My favourite Marvin Gaye album is also his most misunderstood, his 1978 divorce settlement release,
Here, My Dear.
When Marvin divorced Anna Gordy in 1976 he was so hard up that his
lawyers came up with a solution whereby Anna would receive Marvin's
advances for his next album and recoup the royalties until an agreed
amount was reached. Marvin initially didn't want to put much effort into
the album, as his ex-wife would get all the money. But he gradually
became obsessed with the project, viewing it as a way to finally rid
himself of Anna.
The misconception is that
Here, My Dear
is Marvin pouring his heart into the microphone, exemplified by the
album's keystone, "When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving
You". But I think the truth is more revealing, twisted and way more
interesting!
Throughout most of the album, Marvin is keen to
portray himself as the hard-done-by divorcee, chewed up and spat out by a
wife who had been evil and unfaithful. Bear in mind this is the man who
had (in 1973) performed the whole "Let's Get It On" album as a love
letter to Janis Hunter, then aged 16 (one key track on that album was
co-written with Anna Gordy!). By the time the divorce came through 3
years later Marvin and Janis were living together with two children.
Marvin Gaye - You Can Leave, But It's Going To Cost You
The album as a whole is an extreme example of someone telling their side of the story - they didn't have
Heat
in those days, I guess... But knowing that most of the accusations
Marvin makes (that Anna stopped him from seeing their child, amongst
other tasty tit-bits) are either made up, wildly embroidered or told
from the exaggerated viewpoint of "the wronged man", far from making the
album ridiculous, actually makes it a fascinating peek into... well, I
guess you have to call it quintessentially male self-pity.
From
stuff I've read, Marvin appears self-obsessed and deeply troubled. By
this time, most of his money had gone up his nose (hence the bizarre
divorce settlement). Marvin was perpetually plagued by performance
anxiety (both public and private), which made it even harder for him to
live up to his role of "lover of all ladies". He added the "e" to his
surname in an effort to distance himself from his father, a sexually
ambiguous cross-dressing preacher.
Marvin Gaye - Everybody Needs Love
The
complex nature of his relationship with his father makes for one of the
most beautiful and revealing musical moments on the whole album, during
'Everybody Needs Love'. At 40 seconds, he sings the line "And my
Father, he needs love" - all the lines before this (flowers, bluebirds,
babies, all god's children need love) are sung straight, almost
whispered. But when he gets to his father, the harmony takes a brief
detour and he hits one of his beautiful high notes - it's like he can't
sing it straight because their relationship was so complicated. I don't
know - maybe just a coincidence, but then there are no coincidences,
right? This track also features the only example I know of an "aural
wink-to-camera" at 1.40 ("... even a superstar *cymbal crash*"). Cocky
bastard!
Marvin Gaye - A Funky Space Reincarnation
It's not all bitter recriminations and one-upmanship - there's even this
bizarre
bit of psychodrama. Here, Marvin imagines sometime in the future,
getting stoned on Venus-ian drugs at a party and getting it on with
someone he feels like he's met before. But it's not Janis, it's Anna.
The subtext seems to be that, despite their divorce, they're destined to
always be together in some way. And also (perhaps more sinisterly) Anna
will always be his and that that he can have her any time that he wants
her. Creepy.
This album is very strange and incredibly one-sided
but in a sense it's his most honest - "Here, My Dear" is all Marvin,
all his arrogance, all his pettiness and all his insecurities. And it
would be nothing if it wasn't as funky as anything and a showcase for
Marvin's beautiful mutli-layered vocals. Weird and utterly essential.
Buy - Here, My Dear
Visit - Marvin on Wikipedia
Posts
