Project 1001: Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
As the opening title track of Let’s Get It On starts, what comes to mind? Close your eyes and imagine. For me, and I suspect lots of others, I think about someone with whom I had a wonderful and close relationship (no names mentioned) and the raw chemistry we had. This brightens one’s mood and urges one to get busy with a significant other. How can it not? Most of the album continues the sensual theme with various passionate and emotional declarations and laments of love. This might just be the ultimate chill and make out record of all time. Simply put, Let’s Get It On is “a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy.”1
“After the furrow-browed social commentary of What’s Going On, Marv was telling his listeners to get back to the more basic business of, “sex between consenting anybodies.”2 Taken as a connected pair, What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On tell us that while it is important to be aware of the bigger things going on around you and to take action on what you believe is right, life isn’t just about that. We have to remember to take care of the most basic aspects of life, like love and sex, in order to have a balanced and full life.
My Rating:
Gaye’s songwriting could conquer the charts as well as mine the depths of his heart, a combination that created many of the enduring classics of his era including "Let's Get It On" among others.3
The title track features Gaye's “best singing at its center, fine background voices on the side, and a long, moody fade-out that challenges you not to play the cut again.” On the rest of the record Gaye uses his voice (in both lead and background) to create a surreal and dreamlike quality.4
From a BBC review:
Like his later Sexual Healing, this album’s title track – his biggest US hit of all – is the very essence of Marvin Gaye as the sensualist, ruminating on his basic desire for pleasure. However, his spirituality is never far away, and the act of love is turned into something sacred, culminating in his rasp to feel sanctified on its fade out.
Gaye is in supreme command of his material. His voice is as sweet as ever and, on Distant Lover, he revisits his doo-wop vocal group roots, creating a unique mood. Even on the most explicit of the sex songs, You Sure Love to Ball, there is depth and sincerity. But this is, of course, so much more than an album about simple lust. The rapture is undermined by the last track, the fatalistic Just to Keep You Satisfied, written about his stormy marriage to Anna Gordy. You get a sense, no matter how breath-taken you are in the heat of the moment, that all the optimism and joy could go awry.
Let’s Get It On is an iconic, rapturous work, but one very much laced with Gaye’s doubt and uncertainty. That said, many will be too busy basking in the glorious mood that the album creates to notice any dissent whatsoever.5
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, John Doran wrote:
“But, like good sex, the album was playful, inventive, sumptuous, and surprising; qualities that other albums have aped since, but not ever come close to surpassing.”6
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 210. Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
If you’re new here, welcome! Please consider subscribing and sharing with friends.
For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #27
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart:
> “Let’s Get It On”, #1 (two weeks)
> “Come Get To This”, #21
> “You Sure Love To Ball”, #50
> “Distant Lover”, #288
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released on August 28, 1973. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Brother Louie” by The Stories9
• Number one album: Chicago VI by Chicago10
• Number one movie: Paper Moon by Peter Bogdanovich11
• Most watched TV programs: All in the Family, The Waltons, Sanford and Son, M*A*S*H, Hawaii Five-O, Maude, Kojak, Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Mary Tyler Moore, Cannon, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bob Newhart Show, Wonderful World of Disney, Gunsmoke, NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, Happy Days, Good Times, Barnaby Jones, Monday Night Football12
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut13
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort14
Some other albums released that month
• Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack
• Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
• 3 + 3 by The Isley Brothers
• Pressure Cookin' by Labelle
• (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Body Talk by George Benson
• Goats Head Soup by The Rolling Stones
• Legend by Henry Cow
• Moontan by Golden Earring
• Bio by Chuck Berry
• Brothers and Sisters by The Allman Brothers Band
• Chi-Lites by The Chi-Lites
• Deliver the Word by War
• Hard Nose the Highway by Van Morrison
• No Sweat by Blood, Sweat & Tears
• Yeah! by Brownsville Station15
Sport
• Aug 6 Roberto Clemente, Warren Spahn, Billy Evans, Monte Irvin, Mickey Welch and George "High Pockets" Kelly are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.
• Aug 12 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Canterbury GC: Jack Nicklaus wins 3rd of 5 PGA C'ships by 4 from Bruce Crampton of Australia.
• Aug 17 Mets first baseman Willie Mays hits 660th & last career home run. off Don Gullett of Cincinnati Reds.
• Aug 18 Hank Aaron's record 1,378 extra base hit surpasses Stan Musial record.16
Notable Births
• Aug 21 Sergey Brin, Russian-born American computer scientist and businessman (co-founded Google with Larry Page), born in Moscow, Soviet Union.
• Aug 22 Kristen Wiig, American comedian and actress (Saturday Night Live, Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters), born in Canandaigua, New York.
• Aug 24 Dave Chappelle, American actor and comedian (Chappelle's Show), born in Washington, D.C.17
Historical Events
• Aug 11 The birth of hip-hop: DJ Kool Herc uses two turntables, playing the same record simultaneously to create the “merry-go-round” technique, at a party in the Bronx.
• Aug 18 Drummer Gene Krupa plays for the final time, appearing with the Benny Goodman Quartet in Saratoga Springs, New York.
• Aug 28 6.8 quake centered in Oaxaca State in Mexico kills 527.18
Notable Deaths
• Aug 17 Conrad Aiken, American poet (Pulitzer Prize, US Poet Laureate 1950-52), dies at 74.
• Aug 17 Paul Williams, American baritone singer and choreographer (The Temptations - "Cloud Nine"), commits suicide at 32.
• Aug 31 John Ford, American director (Stagecoach, Air Mail, Quiet Man), dies at 78.19
Doran, John, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 295.
Doran.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Very nice piece, Rich. Marvin was truly one of a kind.