0538. Marvin Gaye
Here, My Dear
At first I don't really know what to say about this.
Cause this is no Let's Get It On
(more like its antithesis) or What's Going On?
(even though that question pops up a couple of times
when listening).
This is fourteen voyeristic soul songs spread over
four vinyl sides and it's almost all about Marvin and
Anna.
Anna in this case being ex-wife Anna Gordy, to whom half of the proceeds from Here, My Dear went as it was the only way Marvin could pay the alimony he owed. And this is no Rumours - there's just Marvin's side and no input from "The Other One" (who, when she finally heard the album, she got so upset she almost took it to court).
The sound is actually kind of flawed but grows on me
as the album progresses, but still, the majority of
the songs feel a bit off (mostly, I guess, due to a
annoying synth that keeps appearing in the background,
a reason to listen to it on crappy loudspeakers as
they might blur the sound a bit).
Not so with You Can Leave, But It's Going To Cost You,
the slightly more funk flavoured retelling of just
about the whole court case as well as incidents
leading up to it.
Intending it to be a flop (spiteful, much?), but apparently being overcome by emotion Gaye made an album that is in part hard to listen to and in part a very interesting study of one side of a divorce (ironically it seems the recording of Here, My Dear contributed to the break-up between Marvin and his second wife Janis - who he'd left Anna for).
