Marvin Gaye - Funky Nation The Detroit Instrumentals (2021)

Tracklist

                                         

1.  Checking Out (Double Clutch) - 4:51

2.  Chained - 2:54

3.  Country Stud - 1:56

4.  Help The People - 2:16

5.  Running From Love (Version 1 / Edit) - 3:07

6.  Daybreak - 2:04

7.  Doing My Thing - 2:05

8.  "T" Stands For Time - 2:38

9.  Jesus Is Our Love Song - 3:07

10.  Funky Nation - 3:02

11.  Infinity - 2:39

12.  Mandota (Instrumental) - 3:25

13.  Struttin' The Blues - 3:47

14.  Running From Love (Version 2 / With Strings) - 5:05

Notes

Release: 2021

Genre: Soul

Length:  42:57

Label - Motown Records

Marvin Gaye - Marvin Gaye Live At The London Palladium - 2Lp (1977)

posted by record facts

Live at the London Palladium is a live double album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released March 15, 1977, on Tamla Records. 

Recording sessions took place live at several concerts at the London Palladium in London, England, in October 1976, with the exception of the hit single "Got to Give It Up", which was recorded at Gaye's Los Angeles studio Marvin's Room on January 31, 1977.

Live at the London Palladium features intimate performances by Gaye of many of his career highlights, including early hits for Motown and recent material from his previous three studio albums. 

As with his previous live album, Marvin Gaye Live!, production of the record was handled entirely by Gaye, except for the studio portion, "Got to Give It Up", which was managed by Art Stewart.

Live at the London Palladium received a surprising and significant amount of critical recognition for a live album following its initial release. 

Critical reviews of the album were positive compared to the mild receptiveness Gaye's previous studio album I Want You received. As Gaye's most successful live release, the album also became one of his most commercially successful albums during his tenure at Motown's Tamla label, as well as a Billboard chart hit.

Though he wasn't over his stage fright and often mumbled words on stage, when performing and singing, Gaye, then 37, still could dazzle an audience with his charm, wit and show-stopping talent as was heard on the album.

Featuring a variety of songs from newer material encompassing from Gaye's 1976 album, I Want You, to older songs (featured in three segues of medleys) from his early to mid-1960s heyday to his famed What's Going On period in 1970-1971, his legendary duets and a trio of songs from his Let's Get It On album, Gaye performed for the British audience. Highlights include the performances of "Come Get to This", "Let's Get It On" (on which Gaye moaned during a break of the song to the delight of several female fans who were heard squealing, as heard on the album) and "Distant Lover".

Live at the London Palladium's three epic medleys, which all exceeded nine minutes, featured Gaye's intimate interactions with the audience and reflections on his songs. An Allmusic reviewer later wrote of Gaye's performance, "you can feel the sultry passion in his voice as his singing drifts close to moaning and his ad libbing approaches tasteful, amorous aural lovemaking", and continued to write in a review of Live at the London Palladium that the "between-song moments" when Gaye addressed the audience revealed "just how shaken Gaye is at this troubled point in his career. Listen carefully and you can sense the struggling instability that would erupt cathartically a year later with Here, My Dear."

After the concert was over following Gaye saying "Thank you!" over and over almost in sing-song medley as the band opened and closed with the intro to "I Want You", Gaye launches into the studio effort, his one attempt at making a convincing "disco record", the funk track, "Got to Give It Up". Recorded at Marvin's Los Angeles studio, Marvin's Room, the singer vocalized a song where the author is longing to get out of his shy cover and get on the dance floor with reckless abandon. The original song runs for nearly twelve minutes, however, a single version of "Got to Give It Up" was released featuring a four-and-a-half minute A-side. 

Original LP

Original 1977 US vinyl LP double album.

Side one

1. "Intro Theme" (Ross, Ware) – 2:32
2. "All the Way Round" (Ross, Ware) – 5:15
3. "Since I Had You" (Gaye, Ware) – 4:15
4. "Come Get to This" (Gaye) – 2:02
5. "Let's Get It On" (Gaye, Townsend) – 6:40

Side two

1. "Trouble Man" (Gaye) – 6:17
2. Medley I – 8:40:
   • "Ain't That Peculiar"
   • "You're a Wonderful One"
   • "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"
   • "Pride & Joy"
   • "Little Darling (I Need You)"
   • "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
   • "Hitch Hike"
   • "You"
   • "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
   • "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"
3. Medley II – 9:40:
   • "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
   • "God Is Love"
   • "What's Going On"
   • "Save the Children"

Side three

1. Medley III (Performed by Gaye & Florence Lyles) – 12:01
   • "You're All I Need to Get By"
   • "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
   • "Your Precious Love"
   • "It Takes Two"
   • "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
2. "Distant Lover" (G. Fuqua, Gaye, Greene) – 5:20
3. "Closing Theme / I Want You" (Ross, Ware) – 3:00

Side four

1. "Got to Give It Up" (Gaye) – 11:53

Personnel

• Odell Brown - synthesizer
• Elmira Amos - percussion
• Jack Ashford - tambourine
• Frankie Beverly - spoons and milk bottle
• Gerald "Get Down" Brown - bass guitar
• Walter Cox - vocals
• Terry Evans - guitar
• Bobby Gant - vocals
• Frankie Gaye - background vocals
• Marvin Gaye - vocals, keyboards, RMI bass synthesizer, juice bottle, producer (tracks: A1 to C3)
• David Ly - saxophone
• Florence Lyles - duet vocalist
• Gwanda Hambrick - vocals
• Fernando Harkness - saxophone
• Jan Hunter - background vocals
• Hiro Ito – photography
• Johnny McGhee - guitar
• Nolan Andrew Smith - trumpet
• Michael Stanton - electric piano
• Art Stewart – producer (tracks: D1)
• Melvin Webb - conga
• Bugsy Wilcox - drums
• Richard D. Young – photography

Notes

Released:  March 15, 1977 

Recorded:  October 3, 1976 London Palladium (London, England) December 13, 1976, December 14–17, 1976, January 20, 1977January 31, 1977 / Marvin's Room (Los Angeles, California) 

Genre:  Soul, funk, disco 

Length:  78:35 

Label - Tamla

Marvin Gaye - Dream Of A Lifetime (1985)

Marvin Gaye born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s.

Dream of a Lifetime was the first posthumously released album by the American recording artist Marvin Gaye. It included the top five R&B single, “Sanctified Lady“.
In 1982, Marvin Gaye signed a three-album deal with Columbia Records after final negotiations to leave Motown Records were completed. During the recording of his Midnight Love album, Gaye and his frequent collaborator Gordon Banks worked on a series of recordings, several of which made it to Midnight Love; recording continued into 1983 after Gaye returned to Los Angeles even while Gaye was promoting his album.
Following the end of Gaye’s final grueling U.S. tour, Gaye remained secluded in the home he shared with his parents at the West Adams district of Los Angeles.
Prior to his death, Gaye had planned to work on a duet with Barry White, but White said on the day they were to record in the studio, Gaye was shot and killed by his father. With two albums left from his Columbia contract, Columbia and Gaye’s former label, Motown, began to work together to complete the singer’s original contract to alleviate any debts left over by the singer after his death.
In the summer of 1984, Harvey Fuqua and Gordon Banks worked on finishing or “modernizing” several of Gaye’s songs left over from both Columbia and Motown recording sessions. Of the Columbia material, Banks brought in several tracks he and Gaye worked on together between 1982 and 1983 including a song that Gaye had mentioned to interviewers titled, “Sanctified Pussy”. Reworked, with vocals from several session background singers including The Waters, the song was renamed “Sanctified Lady”. Gaye had warned that Columbia wouldn’t release it due to the song’s offensive title and its lyrics.
Another controversial song Gaye and Banks composed was “Masochistic Beauty”, a song dedicated to S&M which Gaye played the role of a dominatrix in a faux British accent where he rapped throughout the track. Banks provided vocoder in both “Sanctified Pussy” and “Masochistic Beauty”, giving both songs an electro-funk flavor.
Fuqua assembled leftover sessions from Gaye’s Motown days, including an obscure track Gaye composed on the fly as a joke titled “Savage in the Sack”, a song David Ritz later stated was a song Gaye wouldn’t have wanted released. Originally, in the song, a vamp in the song had Gaye repeating the words, “dem niggers”. In the remixed Fuqua production, it was rewritten as “it’s getting bigger”, with The Waters replacing Gaye on background vocals. The mid-tempo “Ain’t It Funny How Things Turn Around”, written and recorded around the time Gaye recorded Here, My Dear, was also remixed by Fuqua. The track later resurfaced in another remixed version, this time by Bootsy Collins in the deluxe edition re-issue of Here, My Dear. A 1971 track, “It’s Madness”, was also reworked with a modern drum programming beat over the original strings and music accompanying the song. A 1972 track, “Dream of a Lifetime”, later became the title of the album, and was written as a demo for Sammy Davis, Jr., who didn’t record it. The seven-minute “Life’s Opera” was recorded in 1976 and was remixed again by Fuqua with the Waters again adding background vocals. “Symphony”, a track recorded during the Let’s Get It On sessions, was reworked with what sounded like beatboxing as its “drums”. In the re-issue of Let’s Get It On, the original recording was included.

1. Sanctified Lady  (5:30)
    Written-By – G. Banks, M. Gaye
2. Savage In The Sack  (3:19)
    Written-By – M. Gaye
3. Masochistic Beauty  (4:39)
    Written-By – G. Banks, M. Gaye
4. It’s Madness  (3:22)
    Written-By – M. Gaye
5. Ain’t It Funny (How Things Turn Around)  (4:54)
    Written-By – M. Gaye
6. Symphony  (2:49)
    Written-By – M. Gaye, W. “Smokey” Robinson
7. Life’s Opera  (7:41)
    Written-By – I. J. Hunter, M. Gaye
8. Dream Of A Lifetime  (3:49)
    Written-By – M. Gaye

Companies, etc.

• Phonographic Copyright (p) – CBS Inc.
• Copyright (c) – CBS Inc.
• Mastered At – Bernie Grundman Mastering
• Recorded At – The Village Recorder
• Recorded At – Devonshire Studios
• Recorded At – C.A.S.H. Studios
• Mastered At – Bernie Grundman Mastering
• Recorded At – Yamaha Studios

Credits

• Art Direction – Lane/Donald
• Backing Vocals – Connie Howard, Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua, Marvin Gaye, The Waters
• Bass – Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua
• Drums – Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua, Preston Wilcox
• Engineer – Barney Perkins, Gordon Banks, John Kovarek
• Engineer [Assistant] – Dave Mancini, Jay Willis, Jim Farci, Keith Sepian, Stan Katayama, Steve Hirsch, Tom Nist
• Executive-Producer – Larkin Arnold
• Liner Notes – Larkin Arnold
• Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
• Mixed By – John Kovarek
• Percussion – Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua, William Bryant II
• Photography By – Sam Emerson
• Producer – Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua, Marvin Gaye
• Synthesizer – Gordon Banks, Harvey Fuqua, Marvin Gaye

Notes
This album contains lyrical content that may be considered offensive to some listeners
Released: May 21, 1985
Recorded: 1984-85 (reworked)
Genre: Funk, soul, dance-pop, synthpop, smooth soul
Length: 36:13
© 1985

Label – Columbia Records

Marvin Gaye - In Our Lifetime (1981)

“In Our Lifetime” is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England, throughout 1979 and 1980. The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of “Here, My Dear”, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from Anna Gordy. Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, “In Our Lifetime” was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.

Although this better set does seem effortlessly conceived, it wasn't that simple. Gaye originally envisioned a "party" album and almost released one called Love Man. After some consideration, Gaye nixed the idea and aimed for an effort that would spotlight his religious concerns. Thankfully, “In Our Lifetime” splits the difference between the two mindsets. The first single from the aborted Love Man shows up here. "Ego Tripping Out" works as both a parody of the "love man" with a few autobiographical flourishes as he sings, "Got a sweet tooth/For the chick on the floor." Slowly but surely the religious matters do surface here. The buoyant "Praise" has a blithe riff inspired and/or lifted from Stevie Wonder and has Gaye getting his message across without being preachy. Although no song is especially brilliant here, the level of Gaye's musical sense and his vocal prowess carry him throughout. The unfinished and non-Gaye-approved "Far Cry" has lyrics that are steam-of-conscious and are barely decipherable. The mesmerizing "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" has Gaye examining both good and evil with equal skill. The last track, the title song, has Gaye back in the party frame of mind and has great horn charts and a propulsive beat. “In Our Lifetime” is one of his finest later albums and captures him as his craft was maturing and becoming more multifaceted.

Track listing

01.  "Praise" - 4:51
02.  "Life is for Learning" - 3:39
03.  "Love Party" - 4:58
04.  "Funk Me" - 5:34
05.  "Far Cry" - 4:28
06.  "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" - 4:59
07.  "Heavy Love Affair" - 3:45
08.  "In Our Lifetime" - 6:57

Credits
Marvin Gaye - vocals, keyboards, drums
Robert Ahwry - guitar
Gordon Banks - guitar
Frank Bates - bass, background vocals
Frank Blair - bass, drums
Ray Brown - trumpet
William Bryant - drums, keyboards
Elmira Collins - vibraphone, background vocals
Raymond Crossley - keyboards
Fernando Harkness - saxophone
Joe James - percussion
Gary Jones - percussion, conga
Lee Kentle - drums, background vocals
Nigel Martinez - drums
Kenny Mason - trumpet
Joe Mayo - percussion
Sidney Muldrew - French horn
Curtis Anthony Nolen - guitar
Raphael Ravenscroft - alto saxophone
Dr. George Shaw - trumpet
Nolan Andrew Smith - trumpet
Bugsy Wilcox - drums
Preston "Bugsy" Wilcox - drums
Candace Bond - Executive Producer
Jon Walls - Recording & Mix Engineer

Notes
All songs were written, arranged, composed and produced by Marvin Gaye
Recorded 1979–1980 Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio, Honolulu, Hawaii, Odyssey Studios, London, England
Genre:  Soul, funk
Length:  41:30
Label:  Tamla Records

© 1981