“I thank God for the time that he gave us together, good and bad,” Jan Gaye writes at the conclusion of her recent memoir, After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye, “for without both I would’ve had none.” Even thirty-one years after the tragic death of the music legend that was her husband and father of her two children, such an acknowledgement could not have been easy to come by. The eleven-year relationship she recounts here in stark and often forthright detail is fraught — despite its many gentle, loving, and passionate moments — with simmering distrust, betrayal, and, on occasion, violence. Still, hindsight has afforded the author a balanced, empathetic perspective with which to tell her story.
Already smitten with the suave, sophisticated image she’d seen on Soul Train and on various album and magazine covers of the day, seventeen-year-old Janis Hunter’s celebrity crush on thirty-four-year-old Marvin Gaye developed into an all-too-human hunger thanks to a fortuitous meeting with the Motown superstar at his Los Angeles recording studio during a session for his landmark 1973 album, Let’s Get It On. The attraction between the two was immediate though furtive at first and while a courtship ensued, odds of them enjoying anything beyond a fleeting affair seemed anything but promising. Particularly encumbered was Gaye, who was then embroiled in a bitter divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy (older sister of Berry, president of Motown Records), as well as myriad financial plights and professional anxieties. Regardless, Hunter and Gaye’s mutual passion would not be denied.
Such baggage couldn’t help but intrude on their relationship (and, come 1977, marriage), though as underscored throughout the book, the couple’s greatest burden — indeed, the prime catalyst for whatever chaos they wrought and suffered both individually and together — was substance abuse. The author is unflinchingly explicit at times in her recollections, in particular when depicting her husband’s gradual descent over the last few years his life amid the throes of hard drugs and their destructive, psychotic effects. Such moments come across not as an indictment on Marvin Gaye’s character or his legacy, however, but rather as unvarnished examples of the way things were at the time. If anything, the author places just as much scrutiny on her own past behavior, conceding amongst other indiscretions how her own substance abuse affected her marriage and life in general, so much so that not even Gaye’s death at the hand of his father in 1984 could at once compel her to seek help in an effort to quit.
While not a biography of Marvin Gaye — the definitive one being Divided Soul by David Ritz, who serves as co-author here — After the Dance nevertheless includes truly fascinating insights to his creativity and talent, the sort which are revealed in the most inconspicuous moments or in drowsy, late-night conversations in bed. In other words, the sort which only an intimate confidant could know. In a broader but no less personal context, the same could be said for this overall gripping memoir as a whole.
Survival of the fittest, they called it. Ensconced in a small conference room in the label’s Detroit headquarters Motown founder Berry Gordy would convene his producers and songwriters to defend their latest works, pitting one song against another to ensure that only the best ones be released as singles and album tracks.
“If you were down to your last dollar,” Gordy would ask, “would you spend it on a hot dog or this record?” Without knowing exactly which songs prevailed over which, the ones on the just released compilation, The Motown 7s Box: Rare and Unreleased Vinyl, Volume 2, suggest the right calls indeed were made. For the most part these songs go by in an indiscriminate Motownesque blur, neither adding to the musical legacies of some of the label’s signature artists (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & The Pips) nor to its seismic cultural contribution and influence on the whole.
Still this set has its moments, including the Isley Brothers’ “Sure is a Whole Lotta Woman” and the Contours’ “Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy,” the latter of which features a particularly fiery lead vocal from Dennis Edwards, who would later replace David Ruffin in the Temptations to grace such classics as “Cloud Nine” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” Overall, though, it’s the rare distinction of its material that gives this collection its greatest appeal.
On the heels of his erotic masterwork, I Want You, Marvin Gaye took the stage at the Edenhalle Concert Hall in Amsterdam for a concert featuring classics from his career to date. Marvin Gaye – Greatest Hits Live In ’76 captures the hour-long event in its entirety.
While not known as a prolific (or even the most eager) concert performer, Gaye certainly had the goods – the songs, the talent, the charisma – to put on an impressive show when the opportunity arose. A meticulous vocalist in the studio as well as on the stage, he understood the precise distance to hold a microphone away from his mouth to produce a desired tone or volume. Such expertise is evident in this performance.
Starting off with “All The Way Round” and “Since I Had You,” both from I Want You, Gaye exudes a sexual magnetism that would only grow more assured with each passing song. As satisfying as these songs sound, though, they underscore the exclusion of far superior songs from the same album, most notably the title track and the sweltering groove of “After The Dance”.
Saturated in soul, a simmering rendition of “Come Get To This” plunges into “Let’s Get It On,” an unadulterated throwdown with Gaye reaching his arms above his head, moaning in ravenous desire.
A medley of sixties hits highlights how much Marvin Gaye genuinely appreciated his audience. By this point in his career, he’d already broken from the Motown mold in which songs were virtually interchangeable among the record label’s roster. He simply didn’t need to perform many of these songs anymore, yet he understood the public’s wish to hear them. Highlights of this portion include “You’re A Wonderful One,” “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” which serves as Gaye’s gesture of thankfulness to his fans.
The most gripping segment of the concert comes with a medley of songs from Gaye’s seminal work, What’s Going On, an album that continues to rank as one of the most astute social commentaries ever set to music. His piercing eyes seemingly glaring into oblivion, Gaye sings these songs with so much conviction, it’s almost unnerving to watch while, at the same time, impossible to look away.
Another medley follows, featuring a sequence of duets including “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. Vocalist Florence Lyles capably stands in as Gaye’s duet partner, but it’s difficult to detach the songs from their original artists. With the lone exception of “It Takes Two,” which was originally recorded with Kim Weston, all of the duets here were originally recorded with Tammi Terrell. Only six years after her tragic death, Gaye doesn’t appear all that keen on performing these songs, especially the ones he’d made with Terrell. Like the previous sixties medley, though, this duets medley seems like it was done for the benefit of the grateful audience.
A thrilling and thoroughly expressive performance of “Distant Lover” ends the concert with Gaye dropping to his knees in palpable agony, growling out the words to this desperate plea for love.
By and large, Marvin Gaye – Greatest Hits Live In ’76 emphasizes the soulful depth and immeasurable talent of one of music’s most consummate artists.
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