A Door Closes, and Another Opens: The Inspiration Behind a Great Lovemaking Album
Written: Jul 05 '09 (Updated Jul 05 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: “Let’s Get It On,” continuation of Gaye’s progression as an artist; refreshingly left-field approach.
Cons: Some might complain this is a regression for Gaye; the listening experience is occasionally monotonous.
The Bottom Line: Would you rather have a What’s Going On, Part II? With Let’s Get It On, Marvin Gaye displayed his multi-faceted artistry -- and became the source of many baby-making moments.
balogun's Full Review: Let's Get It On [Remaster] by Marvin Gaye
Following up to a landmark album is always a daunting task. And it was no different for Marvin Gaye, especially considering that 1971’s What’s Going On forever delineated his graduation from failed jazz-pop crooner subject to a stringent Motown system to a masterpiece album-crafting artist with creative control. Worse, by 1973, Gaye, despite the recently released soundtrack he did for the movie Trouble Man, was suffering from writer’s block, resulting in the longest period between studio albums of his career. Motown label head Berry Gordy was understandably worried about a man who was now, arguably, his marquee artist. (Only Diana Ross occupied a pedestal as high -- or even higher.) Where could Gaye get new inspiration from?
Enter Ed Townsend. A middle-aged singer-songwriter who had enjoyed earlier success with the #13 pop hit, “For Your Love,” as far back as 1958, Townsend proposed a sketch of a religion-themed song -- the product of his recovery from alcoholism -- that he eventually thought would work better from a romantic angle. And the rest, as they say, is history. Marvin had found his inspiration for a new album; and the resulting song (“Let’s Get It On”) and the album that was named after it -- Let’s Get It On -- would extend his sense of creativity, as well as establish him as one of music history’s premier balladeers.
What about “Let’s Get It On” hasn’t been said? Well, its origins have already been explained. However, it’s the transformation to a funky, sweat-dripping five-minute ode to unbridled passion that is the most marvelous aspect of the single. After four entrancing wah-wah notes to commence the song, Gaye memorably wails, “I’ve been really tryyyyy-in’, baaaay-bay/Trying to hold back this feeling, for so-oooo looooong!” Even with the religious traces still present (e.g., “I’ve been sanctified”), they have been appropriated to the theme of sexual liberation, something that Marvin argues should be appreciated and treasured as pure human nature. Gaye said it best in the liner notes: “I contend that sex is sex and love is love. When combined, they work well together.” And in all aspects of the song, “Let’s Get It On” works: a timeless -- and perhaps the quintessential -- romance song.
Let’s Get It On continues the sex theme long after the title track, and it does feel and sound like a narrative. The more upbeat “Please Stay (Once You Go Away)” chronicles the day after a midnight tryst in which Marvin admits that “[he’s] never felt so good before.” “If I Should Die Tonight” is, I feel, one of Marvin’s most underrated cuts, as he wails and coos with heart-wrenching sincerity about his own mortality. And as for “Keep Getting’ It On”, which is really the sequel to the title track, Marvin practically improvises with added political undertones: “Won’t you rather make love, children/As opposed to war, like you know you should?” Whoever thought the artist of What’s Going On was dead and buried?
Let’s Get It On continues the lustful excellence into the second half. “Come Get to This” concerns the return of Marvin’s object of desire; and “You Sure Love to Ball” goes even further than the title track in sexual explicitness, as moans from a lovemaking duo underscore the track. However, it is “Distant Lover” that is the crown jewel of Let’s Get It On’s second half. With a slow burn of mesmerizing guitar strings, cymbals, and xylophone notes, Marvin masterfully fluctuates between his tenor and falsetto before erupting in a delightfully gruff climax, pleading almost helplessly to his departing lover to “please come back home.”
And boy, has Gaye grown in singing technique! A far cry from his comparatively amateurish days as an innocuous, clean-cut crooner in the ‘60s, Marvin had mastered the art of vocal multi-tracking, layering line upon line to amplify auditory results. Best example: “If I Should Die Tonight”, in which he spellbindingly switches modal registers -- his tenor and falsetto -- between his lyrics and ad-libs! It was such a command of the technique no one on earth at that time could match, if even tried. As for the music, it was clear at this point that the safe Motown pop of the ‘60s was dead and gone; instead, Marvin and Townsend were building on the foundations set in What’s Going On and the Trouble Man soundtrack: a marriage of funk’s grit and jazz’s improvisation. Awash with pregnant guitar plucks, soothing horns, soaring strings, resounding congas, and prominent woodwinds, Let’s Get It On is just as great musically as it is lyrically.
When Let’s Get It On was released in 1973, becoming Gaye’s most successful album and yielding two pop hits with “Let’s Get It On” (#1) and “Distant Lover” (#21), not every one was pleased with Marvin’s latest offering. Just how on earth did an artist who was so socio-politically-minded in What’s Going On regress into being solely concerned with matters of the flesh? In a sense, the album’s few critics did have a point: Don’t expect any variety at all from Let’s Get It On, and the lesser cuts -- “Please Stay” and “Come Get to This” -- only add to the general monotony. However, nothing about Gaye’s music is ever one-dimensional; and the detractors never noted that this album was not merely the product of Gaye’s lustful thoughts, but of his conflicting thoughts and personas -- the struggle to create an analogy of mortal love with God’s love, the struggle to reconcile his romantic relationships with his Pentecostal upbringing, the struggle to align Marvin Gaye the Artist with Marvin Gaye the Man.
In fact, it is often said by writers and fans that Let’s Get It On was inspired by Marvin’s affair with a 17-year old Janis Hunter while still being married to Berry Gordy’s sister, Anna. Legend has it that Hunter was actually in the studio when Marvin was recording the classic title track; and the album closer, “Just to Keep You Satisfied”, is often interpreted as a farewell statement to Anna Gordy. The truth is, only one of the eight songs, “You Sure Love to Ball”, was written and recorded from scratch. Ultimately, though, even if the inspiration for Marvin’s follow-up to What’s Going On was circumstantial rather than planned, it only makes such an achievement all the more outstanding. That Let’s Get It On stands the test of time more than thirty years after its release, outshining the multitude of R&B and soul albums that followed its template -- in the themes of love and sex, and studio technique -- is indelible proof of its greatness.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Let’s Get It On 2. Please Stay (Once You Go Away) 3. If I Should Die Tonight 4. Keep Getting’ It On 5. Come Get to This 6. Distant Lover 7. You Sure Love to Ball 8. Just to Keep You Satisfied
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Let's Get It On [Remaster] by Marvin Gaye](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/17/30/21/2002005133-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.