T 54041 (B) – B-side of Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

May 1961

Written by Anna Gordy Gaye and Harvey Fuqua

Out of the four sides released by Marvin Gay(e) in the space of one week in May 1961, this upbeat R&B/rock and roll number is the closest in terms of “feel” to Gaye’s later early-Sixties hits, but it’s also the least recognisable as a Marvin Gaye lead vocal.

As with the underwhelming A-side, this is a song done specifically at the request of the label, a half-arsed stab at Young People’s Music, a necessary chore in return for Tamla funding and releasing an album of MOR standards; once again, Marvin’s heart is palpably not in it.

It’s certainly much livelier than both the A-side and the preceding easy listening/smooth jazz single, (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over / Witchcraft; it’s a rollicking uptempo number where the bored Funk Brothers are allowed to cut (a bit) loose; it’s really rather fun, following the Popcorn Wylie approach of pounding the hell out of a piano (indeed, it might actually be Popcorn himself on piano here, I don’t know), and featuring a series of enjoyable whoops and “Ow!”s to further enliven proceedings.

It’s not actually a bad song on its own merits; it’s charming, and its structure was used almost wholesale on Eddie Holland’s equally-likeable If It’s Love (It’s Alright) a year later.

The main problems with this record are twofold. Firstly, that it’s almost impossible to judge the song on its own merits, because its central refrain of Wop-bop-a-lu-bop / sha-lu-bop / sha-lu-bop (which starts the song and ends every chorus) is a thinly-veiled, staggeringly-obvious lift from Tutti Frutti, an impression only amplified by the spirited piano-bashing. Berry Gordy wouldn’t learn to trust his songwriters to come up with original ideas of their own, rather than trying to eke a living producing knock-offs to feed on the success of some recent well-known hit, for years yet.

Secondly, while Marvin doesn’t sound quite as bored as he did on the A-side, he’s still only giving this about fifty per cent, tops. The song really calls for a forceful, full-on Gaye delivery to mask its pilfering and lack of lyrical content, but he sounds most un-Gayelike: flat, perfunctory, almost limp, doing those whoops and “Ow!”s by rote; going through the motions.

As a result, this isn’t as good as it could have been, and despite being the exact kind of thing Berry Gordy had in mind when trying to push Gaye towards R&B stardom rather than the lounge clubs, it doesn’t quite work, thus proving nobody’s point and ending up relegated to a B-side. A pity.

Footnote: This was co-written by Berry Gordy’s little sister Anna, the namesake of big sister Gwen’s Anna Records label, and (more pertinently) Marvin Gaye’s soon-to-be wife, the woman to whom the incredible Here, My Dear LP was dedicated in 1978.

Marvin Gaye “Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide”	Mary Wells “I Don’t Want To Take A Chance”

your rhythm makes me dance in the language of the world – body beat connection penetrating to my core-earthquakes of energetic pulsations, an electric demonstration-finding elation within your skin. again and again and again and again- i gain… new understanding, new concepts…mathematical equations are solved in the geometric positions our bodies create. when you gave me that look, i knew it was too late and that this was our fate. exploration of thought in a parallel universe..past lives reunited, this feeling requited, and yes i tried to fight it but your rhythm is strong and i feel it when i walk. and it’s hitting hard, my innermost thoughts… i love the way your eyes drink me in. the fucking would be spiritual so it couldn’t be a sin. sexual healing like the marvin gaye song, so wake up/wake up/wake up/wake up, let’s go all night long, ride your rhythm into the blissful dawn. the frequency i vibrate on captivates. your swagger unparalleled. we resonate. my eyes change colors from golden blue to grey, depending on the reflections of the words you say. sometimes i wonder if your eyes say what you feel.. how deep are the lines between fantasy and what’s real? i put u under a microscope to better comprehend.. but despite the lenses and the light, there’s just no making sense. there’s something warm and familiar about you like my favorite shirt and i just wanna put you on… hold u close. know u deep. without remorse. sometimes with u it’s as if i don’t exist. like i’m way down our your list.  and the rain check may never come cause we’re in southern california where there’s always lots of sun. so i’m just gonna keep singing my song… and dancing to your rhythm. body beat connection penetrating to my core-earthquakes of energetic pulsations, an electric demonstration-finding elation within your skin. again and again and again and again…

Apparently this mash up came out last December on an album called Best of Bangers R Mashed , released by the UK label (surprise) Bangers R Mashed.  I just heard this song the other day for the first time (call me late to the party), and  I can’t stop listening to it and staring at my itunes like I’m crazy.   A Marvin Gaye classic over  one of my favorite [Bob Marley and the] Wailers riddims, really?  You know you have to listen to this.  It might sound cheesy in writing, and maybe it is, but I’m feeling this right now.  It’s kinda like trying two of your favorite foods together for the first time and realizing you’ve been missing something all along.  I don’t know what foods those are, but you get the metaphor.

The art of taking an already great song and making it better is one that often goes unnoticed. Why? Because few artists are willing to try. Can you imagine trying to follow Luther V. with your own version of “A House Is Not a Home”? Or trying to top Steve Perry’s voice in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”?

The true art lies in being able to re-create the song in your own style, so that listeners won’t feel the need to compare the two versions. But…..on rare occasion an artist grabs hold of a classic, and makes you forget the original. I know there are some who will disagree, but you know my motto….my opinion’s as valid as anyone  else’s.

In 1966 The Beatles released the “Yesterday and Today” album. Among the popular titles on the release, was the song, “Yesterday”. One of my personal favorites, the song featured a simple melody that was highlighted by sweet, nostalgic lyrics.

In 1970 The Great Marvin Gaye collaborated with famed Motown producer, Norman Whitfield and re-created the Beatle classic. The lyrics the same, but the emotion filled voice of the legendary singer immediately takes you to the place you know the Beatles really meant to go. It’s not a knock to the Beatles, by any means, but I must say Marvin’s version stirs a part of my soul that the other had not reached. Whether it was the purity of Gaye’s voice, the ease with which he dances accross the sound of the instruments creating a 3 and a half minute marriage of string and vocal chord, or if by the time I heard it, I truly did “long for yesterday”. Which it is, I’m not quite sure, but on early mornings when I turn the stereo up loud, and ask Marvin to sing me a song, Yesterday never dissappoints.

Oh yeah, and did I mention, it has the “Great Song” trait……the louder you play it, the better it sounds. And if that’s not enough, if you crack the windows when you play it, songbirds will sing along…. no bullshittin’. Definitely, one of The Greatest Of All Time!

Enjoy,

Ibedubl

Well this is it then, my 100th post and as promised here are the 100 songs currently in my top 10 (ok I know that sounds stupid, but regular readers will understand!) If I were to do this again say for the 200th post there would be quite a few differences. This list is in no particular order, although Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” probably still remains my most favourite song ever! I would love to see your comments on the list; is there anything you really like or really don’t like on here, is there anything really embarrassing perhaps. What is your top 10 or top 100? Incidentally I can already think of many more that didn’t make the cut!

As usual you will find the usual trivia content or comment along with the songs

No Woman No Cry        Bob Marley – Obviously I love this song but it has to be the live version and then preferably the one from the 1975 London Lyceum concerts. That album was called simply ‘Live’ and I wore out my vinyl copy completely

Police And Thieves        Junior Murvin – A classic reggae song, well covered by the Clash. Sadly the song is still all too pertinent today

Licking Stick     Desmond Dekker – Fun reggae at it’s best from the late great Mr Dacres

Cottage In Negril           Tyrone Taylor – Don’t ask me why but this is probably one of my favourite reggae songs ever. It makes me want to go to Negril

Rebel, Rebel     David Bowie – The first single from the wonderful Diamond Dogs album. A glorious Rolling Stones pastiche on which, unusually, Mr Bowie plays lead guitar

Heroes  David Bowie – Inspirational and also a song that I will have played at my funeral in 50 years. You should check out the versions he recorded in both French and German

Strawberry Letter 23       Brothers Johnson – Regular readers will know just how much I love this song. ‘Nuff said

I Want You Back           Jackson 5 - That opening piano run still sends shivers down my spine and frankly how can you not want to dance to this

Superstition      Stevie Wonder – Stevie rocks out more than many on this one which was originally written for Jeff Beck. More than enough to forgive Mr Wonder for “I Just Called To Say I Love You”

White Man In The Hammersmith Palais    Clash – In my humble opinion the finest song by the finest band ever!

London Calling  Clash – If my memory serves me well this is the only Clash song ever to feature in a Bond movie

Complete Control          Clash – A venomous attack on CBS, far more venomous than the Sex Pistols “EMI” in my view

Don’t Let Me Down        Beatles – My favourite Fab Four song which in fact was only a B Side! Also a song that I sing very badly at full volume when I’m drunk

Revolution        Beatles – Another moptops classic that I also sing very badly whilst under the influence of alcohol

Instant Karma    John Lennon – Karma is a powerful thing and Instant Karma is a powerful song!

Do Anything You Wanna Do      Eddie And The Hot Rods – In my teens this was probably one of the most meaningful and uplifting songs I knew. Even at the old age of 50 it still does it for me

Gary Gilmore’s Eyes      Adverts – For subject matter alone this would be in the top 100. Mr Gilmore was executed in the US in the mid 70s and he donated his eyes to an anonymous someone. That someone is the subject of the song!

Theme From A Summer Place    Percy Faith Orchestra – You might say that this is one of my guilty pleasures, well maybe, but it is a beautiful piece of music. It was also used to great effect in the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s Rose Red

Wild Is The Wind           David Bowie – Not a Bowie original but one written for a 50s movie, perhaps more of a torch song and one of Bowie’s best ever cover versions. It certainly makes up for his bloody awful cover of the Beach Boys “God Only Knows” in the 80s

What’s Going On?         Marvin Gaye – Great song from a great album, such a shame that it still rings true after nearly 40 years

September        Earth, Wind And Fire – E, W & F at their best, probably my favourite Saturday night song

God Save The Queen    Sex Pistols – Fear and conspiracy kept this from the number one spot in the Queens Silver Jubilee week in 1977. For me this is a major contender for the UK’s new national anthem!

Public Image     Public Image Limited – So many people thought that Lydon would do nothing after the Pistols, how very wrong they were.

Suspicious Minds          Elvis Presley – Elvis gets his mojo back after all those years of shit movie songs

She’s Gone    Hall & Oates – Taken from the Abandoned Luncheonette album, one of the saddest songs I know. I always play this when I’m in a melancholy mood. I also believe that Daryl Hall has the finest white soul voice in history. And what the bloody hell is a luncheonette?

Mack The Knife   Bobby Darin – I love story songs and this is easily one of the best. You have to tap your feet and click your fingers to this don’t you?

Karma Police    Radiohead – Probably the best band in the world today

Bernadette        Four Tops – Levi Stubbs RIP, I believe Mr Stubbs was the finest soul singer there ever was and ever will be. is this the only song about a Bernadette too?

Still Water (Love)           Four Tops – Relaxing, powerful, beautiful, ethereal, there simply aren’t enough words to describe this gorgeous song

Into My Arms    Nick Cave – As love songs go this might be quite strange but it is undoubtedly beautiful too

Talk Show Host    Radiohead - My favourite song from the ‘Head by a long way. just a B Side and als on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo And Juliet’ movie

Take Me Girl I’m Ready  Junior Walker – My favourite ever juke box record. In the late 70s this was number 77A on the jukebox in the Windmill pub in Ruislip

Woman To Woman        Shirley Brown – A real torch song, sets the hairs on the back of my neck on end

If Loving You Is Wrong   Millie Jackson – and the classic soul torch diva has to be Ms Jackson. I saw her live at the Victoria Apollo in the 70s

Ms Jackson      Outkast - Talking of Ms Jackson (although this is actually about Erykah Badu’s Mum) here is my favourite Outkast song. Don’t you think it sounds a little reminiscent of ‘Strawberry Letter 23′?

I Know What I like (In Your Wardrobe)     Genesis – Personally I think Genesis went downhill after Peter Gabriel left, what do you think? But this Gabriel era song is just sublime and what a fantastic title too

Metal Guru        T Rex – A song I used to mime to with my tennis racquet as a teenage wannabe rock star. So why did I go on to become a bloody accountant?

One Nation Under A Groove       Funkadelic - The ultimate dance song. I saw them live with companion band Parliament in 1978 at the Hammersmith Odeon. Still one of the best concerts I have ever seen

I Can See Clearly Now   Johnny Nash – This man has the voice of an angel, why are so few of his albums available on CD. Definitely one of my heroes, I reckon I would be lost for words if I met him

There Are More Questions Than Answers            Johnny Nash – A Texan singer that sings reggae? it shouldn’t work should it? But it does doesn’t it?

Solsbury Hill     Peter Gabriel – If I ever feel a bit down this is the song I play to pull myself back up. Written about his decision to leave Genesis just before they went towards mega stardom

I Was Watching You      Rosanne Cash – Regular readers will know that I have mentioned this song before. I do cry most times I listen to it and although it was released after his death it makes me think of my Dad

Hurt      Johnny Cash – Mr Cash covers a Trent Reznor off of the Nine Inch Nails song. You must be pretty hard if this doesn’t make you at least a tad emotional

The Man Who Sold The World    Lulu – One of the better covers of a Bowie song. If their respective labels had sanctioned it Mr Bowie was ready to record a whole album with Lulu. Sadly that didn’t happen

All The Young Dudes     Mott The Hoople – The greatest Bowie cover, in fact one of his greatest songs and he simply gave it to Mott!

Wishing Well     Free – Forget all the stuff he’s done with Queen, this was one of Paul Rodgers finest vocal performances

You Get What You Give        New Radicals – One of the most short-lived bands of the 90s, but what a legacy. Gregg Alexander also wrote (or co wrote) Ronan Keating’s ‘Life Is A Rollercoaster’ which I kind of like!

A Town Called Malice    Jam – Paul Weller. probably the greatest English rock star of his generation. I saw him live at the MEN in Manchester last year and he is even better in concert. Indeed he played this Jam classic too

The Look Of Love         ABC – For all my criticism of the 80s this song and the album it comes from (The Lexicon Of Love) is one of my favourites. Produced by the great Trevor Horn

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker          Ramones - 1, 2, 3, 4 and off da bruvvers go. Hey Ho Let’s Go is there really anything else to say?

Wuthering Heights         Kate Bush – Oh Kate my Lionheart, I love this woman and want to have her babies

The Man With The Child In His Eyes        Kate Bush – OK maybe I wouldn’t really do the male pregnancy thing with Kate, but she is definitely my favourite female singer

5.15      Who – My favourite song from the Who from my favourite of their albums, the classic ‘Quadraphenia’

Sugar Sugar      Archies – This was the first single I ever bought. I got it from Uxbridge market in 1969

Suedehead       Morrissey – For me Stephen can be a bit hit or miss but this is definitely on the hit side

William It Was Really Nothing     Smiths – How could I not include the Smiths in this list and yes I am being just a tad egotistical with this choice

New Years Day  U2 – The piano refrain is haunting in a rock kind of way. Also more ego coming out here too, my birthday is on new years day!

Justified And Ancient    KLF and Tammy Wynette - There will never be anyone like the KLF. Were they a band or just art terrorists? Who knows and frankly who cares when they left songs and collaborations like this behind!

You Got The Love         The Source Featuring Candi Staton – Another uplifting song, although personally I tend to ignore the religious aspects! Recently Florence And The Machine have recorded a great cover of this song

Gimme Shelter  Rolling Stones – For me this song, especially the riff, evokes the 60s

It’s Only Rock N Roll     Rolling Stones – Now this is another I used to mime to as a teenager, well ok I still do! It might not be a pretty sight but I love doing it!

Hurricane          Bob Dylan – Dylan at his best, when riled or when he gets political he is untouchable. This song was about the plight of wrongly imprisoned boxer Reuben Carter

You Wear It Well            Rod Stewart – Most people I know would opt for Maggie May from his early 70s hits, I always preferred this one. Possibly even worth forgiving him for the awful ‘Baby Jane’ for

Wish You Were Here        Pink Floyd – One of the Floyd’s greatest and another song that gets me just a little emotional

You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything        Rod Stewart And The Faces – I bet you can’t not dance to this. It’s one of the last songs the Faces recorded before Ron Wood and Rod the Mod left. It shows them going in a direction which I think would have been so good

Itchycoo Park    Small Faces – I actually remember hearing this on the radio as a kid. I didn’t have a clue what the lyrics were about then and I don’t think I’m much wiser now! Don’t go near the atrocious cover version by M People

Lowdown          Boz Scaggs - Taken from the excellent Silk Degrees album from 1976 and the track I use to soundcheck any new hi-fi equipment even now

I’m Your Puppet            James And Bobby Purify – This was actually a rerecording of their original 60s song. Guilty pleasure or great soul song? I’ll let you decide, but either way I love it!

Olympian          Gene – probably the best of the ‘Britpop’ bands, well in my opinion anyway. Sadly the band are no longer around, but I did manage to see them three times while they were. Another song that I will have played at my funeral in the very distant future too

Born To Run      Bruce Springsteen – I was always going to include something from the Boss and it was always going to be this song

Lose Yourself   Eminem - In my opinion Mr Mathers is the greatest rapper, although Jay Z does push him close

Too Late To Turn Back Now       Cornelius Brothers And Sister Rose – It took me more than 20 years to track down this song and now when I listen to it I reckon it is definitely a guilty pleasure

Stay Together   Suede – The most Bowie influenced of the 90s British bands. The combination of Brett Anderson’s lyrics and vocals along with Bernard Butler’s guitar is truly awesome

Skin Trade        Duran Duran - A Duran Duran song in my top 100? Yeah that surprised me too

1999     Prince – I love a lot of Prince’s stuff, but this remains a great party track

Susan’s House  Eels – Mark Everett is a superb songwriter and this for me is one of his best. His autobiography is bloody good too

Take A Look Around      Temptations – A terrific Norman Whitfield production and that intro still blows me away!

Let’s Get It On   Marvin Gaye – This great song has recently been sullied by it’s use to advertise pizzas on UK TV (I think it might have been Dominoes) But it still remains a great song for seduction and lurve

The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage          Smokey Robinson And The Miracles – Bob Dylan once described Smokey as the worlds greatest living poet. Listen to this song and you can see why!

Gimme A Little Sign       Brenton Wood – A great example of 60s soul and the song I sing most in the shower (along with the Monkees ‘I’m A Believer’)

The Love You Save       Jackson 5 – Another classic written for the boys by the Motown house writers billed as the Corporation

Staggerlee        Lloyd Price – Another story song and I reckon the best version by far

Once In A Lifetime         Talking Heads – The ‘Heads finest moment for me. This song has everything and makes me happy everytime I hear it

Pyjamarama      Roxy Music – Roxy before they became bland and frankly shit!

Song 2    Blur – Funny isn’t how the songs with barely any lyrics often sound so good. Whoo Hoo indeed!

Double Barrel    Dave And Ansel Collins – Another slice of superb reggae. For years I thought these guys were brothers, they’re not. Actually it’s Ansel Collins and Dave Barker.

Sorted For E’s And Whizz          Pulp – Jarvis Cocker is a lyrical genius and this is Pulp’s best example of his way with words

Spinning Around           Kylie Minogue – OK so there is a certain appeal to the gold hot pants, but as modern disco goes this is brilliant. Gotta love Kylie!

Love Rollercoaster        Ohio Players – One of my favourite funk songs, expertly covered by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers but it wasn’t a patch on the original

Hey Hey My My        Neil Young – A great song and one which found a degree of infamy as it was quoted in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note

Grace     Jeff Buckley – How big a star would he have been had he lived? Probably one og=f the biggest I think

Satellite Of Love           Lou Reed – Taken from the Transformer album which was produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson. Listen carefully and you’ll hear Bowie on backing vocals

Hey Ya      Outkast – The ultimate party record of recent times, a great video too

Since I Left You            Avalanches – Aussie DJs/ dance act, I can’t believe that this wasn’t a bigger hit

Seven Nation Army        White Stripes – Jack White has recently been named man of the decade by some UK publications, perhaps with some justification. The riff alone on this is worth the top 100

White Horses      Jacky – OK clearly this theme from a 60s TV show (strangely enough it was called White Horses) is very much a guilty pleasure but I really love it. I think Jacky’s only other hit was ‘Rupert The Bear’

D’Yer Make ‘Er  Led Zeppelin – Taken from Houses Of The Holy and in many peoples opinion Zep’s worst song. But I like to be different and this piece of cod reggae is wonderfully irreverent

Wild Wood        Paul Weller – England’s finest living rock star perhaps? Well after Mr Bowie anyway

Stay With Me    Lorraine Ellison – How much emotion can you squeeze into a song, not much more than Lorraine Ellison does in fact. Ignore the David Essex cover of this song at all costs!

Young Americans    David Bowie – What he himself described as plastic soul and one of the songs I can recite the whole lyric of

With Christmas around the corner, this Motown Christmas Collection is perfect for your listening pleasures. It has “Let it Snow” by Boyz II Men, “Santa Claus is Coming 2 Town” by the Jackson 5, “Silent Night” by The Temptations, & many many more. There are also songs from Boyz II Men, The Jackson 5, The Commodores, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Gill, Stevie Wonder, Smokie Robinson, Diana Ross & More. You need this compilation in your collection. Download links available after the pic.

You can check out the full tracklist here: Motown tracklist

Download the double disc compilation here!

Disc 1

Disc 2

Este año se cumplen 25 años de su trágica muerte

MARVIN GAYE

T 54041 (A) – b/w Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop)

May 1961

Written by Berry Gordy

As has already been explained, the reasons for Marvin Gaye having two singles released within five days of each other during the same week in May 1961 were somewhat complicated.

On the one hand, there was the smooth MOR easy listening cover of (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over by clean-cut all-American would-be crooner Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who wanted nothing more than a solid career churning out serviceable renditions of pop standards, enjoying respectable sales and carving out a niche as the new Nat King Cole.

On the other hand, there was this, a doo-wop flavoured, downtempo but unmistakeably R&B ballad, credited (for the first time on record) to “Marvin Gaye”, released less than a week later. Both singles, and their respective B-sides, would feature on Gaye’s debut LP, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, slated for a summer release a couple of weeks down the line.

The dual-handed approach was the result of a battle between Gaye and Motown chief Berry Gordy over the direction young Marvin’s musical career would take. Gaye wanted to sing standards for the rest of his life, Gordy wanted him to ditch the MOR chestnuts and unleash the potential R&B idol he saw beneath the surface. The compromise saw Gordy greenlight an LP of smooth jazz-tinged pop standards, but on the condition Gaye cut a couple of custom-made R&B numbers at the same time. The two singles came about because Gordy wanted to try and get an R&B/pop crossover hit as well as plugging copies of the LP to an older, whiter standards audience. To that end, the easy listening single was virtually a promo for the album, with very few copies pressed for retail, while this single, the R&B one, received all the promotion and attention.

Not that it mattered, because the album and both singles ended up in the bargain bin, all having missed the charts by a country mile, thus proving nothing and answering none of Gaye and Gordy’s questions.

The song is a bit of an odd choice to prove a point. Given that he wanted to show what Marvin Gaye could accomplish if he cut an unstoppable R&B single for the young generation to lap up, you’d expect Gordy to have chosen a smouldering R&B rocker to showcase Gaye’s looks, voice and personality. Instead, he chose a gentle, pedestrian doo-wop number which wasn’t going to turn many teenage heads in the pre-video era no matter how sexy Gaye was. He sings it well, if without much enthusiasm – Gaye had enjoyed a fine early career in doo-wop, including being drafted into a late line-up of the legendary-but-fading Moonglows at the end of the 1950s, and this stuff was clearly bread and butter to him – but to the modern listener this isn’t too far removed from the standards Gaye wanted to be doing in the first place.

It has its moments; Gaye’s voice is the big draw here, instantly recognisable even at this young age, and Marvin Gaye is always interesting, even when he’s not all that interested. The backing vocals are finely crafted, and there’s a silk-smooth R&B organ line running through the entire song which holds the interest for a while. All told, though, it’s not special, and even without knowing the convoluted backstory, it sounds far too much like a man going through the motions; once you know the full facts, it’s very obviously the sound of Marvin Gaye fulfilling a contractual obligation so he can get back to his true dream of ripping through the Irving Berlin songbook.

Giving up on such an obvious talent clearly wasn’t an option, rather luckily for the history of popular music, and so there was no question of Gaye finding himself dropped after the dismal commercial performance of his first solo records; but the question of what kind of solo act he would be was still very much up in the air. Both sides claimed a victory, but to the modern, objective listener, the first round of the match between MOR and R&B for Marvin Gaye’s musical soul ends with honours even. At zero.

Marvin Gay “Witchcraft”	Marvin Gaye “Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop)”

no cat # (B) – B-side of (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over

May 1961

Written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh

The last recording released by Marvin Gaye under the original spelling of his surname, this (like the A-side (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over) was a limited-run promo designed to drum up interest in the album it was lifted from, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, due for release a fortnight later.

Like the A-side, this comes from the “standards” portion of the LP, recorded at a time when Marvin and Motown boss Berry Gordy were at loggerheads over the direction Gay’s career was going to take. Marvin longed to be a lounge singer, crooning ballads for MOR audiences, taking over where Nat King Cole was leaving off. Gordy saw a dynamic, mesmerising R&B star and a teen idol, and believed that Gay was throwing his talent away on hoary old pop chestnuts like this one. The LP – comprised mainly of similar MOR smooth jazz and pop standards – was a compromise, helped in no small part by the fact Gay was dating Gordy’s younger sister Anna, as well as being best friends with Gordy’s brother-in-law Harvey Fuqua.

Unlike the A-side, which was a pure easy listening ballad delivered in Cole’s style, this one pays much more lip service to Gay’s oft-quoted love of jazz; after a jarring, discordant intro, Marvin delivers a shopworn song over a noodling, directionless, somewhat dated smooth jazz backing from a band that clearly wants to push the envelope further than the song will really allow.

The result ends up crashing between two stools; despite its overall tameness, it’s still probably far too raucous for the standards circuit crowd, but it’s nonetheless too conventional for jazz fans to really get into it. Indeed, it’s liberally spattered with almost shockingly-conventional Forties (and even Thirties) big-band moments, fills and touches, as though Gay himself was shouting at the band to calm things down, not get too excited lest they lose their target audience. It doesn’t really work on either level, and as a result, it just frustrates.

A great vocal could perhaps have saved this, but certainly Marvin isn’t anywhere near as good here as he was on the A-side, his ultra-recognisable voice low in the mix, hindered and neutered both by the contortions of the material and the unavoidable Sinatra comparisons.

A disappointment, its inclusion on the B-side was presumably intended to provide contrast with the A-side and showcase the variety of material and, er, moods to be enjoyed if one were to purchase a copy of The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye; instead, it seems to have just confused audiences, because very little press or radio play was garnered by this virtual promo single, and the album sank on release.

Still, if audiences in 1961 were confused by this, they must have been veritably baffled by what happened a mere five days later.

Marvin Gay “(I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over”	Marvin Gaye “Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide”

no cat # (A) – b/w Witchcraft

May 1961

Written by Herb Madgison and Allie Wrubel

No typo. The singer who would go on to international superstardom as Marvin Gaye, racking up million-selling singles and albums for Motown in the Sixties and Seventies, began his Hitsville career as Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., jobbing session drummer and would-be supper-club crooner extraordinaire.

Marvin’s ambitions were decidedly limited when he first pitched up at Motown, or at least they seem that way to modern readers who know what eventually happened. Briefly a member of the Moonglows (the legendary doo-wop group masterminded by future Motown songwriting and production maven Harvey Fuqua, who brought him to Detroit and later sold his contract to Berry Gordy), Marvin wanted to be a pop crooner, a standards singer on the club circuit, somewhere between Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra with just a dash of Billy Eckstine.

Despite his oft-cited supposed love of jazz, Marvin’s earliest Motown solo material is MOR balladry all the way, with hints of swing and big band; if there’s a discernible jazz influence at work here, it’s the very smoothest of smooth jazz, at least ten years behind the curve. No, Marvin’s horizons stretched as far as Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and Hart. He knew what he was doing, and knew what he wanted; at 21, he had the voice and the bravado to carry it off, too, getting himself signed to Motown after buttonholing a bemused Berry Gordy at the company Christmas party and serenading him with an off-the-cuff acapella rendition of Mr Sandman.

Gordy, though, had other plans. No fool when it came to spotting talent (or potential sales), he’d noticed how the female Hitsville staff melted into puddles whenever the dashing Marvin happened to walk by; here, perhaps, was the pop idol he’d been seaching for, but such potential was going to be wasted if Gay was allowed to follow his dream; the days of lounge crooners singing to crowds of screaming teenage girls had already drawn to a close.

Gordy had also no doubt made a mental note that the boy could play the drums, and with no small amount of proficiency; paying the bills by working as a session drummer (including with the Motown house and touring bands), playing with considerable verve and gusto, Gay seemed markedly more at home drumming on rousing R&B and wilder jazz numbers than the pop standards he apparently longed to sing.

To Gordy, the path was clear: Marvin Gay would set the world on fire as a smouldering, moody R&B superstar. To Marvin, the path was equally clear: he had the looks, the voice and the mass appeal to be an easy listening pop sensation, if only Motown would back him.

It sounds like a pivotal moment in the plot of The Motown Story, but in fact it turned out to be an impasse. Neither Gordy nor Gay would back down, and so a compromise was reached. Motown would record an LP featuring Gay tackling numerous old MOR pop standards (no small offer; there had only been a handful of Motown LPs released to date, all of them on established artists with proven fanbases like the Miracles and the Gospel Stars, and so this represented something of a gamble for the wobbling label). In return, Gay would humour Gordy and cut a couple of more R&B-inflected sides for a one-off single, dipping a tentative toe in the waters of the R&B charts where Motown had had their greatest success to date.

The result of this compromise was a curious pair of singles, released almost concurrently. This one was barely released at all, being lifted directly from the proposed standards album and distributed as a promo to try and start a grassroots, word-of-mouth campaign and maybe get some speculative radio play on MOR stations. Meanwhile, the R&B single, Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide / Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop), appeared in stores just days later. During the process of recording the album, Marvin’s surname acquired an extra “e”, and the LP appeared in June 1961 as The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, a hotchpotch work featuring a selection of eight standards and then the three tracks recorded during the sessions for the R&B single tacked onto the end.

If releasing this single at the same time as Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide was supposed to answer some sort of argument about the natural direction for Marvin Gaye’s future career, it didn’t work. Both singles stiffed, the album was a disastrous flop, and nothing was proved either way.

But that’s all for the future. What about this record?

As a single, this isn’t too bad. It’s a real shock to fans of Gaye’s magnificent future work; even if you’ve acclimatised yourself to the idea that he didn’t just spring into existence fully-formed with Hitch Hike and Stubborn Kind Of Fellow a couple of years later, it’s still something of a surprise to hear him in full-on croon mode; Marvin Gaye, purveyor of perfectly serviceable versions of venerable pop chestnuts.

He’s got a fine, fine voice. It’s unmistakeably Marvin Gaye, even in this nascent form, and it’s undeniably better than the material he’s chosen to work with. It’s entirely plausible he could have made a real career out of this sort of thing; close your eyes, you can imagine him giving this his all in an upscale nightclub, mostly older, white guests putting their drinks down on their tables, rapt with their eyes on the stage as their table candles flicker in their red shades. Marvin would be immaculately dressed in a lounge suit, eyes closed as he croons into the mic, catching his breath for a moment after his big finish, thanking the audience with a little smile for the polite applause that feels like it should accompany the end of this.

He could have pulled it off. But he’d have been forgotten by now, I’d wager.

Instead, we get this tentative step along an abortive career path. Previously a local hit in Michigan for Nolan Strong, (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over is notable mainly for the unexpected reference to Pagliacci, the miserable clown (which apparently stuck in young Smokey Robinson’s mind and resurfaced in his songwriting on a couple of occasions in the future, most obviously in The Tears Of A Clown). It’s not a particularly memorable song, but Gaye delivers it with sincere abandon, wholeheartedly earnest in his belief that he’s destined to be the new Nat King Cole. It’s more listenable than you’d expect. More than anything else, it’s long, running for almost five and a quarter minutes, comfortably the longest A-side Motown would release in the 1960s; it feels even longer than that.

As a single, it’s OK. As a historical document, a crossroads, a glimpse into some alternate timeline, it’s fascinating. As a Marvin Gaye record, it’s not exactly one of the classics. But whatever the outcome, he’d laid down a marker as One To Watch. He wouldn’t be dropped despite the lack of commercial success in the early days; Berry Gordy knew there was something there worth building on, and he kept young Marvin on the books, which of course turned out to be one of Gordy’s shrewdest moves in a career not exactly short of inspired decisions.

The Satintones “Angel”	Marvin Gay “Witchcraft”

DJ Roddy Rod (www.humblemonarch.com) has come through again producing the video for SOUL – an organic mix of album covers, video interviews and music, blended as only a seasoned DJ can.

Happy Friday All! Please forgive me for putting the blog up so late. Between the tryptophan hangover, all the cooking, cleaning and shopping I’ve done in the last 72 hours, I am running on fumes, so you can blame Thanksgiving  and Black Friday for that! I dont have much to say about the randomly selected videos I’m posting up today because, well, I’m still not fully functioning right now, lol. Today, I present to you a handful of songs some may have never heard or haven’t heard in a long time, from Boyz II Men, Changing Faces, Chi Ali, MC Breed, Nona Gaye. Just a few notes to add on the artists for today FYI. Changing Faces is making a coming back—don’t know how that come back will go, but they are, lol. Chi Ali is the little brother of Dres from the 90’s rap group “Blacksheep” (who has been featured on a past FF blog), rapper MC Breed (real name Eric Breed) passed away last year at almost this very date (11.22.08) and Nona Gaye is the daughter of the legendary singer Marvin Gaye. So if you didn’t know, now ya know. Please enjoy these songs, comment, vote and suggest. Have a blessed weekend!

*Exits outta the firescape*

Boyz II Men – Please Don’t Go (1993)

Changing Faces – G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T. (1997)

Chi Ali – Age Ain’t Nothin But A Number (1992)

MC Breed -  Ain’t No Future In Yo Frontin’ (1993)

Nona Gaye – The Things That We All Do For Love (1993)

Sexual Healing. La canción más conocida de Marvin Gaye (junto con What’s Going On) lanzada por el mítico sello de música negra Motown. Ben Harper cambia las bases ochenteras (la original fue lanzada en el 82) por un sonido más acústico, eso sí, manteniendo (aumentando en mi opinión) todo el sentimiento que tiene la canción.

Marvin Gaye.

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals. Live at the Hollywood Bowl (DVD indispensable en cualquier colección que se precie). Atentos a tres detalle: el traje de todos (Javi dice que se quiere casar con uno como el de Ben), los coros de Juan Nelson (el bajista para los no iniciados) y en el minuto 3:37, con esta canción de fondo, la conquista es segura.

Buen finde!!

Having introduced this blog by explaining that I intend it to be a place for considered (if more than a little inconsequential) discussion of popular music, it’s a little perverse that I’m about to be disparaging about popular music. However, my target here is not pop music in general, but rather the poor, unimaginative remixes that often pass for it. Whilst in a department store the other day, a particularly odious example of this type of track assaulted my ears. Someone was doing something terrible to Marvin Gaye’s Heard it through the Grapevine. I promptly shazamed it and identified the offending article as a remix by the Freemasons:

Some of you will find the repetitiveness of the track’s intro nauseating enough in itself, and for that I apologise. I actually don’t have a problem with that – I’ve got nothing against dance music per se. Regardless, I would encourage you to listen at least a verse into the track so that you can see what really pisses me off about this. You’ll notice that the four bar repeating pattern that continues into the beginning of the verse is vaguely reflective of the accompaniment in the original recording, a four bar sequence of chords that moved through variations on Eb Minor, Through Bb Minor to Ab and then back to Eb Minor. So far no harm, no foul.

However, when we get to the bridge into the chorus, with the lyrics ‘It took me by surprise, I must say’, you hear that this incessant four bar pattern continues to repeat itself. Nothing has changed. Whereas the original featured a gorgeous modulation into Cm here, introducing a whole different tonality before moving back into more predictable chordal territory for the chorus.

So basically, this remix has trampled over one of the very things that made the original record exciting and pleasurable to listen to. I’m reminded of the Black Eyed Peas Pump It, which crassly takes all the fun out of Misirlou by sampling it under tempo and tethering what was previously a rampant, galloping guitar part to an over-insistent straight 4/4 drum pattern that has all the fluidity of congealed puss. In both cases, I just want to take the people responsible and shake them into catatonia – anything to stop them from ruining any more songs I like.

It’s a particular shame in the case of Heard it through the Grapevine because the moment I’m referring to is one of my favourite examples of ‘word-painting’. I often find word-painting a bit superficial and gimmicky, such as in bars 106-108 of Facade from Wildhorn and Bricusse’s Jekyll and Hyde (about 1:28 here) – it’s a good song, but there’s nothing about that line that’s evocative of ‘boots’ for me. It’s just low, that’s all. But this line in the Marvin Gaye track is an example of it being done really well; the modulation into Cm doesn’t fit the expectation that the two preceeding lines have set up – musically it is, in itself, a ’surprise’, just as the lyrics say. And that Cm has all the wistfulness of what-could-have-been in it. Stephen Sondheim does a similar thing with exactly the same word in the second line of Good Thing Going. It is such a crying shame to lose it. Cover versions and remixes are fine, I don’t have a problem with them in principle at all. I prefer Norman Cook’s remix of Brimful of Asha by Cornershop to the original, and I can think of several different cover versions of Live and Let Die by Wings that I really enjoy for different reasons. Basically, I love it when a cover version or remix of a song gives you a fresh perspective on it. I hate it when it just pisses all over it.

P.S. Incidentally, one of my favourite bits of word-painting is in Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror. I’m thinking of the moment (around 2:52 in this video) when the word ‘change’ falls on a key change. So simple. So bloody wonderful.

Being a ‘new man’, one unafraid to watch The Restaurant or listen to Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing because I like it rather than because I want to persuade a woman to have sex with me, it should come as no surprise to you that I occasionally partake in a spot of Pilates.

Yes, we stick on the DVD Jade got off Amazon and clear the furniture out of the way. She’s Australian, Pilates woman is, and she has incredibly pert breasts. I cannot confirm whether this is because of Pilates or not, but she’s ugly so I can’t really be bothered to look into it. But yes, girls out there, there is the possibility that Pilates will give you pert breasts.

We lie down and she tells us to activate our fingers. I’m not sure what this is but I gamely try to activate them as best I can by sort of tensing a bit. It doesn’t seem to do much other than making me go red and is not conducive to the breathing exercises she has got us doing.

Oh yes, Pilates is a very breathy sport.

So we’re tensing and breathing and activating and she runs us through a series of toning tasks. There’s the crab and the lotus and all sorts of things, all of them designed to exert the maximum amount of pain.

Me and Jade in the crab screaming in pain and breathing heavily as the Australian woman tells us to take it deeper and rotate. What must the neighbours think? I’ve had nightmares about knocks at the door.

“Where’s the Australian dominatrix” My trembling finger points to the DVD.

My hamstrings are not supple. They are tight. Like concrete. My toes are on the horizon, unattainable. And Australian woman is not happy. She throws her legs out and tells me to follow. I can’t. I’m weeping as they tear. She tells me to go deeper. I hear them stretch and pop and rip.

And relax, she says, mocking me.

I crumple.

But no time to crumple. She is sat upright, her legs out before her. Finally. She says. Grab your ankles. So we’re sat upright holding our ankles swaying as the balance tries to find us. She looks at us. Hmmm. Extend out the right leg. Extend out the left leg. She’s still sat upright and her legs are by her ears. FUCK OFF. That’s not possible. She looks like an upturned stool. Her arse must be flat. How else is it possible? I’m swaying backwards with my legs at 30 degrees and behind me Jade screams as her legs hit 65 degrees.

Australian lady smirks. And her breasts sit like two monuments.

“Boob job” says Jade.

Yeah, bitch, I say.

We put the DVD away and spend the next two days hobbling around feeling inadequate.

And what is more manly than hobbling around feeling inadequate?

Pilates, my male friends, will reaffirm your masculinity, give licence to it. Get yourself a DVD. Push away the furniture. Make your hamstrings burn and your stomach muscles explode. Let the bitch bully you. You will never feel more like a man.

And here we come to an end of the 1970s in the Any Major Soul series. There are two mixes covering ’80s soul HERE and HERE. Still, the years 1980/81 and possibly 1982/83 were good enough to yield any major mixes; I’ve not thought about later years.

It’s tempting to dismiss the soul music produced in the disco era. I think this mix shows that it was still a golden era for soul, if not of quite the incredible standards a few years earlier when there was the happy confluence of the influences exerted by the likes of Philly, Motown, Hi, Muscle Shoals, Atlantic, and the Chicago scene.

If I was asked which of these tracks in this mix I’d take with me to a desert island, I would be hard pressed to choose between Bill Withers’ Love Is and Minnie Riperton’s Never Existed Before. I think the latter would win. Released after her death from cancer, Minnie’s vocals are equally cute and sexy (nobody has done cute and sexy as well as Minnie did). It’s not the best-known track from the Minnie LP, but it is my favourite Riperton song.

Several of the songs here are touched by disco golddust. The Gary Toms Empire are perhaps more disco than soul. Former Motown writers Ashford & Simpson certainly were in their disco groove, and You Know How To Love Me by Phyllis Hyman (another wonderful soul singer who died too young, in 1995, the same year Bobby DeBarge, featured in the bonus tracks, died) is the sort of mid-tempo song one can dance or chill to.

Cheryl Lynn is better remembered for one of the great dance tracks, Got To Be Real. The track featured here, You’re The One, comes from the same eponymous 1978 album, one of the few ballads on the LP on which the 21-year-old Lynn delivered a fine, octave-traversing vocal performance. Signed by CBS on strength of her winning performance on the TV talent programme The Gong Show, Cheryl Lynn was a prodigious session singer too. It’s her soaring voice on Toto’s excellent Georgy Porgy, and she also backed Lenny Williams, whom we encounter in the bonus tracks.

Peabo Bryson does not have a good reputation among soul fans (with that name, it’s surprising he ever enjoyed any credibility), while Natalie Cole’s soul credentials have taken a knock with her endeavours to become her father. Don’t let such perceptions worry you as you hear their excellent jazzy cover of Bobby Caldwell’s What You Won’t Do For Love.

Jean Carn (later rendered as Carne, for “numerological” reasons) sang with Duke Ellington’s orchestra just before his death. Through her stint as a regular on US TV shows she was picked up by Gamble & Huff for their Philadelphia International Records label.

The Jones Girls also found success with Gamble & Huff, via two soul legends. The Chicago sisters were first mentored by Curtis Mayfield, through whom they got to work with Aretha Franklin. It was as a support act for Diana Ross that the Jones Girls — Shirley, Brenda and Valerie — came to Gamble & Huff’s attention. Besides releasing their own albums, they also provided backing vocals for the PIR roster.

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson was cited by Jimi Hendrix as a major influence. He might also have been nicknamed “Organ”, for he played keyboard for Herb Alpert during the 1960s, reuniting with Alpert for his 1979 hit Rise [EDIT: Apparently he didn't. See comments]. Before that, the man known as “Elvis’ private guitar player” had toured with Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Here he gets seriously funky, providing one of the few instances of snoring released on vinyl. Another legend, Wilson Pickett, made a brief comeback fusing the funk with old school soul, creating a sound which Tom Jones has tried to emulate for years, but never coming near his ambition.

The “Pops” in the title of the penultimate track is, of course, Berry Gordy, paid tribute here by four of the greatest stars in music history. I’d not have included it was it not for this year being Motown’s 50th birthday.

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TRACKLISTING
1. Gary Toms Empire – Welcome To Harlem
2. Ashford & Simpson – It Seems To Hang On
3. Jean Carn – Don’t Let It Get To Your Head
4. Bill Withers – Love Is
5. Rufus and Chaka Khan – Stay
6. Cheryl Lynn - You’re The One
7. Denise LaSalle - A Miracle You And Me
8. Neville Brothers - Washable Ink
9. Minnie Riperton - Never Existed Before
10. Natalie Cole & Peabo Bryson – What You Won’t Do For Love
11. Phyllis Hyman – You Know How To Love Me
12. The Jones Girls – You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else
13. Johnny Guitar Watson – It’s A Damn Shame
14. Wilson Pickett – Lay Me Like You Hate Me
15. The Whispers - Let’s Go All The Way
16. D Ross, M Gaye, S Robinson, S Wonder – Pops, We Love You
17. Roberta Flack – And The Feeling’s Good

DOWNLOAD

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At one point I thought of making this a two-part mix, because a bunch of longer numbers would fit on the mix, which I have kept, as always, to standard CD-R length. Instead, here are a few bonus tracks.

These include Betty Wright’s live recording of the song about losing her virginity, Lenny William’s fantastically overwrought lament of lost love (“…and then I played my records till I didn’t want to hear them no more), Mtume’s The Closer I Get To You which was a hit for Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack written by James Mtume and Reggie Lucas, the O’Jay’s tribute to a dog, Kandidate’s proto ’80s soul sound, a track by Motown artists Switch who included two older DeBarge brothers, and more.

Lenny Williams – Because I Love You.mp3
Heatwave – Mind Blowing Decisions.mp3
Betty Wright – Tonight Is The Night.mp3
Ray Goodman Brown – Inside Of You.mp3
Brenda Russell – So Good, So Right.mp3
Switch – I Call Your Name.mp3
Mtume – The Closer I Get To You.mp3
The O‘Jays – Brandy.mp3
Kandidate – I Don’t Wanna Lose You.mp3
Rick James – You And I.mp3

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More ’70s Soul
More Mixes

I’ve been watching High Fidelity today.

(Quick summary for those who haven’t seen it, lifted straight from wiki because I’m lazy… The plot of High Fidelity centers on Rob Gordon (John Cusack), a self-confessed audiophile whose flair for understanding women is less than par for the course. After getting dumped by his current girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), he decides to look up some of his old flames in an attempt to figure out what he keeps doing wrong in his relationships.

He spends his days at his record store, Championship Vinyl, where he holds court over the customers that drift through. Helping Rob in his task of musical elitism are Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black), the “musical moron twins,” as he refers to them. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical, they compile “top five” lists for every conceivable occasion, openly mock the ignorance of their customers, and, every so often, actually sell a few records.)

While I’m not really a John Cusack fan, and the brief yet irritating appearances of Catherine Zeta Jones do nothing for me, I still really enjoy this movie and it’s because of all the record store scenes. I love the mockery and open hostility that Barry (Jack Black) displays towards their customers and how he refuses to sell records to those he deems unworthy. It’s mean and elitist but also bloody hilarious.

While I like the whole movie, the part I’m always hanging out for when I watch it is the record launch at the end, an event that Barry and his new band muscle in on, despite Rob begging them not to participate, fearing that they’ll be awful and everyone will leave. Barry turns up looking all snappy in a suit and they immediately launch into a great cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ and blow the crowd away. It’s a fantastic scene.

Let’s Get It On (Marvin Gaye Cover) – Jack Black

Let’s Get It On (Live) – Marvin Gaye

Marc Riley’s Musical Time Machine.

Classic interviews with Iggy Pop and Marvin Gaye.

Episode 3

Shuko & The Gunna release this the instrumental for their mixtape Brooklyn Soul. The mixtape actually camed out a while ago, back when the whole American Gangster acapellas first hit the scene as a retail CD. We decided with such a wonderful release we would also re-up the mixtape itself. So download and enjoy on both ends.

DOWNLOAD: Shuko & The Gunna: Brooklyn Soul Mixtape
DOWNLOAD: Shuko & The Gunna: Brooklyn Soul Instrumentals