LET'S GET IT ON - Marvin Gaye

YEAR: 1973

LABEL: Tamla-Motown

TRACK LISTING: Let's Get It On, Please Stay (Once You Go Away), If I Should Die Tonight, Keep Gettin' It On, Come Get To This, Distant Lover, You Sure Love To Ball, Just To Keep You Satisfied

BONUS TRACKS: (On Deluxe Edition): Song #3 (Instrumental), My Love Is Growing, Cakes (Instrumental), Symphony (Undubbed Version), I'd Give My Life For You (Alternate Mix), I Love You Secretly (Miracles Version), You're the Man (Alternate Version 1), You're the Man (Alternate Version 2), Symphony (Demo Vocal), Let's Get It On (Demo), Let's Get It On Part II (aka Keep Gettin' It On - Complete), Please Stay (Once You Go Away) (Alternate Mix), If I Should Die Tonight (Demo), Come Get To This (Alternate Mix), Distant Lover (Alternate Mix), You Sure Love To Ball (Alternate Mix w/ Alternate Vocal), Just To Keep You Satisfied (A Cappella w/ Alternate Vocal), Just To Keep You Satisfied (Originals Version 1970), Just To Keep You Satisfied (Monitors Version 1968), Where Are We Going? (Alternate Mix), The World Is Rated X (Alternate Mix), I'm Gonna Give You Respect, Try It You'll Like It, You Are That Special One, We Can Make It Baby, Running From Love (Instrumental Version 1), Mandota (Instrumental), Running From Love (Instrumental Version 2), Come Get To This (Live From Oakland)

IMPRESSIONS: A lot of people would've probably chosen "WHAT'S GOING ON" as the first Marvin Gaye album to talk about but I've always preferred this one; and so did the general public apparently because this was the best-selling album of Marvin's Motown career. Usually this album is wrongly considered just a "sexed-up jam" but Marvin was never going to give us just that; instead this albums theme derives deep inside Marvin's damaged psyche stemming from his extremely brutal upbringing and fundamentalist strict views about sex which Marvin was struggling with all his adult life. In David Ritz's biography "DIVIDED SOUL: THE LIFE OF MARVIN GAYE", the author describes the album in this way: "If the most profound soul songs are prayers in secular dress, Marvin's prayer is to reconcile the ecstasy of his early religious epiphany with a sexual epiphany. The hope for such a reconciliation, the search for sexual healing, is what drives his art ... The paradox is this: The sexiest of Marvin Gaye's work is also his most spiritual. That's the paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers—the hunger for God. In those songs of loss and lament—the sense of separation is heartbreaking. On one level, the separation is between man and woman. On a deeper level, the separation is between man and God." There's a lot more going on here lyrically and even musically; the stark break-up song "Just To Keep You Satisfied" (which had been reworked after being recorded by both the Monitors and the Originals before Marvin included it on his own album) isn't quite the party expected from an album entitled "LET'S GET IT ON". Marvin Gaye was nothing if not complex and this album (more than the more critically celebrated "WHAT'S GOING ON") demonstrates that face most vividly.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Let's Get It On, Please Stay (Once You Go Away), If I Should Die Tonight, Keep Gettin' It On, Come Get To This, Distant Lover, Just To Keep You Satisfied, Song #3 (Instrumental), My Love Is Growing, Cakes (Instrumental), Symphony (Undubbed Version), I'd Give My Life For You (Alternate Mix), I Love You Secretly (Miracles Version), You're the Man (Alternate Version 1), Just To Keep You Satisfied (Monitors Version 1968), Where Are We Going? (Alternate Mix), The World Is Rated X (Alternate Mix), I'm Gonna Give You Respect, Running From Love (Instrumental Version 1)

GUEST ARTISTS: Herbie Hancock (piano on "Song #3, My Love Is Growing" and "Cakes"), The Miracles (vocals on "I Love You Secretly"), The Originals (vocals on "Just To Keep You Satisfied (Originals Version 1970), The Monitors (vocals on "Just To Keep You Satisfied (Monitors Version 1968), The Funk Brothers (house band on "Just To Keep You Satisfied (Monitors Version 1968), Ray Parker Jr. (guitar on "Running From Love (Instrumental Version 1)", "Mandota (Instrumental)", "Running From Love (Instrumental Version 2)" and "Come Get To This (Live From Oakland)".

FACT SHEET: LET'S GET IT ON is Marvin Gaye's 12th album. It was Gaye's first foray into different styles of music including funk and smooth soul/quiet storm and the heavily sexual lyrics established Marvin as a major sex symbol. Following the success of his "WHAT'S GOING ON" album, Gaye received much more creative control. Originally the artist was going to follow that album with one called "YOU'RE THE MAN" and recorded such tracks as "The World Is Rated X", "Where Are We Going?" and the eponymous title track but that project was shelved for unknown reasons; these songs and more would finally appear on the 2 disc "Deluxe Edition" as listed above. The title track "Let's Get It On" had a circuitous life starting first as a religious ode, then morphing into a political song (a la "What's Going On") and finally, at the suggestion of co-writer Ed Townsend, changed to "a song about making sweet love"; the emotional intensity Gaye brought to the vocal was inspired by his new infatuation Janis Hunter (for whom he would base his following album "I WANT YOU" upon). "Keep Gettin' It On" (also known as "Let's Get It On Part II") is a continuation/sequel to the title track which also includes some more politcally aware lyrics. A more doo-wop influence pervades "Come Get To This", "Distant Lover" and "Just To Keep You Satisfied" which also finds Marvin's embrace of the "quiet storm" smooth soul style on the latter two songs. LET'S GET IT ON is generally considered one of the most influential soul albums of all-time and the title track became a number one hit single.