marvel that was Marvin's voice.
The Life of Marvin Gaye:
Marvin Gaye was born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. He was an African American pop, soul and R&B singer who gained international fame during the 1960s and 1970s as an artist on the Motown label. His best records are still highly regarded, and he is often cited as one of the finest singers of his era.
Marvin Gaye was born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. He was an African American pop, soul and R&B singer who gained international fame during the 1960s and 1970s as an artist on the Motown label. His best records are still highly regarded, and he is often cited as one of the finest singers of his era.
After high school, Marvin Gaye joined the Air Force and, after being discharged, joined the Rainbows (later Moonglows), a popular local group in DC. After a concert in Detroit, Gaye was offered a solo contract by Berry Gordy Jr. of Motown Records. Gaye married Gordy's sister, Anna, in 1961.
Gaye released three unsuccessful singles, until 'Pride and Joy' became a smash hit, but he felt discontented with Motown’s tight control over his material. By 1965, he had released 39 Top 40 songs for the label.
Gaye hit the charts with his biggest success, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', but his marriage was crumbling and he felt irrelevant, singing about love while popular music underwent a political revolution.
As a result, Gaye released 'What's Going On' in 1971, one of the most memorable soul albums of the time, including then-unheard of radical political and social statements. Gordy at first refused to release the album, but eventually gave in. The album produced three Top Ten singles.
1973's 'Let's Get It On' was a sexually and romantically charged album that was very successful in the charts. His marriage ended soon after. After a failed single and a failing new marriage, Gaye moved to Hawaii, and then to Europe in 1981.
Gaye began working on In Our Lifetime? in Europe. When Motown issued the album in 1981, Gaye was livid: he accused Motown of editing and remixing the album without his consent, altering the album art he requested, and removing the question mark from the title (rendering the intended irony imperceptible). He negotiated a release from the label and signed with Columbia Records in 1982 and released Midnight Love the same year. Midnight Love included "Sexual Healing", one of Gaye's most famous songs, and his final big hit.
On April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday, Gaye was shot and killed by his father in an argument. Gaye's relatives claimed that he had purposely pushed his father to the edge so that he could have Marvin, Sr. kill him instead of having to commit suicide.
Notables:
Marvin Gaye was one of the most expressive vocalists of the era, Marvin Gaye, capable of impersonating both the romantic lover and the hostile mod/punk and the political activist, breathed life into H-D-H's Can I Get A Witness (1963) and How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You (1964), Smokey Robinson's I'll Be Doggone (1965), One More Heartache ((1966) and Ain't That Peculiar (1965), Norman Whitfield's I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1967), and Ashford's and Simpson's Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1967). Gaye the songwriter exploded in 1971, with the socially aware and orchestrally-arranged concept album What's Going On (1971). The less intense and dense Let's Get It On (1973) was more sound-oriented and returned to his erotic persona, a transition towards the abstract melodic fantasies of I Want You (1976), co-written with Leon Ware.
Gaye released three unsuccessful singles, until 'Pride and Joy' became a smash hit, but he felt discontented with Motown’s tight control over his material. By 1965, he had released 39 Top 40 songs for the label.
Gaye hit the charts with his biggest success, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', but his marriage was crumbling and he felt irrelevant, singing about love while popular music underwent a political revolution.
As a result, Gaye released 'What's Going On' in 1971, one of the most memorable soul albums of the time, including then-unheard of radical political and social statements. Gordy at first refused to release the album, but eventually gave in. The album produced three Top Ten singles.
1973's 'Let's Get It On' was a sexually and romantically charged album that was very successful in the charts. His marriage ended soon after. After a failed single and a failing new marriage, Gaye moved to Hawaii, and then to Europe in 1981.
Gaye began working on In Our Lifetime? in Europe. When Motown issued the album in 1981, Gaye was livid: he accused Motown of editing and remixing the album without his consent, altering the album art he requested, and removing the question mark from the title (rendering the intended irony imperceptible). He negotiated a release from the label and signed with Columbia Records in 1982 and released Midnight Love the same year. Midnight Love included "Sexual Healing", one of Gaye's most famous songs, and his final big hit.
On April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday, Gaye was shot and killed by his father in an argument. Gaye's relatives claimed that he had purposely pushed his father to the edge so that he could have Marvin, Sr. kill him instead of having to commit suicide.
Notables:
Marvin Gaye was one of the most expressive vocalists of the era, Marvin Gaye, capable of impersonating both the romantic lover and the hostile mod/punk and the political activist, breathed life into H-D-H's Can I Get A Witness (1963) and How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You (1964), Smokey Robinson's I'll Be Doggone (1965), One More Heartache ((1966) and Ain't That Peculiar (1965), Norman Whitfield's I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1967), and Ashford's and Simpson's Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1967). Gaye the songwriter exploded in 1971, with the socially aware and orchestrally-arranged concept album What's Going On (1971). The less intense and dense Let's Get It On (1973) was more sound-oriented and returned to his erotic persona, a transition towards the abstract melodic fantasies of I Want You (1976), co-written with Leon Ware.
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