"Let's Get it On" Puts You in the Mood for Some Hot Gaye Sex
Written: May 24 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: A sensual masterpiece from the pen (and mouth, and loins) of Marvin Gaye.
Cons: Marvin can not be held responsible for any children conceived while listening to this album.
The Bottom Line: "Let's Get it On" found Marvin turning his interest from the political to the sensual, and coming up with his second consecutive classic album.
speeddemon531's Full Review: Let's Get It On [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] by Marvi...
The musical struggle between the sacred and the profane didn't start with Marvin Gaye's Let's Get it On. Artists from Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke to Ray Charles had long played it both ways-trying to please an earthly God and a heavenly God simultaneously. But prior to Marvin, no one made the act of sex sound or feel like a heavenly act. What could easily be viewed as sacrilege in another's eyes fit together naturally for Gaye, preacher's son and soul singer par excellence. Let's Get it On is one of those handful of albums that can legitimately be called a game changer. Would modern-day R&B, with it's reliance on sexual themes, even exist without this album? It's very hard to imagine.
With that said, Let's Get it On is so much more than just "an album about sex". While Marvin seems to shrug off the idea of meaningful sex in the album's liner notes, ("I can't see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies"), this collection of eight songs contradicts that way of thinking completely. If you listen to Marvin's singing on this album; passionate, pleading, yearning, you can tell that Mr. Gaye takes the art of bumping uglies very, very seriously, viewing it as something akin to a religious experience.
That much is obvious from the moment his vocals kick in to the legendary title track-"I've been really tryin', baby...tryin' to hold back these feelings for soooooo long". Over the course of the rest of the song (and it's coda, Keep Gettin' it On, which appears several tracks later), Marvin coos, cajoles and answers himself (in the overdubbing technique he basically revolutionized), feeling "something like sanctified" by the power of sex. The song feels as much like a hymn as it does an invitation to knock boots. So much so that Marvin gets away with obvious double entendres like "Come on baby, stop beatin' 'round the bush".
That feeling continues throughout the album, whether he's playing the coy and flirtatious role on the moan-heavy You Sure Love to Ball (a song that, along with Barry White's oeuvre, provided the template for porn-movie music for the next decade), or pleading with a far-away paramour on the doo-wop-esque Distant Lover. Marvin is pulling out all the emotional stops on these songs, never sounding for even half a second like he's making any less than 110% investment. Listen to a song like the aching Please Stay (Once You Go Away) and find out where world class singing beggars like Keith Sweat and R. Kelly got their game from.
Much like Marvin's previous masterwork, 1971's political-and-spiritual-minded What's Going On, Let's Get it On plays like a suite of songs-completely connected. Every song has a basic similarity-perhaps thanks to the prevalence of wah-wah guitar and sax- that doesn't exactly equal sameness (if that makes any sense at all). I guess what I'm trying to say is that it all flows together beautifully. In an era when most albums no longer make a cohesive statement, this is an album that begs to be heard from open to close, in it's entirety.
Despite the album's reliance on sensual themes, its' best track-album closer Just to Keep You Satisfied-breaks from the theme of the previous seven songs. Over swelling strings, beautiful harmonies (provided by Motown group The Originals instead of Marvin this time around) and a rhythm section, Marvin details a relationship that has run it's course. From conception ("You set my soul on fire/My one desire was to love you") to resignation ("Guess it's time for us to say farewell...it's too late for you and I"), this is clearly one of the best end-of-relationship songs ever written by anyone. Marvin's heartbreak is palpable, and his singing is flawless. Anyone who wants to make a case for Marvin being the best pure vocalist of his era can start with this song. He brings out all of his vocal tricks-from tortured falsetto to gentle coo to full-bodied shout. Needless to say, it's my all time favorite Marvin song.
In 2009, society's significantly more sexualized than it was in 1973, so an album like Let's Get it On, which caused a mild uproar back then, would barely raise an eyebrow these days. Truth be told, whether you dig this album or not can be explained in a George Michael lyric: "What's your definition of dirty, baby/What do you call pornography?" Even if you're put off by Let's Get it On's lyrical content, however, the difference between the average, say, Janet Jackson or Britney Spears record and this (aside from the obvious talent differential) is the feeling. It doesn't sound like a note on this album is played for shock value. Marvin feels every syllable he utters (or moans) over the course of this album. Whether using this album as the background for your own romantic interlude or just sitting back and appreciating the superior musicianship, Let's Get it On is a stone cold classic from one of the greatest to ever do it.
"Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye Released 1973 on Tamla Records Rating: 5 stars
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
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