Marvin Gaye in 1972: A $1 Million Deal, Ed Townsend and a Preacher's Guilt

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In the spring of 1972 Marvin Gaye signed a $1 million contract that made him the highest-paid soul artist in the world, yet he was stuck with writer's block. Motown was moving from Detroit to Los Angeles, a move he resisted, and he was separating from his wife Anna Gordy, the sister of label founder Berry Gordy. Underneath it all was his upbringing in Washington, D.C., under a strict preacher father who beat him and a doctrine that framed physical desire as sin, leaving him with guilt, nightmares and fear of intimacy.

Gaye turned to African traditional religions and Eastern philosophy, began wearing a kufi, and came to see physical love as a metaphor for divine love. Songwriter Ed Townsend pushed him to turn a political song about recovery into one about romance, and brought Janis Hunter to the studio, where Gaye became fixated on her. The record that came out of these sessions in August 1973 abandoned the three-minute Motown single for suite-like tracks and multitracked vocals, and became his best-selling Motown album, charting for more than a year.

Gaye reworked a song his wife Anna had co-written about lasting love into a slow, bitter account of their failing marriage.
He stacked his own voice in layers so the record sounds like an internal conversation.
Motown executives expected the slow, explicit material to fail commercially.
The episode traces the slow jam and Quiet Storm radio formats back to this record.
Its success gave Gaye more creative control but fixed him in public as a sex symbol, the very thing his upbringing had taught him to fear.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Nov 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Nov 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Nov 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Nov 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Nov 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Nov 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Nov 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Nov 21min