<Archive Obituary> Marvin Gaye (April 1st 1984)
Bill Schenley
Photo:
http://www.nndb.com/people/207/000022141/MARVIN_GAYE_SM.jpg
FROM: The Washington Post (April 2nd 1984) ~
By Richard Harrington
He was Mr. Midnight, and before that, for so many years,
he was the Prince of Motown.
Marvin Gaye, born in Washington, D.C., 45 years ago
today, died yesterday in Los Angeles after he was shot.
His father, the Rev. Marvin Gaye Sr., was booked for
investigation of murder.
It was the final chapter in a life as full of depressing
valleys as it was of creative peaks. What will remain,
of course, are the songs Marvin Gaye sang so beautifully
over the past 20 years, from his first R&B hit in 1962,
"Stubborn Kind of Fellow," to his 1982 comeback smash,
"Sexual Healing." In that period, Gaye established himself
as one of the most influential figures in contemporary pop
music, along with his Motown labelmates Stevie Wonder
and Smokey Robinson.
He was an elegant man, his fine, warm features often cast
in mysterious yet enveloping smiles that covered up the
most intense personal pains: two bitter divorces,
bankruptcy, creative blocks, several years without a
record label and four long years of self-imposed exile in
Europe.
Gaye's blockbuster "Midnight Love" album, which won
him two Grammys last year, reestablished him artistically
and commercially, and set him once again in the forefront
of black and pop music. Last year "I Heard It Through the
Grapevine," one of Gaye's classic Motown anthems,
served as the theme song for "The Big Chill" and was as
big a hit then as it had been 15 years before.
He was an enigmatic personality who never felt
comfortable on stage despite many years on the road. He
stayed off that road for years at a time (his 1983 show at
the Capital Centre marked his first tour in five years), yet
whenever he returned, his fans were waiting.
"I'm not especially an entertainer," he once explained. "I'm
an artist and an entertainer, but the two are completely
different. With one I'm extremely happy and joyful and at
peace, and with the other I'm frankly out of my element.
Although I do it okay, I do it nicely and everything, it's
not where I get my biggest kick."
Gaye preferred the intimacy and control of the recording
studio to explore his lifelong obsessions: sexuality,
spirituality and social justice. Like Al Green, another
performer who moved from being a sanctified singer to
become a soul superstar, Gaye never resolved those
tensions, yet somehow thrived on their existence.
What carried Gaye through--and what carried us along
with him--was a cool, confident voice that was cozy and
friendly when it sought to engage our hearts, urgent and
demanding when it sought to engage our minds. Always
it was sincere, a wrenched heart resting in a bed of pathos.
That was undoubtedly a carryover from Gaye's first
singing experience in the Washington church where his
father served as a minister. The rich imprint of gospel, first
evident in the solos of a 5-year-old Marvin Gaye, would
loom large in his life. His first musical training came on the
organ at his father's church.
"I think music is God," Gaye once said. "It's one of the
closest linkups with God we can possibly experience. I think
it's a common vibrating tone of musical notes that holds all
life together."
He went on to sing in the choir, to sing at Randall Junior
High and Cardozo High School and, with his first group,
the Marquees, at the dances and parties that were so much
a part of Washington's culture. When Gaye left school, he
served in the Air Force and then joined a singing group
called the Moonglows, and probably would have
established himself as either a group singer or a drummer
(he spent two years backing the Miracles) had not Berry
Gordy Jr. of Motown heard him singing informally at a 1962
party in Detroit.
Within a year, Marvin Gaye had his first hit.
People grew up to the string of classic records Gaye made
for Motown between 1962 and 1973. He was the Prince, as
much the symbol of Motown as Diana Ross or Robinson or
Wonder. A master of both the romantic and earthy ballad
form, he was certainly Motown's grittiest male singer, and
its first independent spirit.
His songs included "Hitch Hike," "Try It Baby," "How
Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You," "I'll Be Doggone,"
"Ain't That Peculiar," "One More Heartache," "Chained."
He teamed up with Mary Wells for "Can I Get a Witness,"
and to even greater effect with Tammi Terrell on "Ain't No
Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real
Thing." There were also his political themes, such as
"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" and "Mercy
Mercy Me (The Ecology)."
Gaye's records reflected the evolution of Motown, from
the straightforward R&B of "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"
to the sophisticated "Grapevine" to his epochal 1971
concept album, "What's Going On," a song cycle of social
and political importance marked by a harsh, haunting
beauty. An ambitious personal statement about urban
decay, ecology, the Vietnam war and spiritual
impoverishment, it was the first Motown album shaped
away from the hit production line, with the songs more
expansive both lyrically and musically (and inspiring
similar albums by Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and others).
It also marked two other firsts: The use of the names of
Motown's previously anonymous session musicians and
the printing of lyrics to the songs. "What's Going On"
and the follow-up album, "Trouble Man," established
Gaye as much more than a hitmaker, marking him as a
major songwriter and artist.
Unfortunately, he never followed up the sociopolitical
explorations of those albums, opting instead for what
many consider the definitive collection of explicitly
sensual music, "Let's Get It On." From that time on,
almost all Gaye's albums dealt, often quite frankly, with
personal relationships.
The tragedies that haunted Marvin Gaye's life began in
1967, when Tammi Terrell collapsed in his arms during a
concert performance after a brain hemorrhage. When she
died three years later, a despondent Gaye abandoned both
concerts and recordings until the release of "What's
Going On."
Gaye's first marriage, to Anna Gordy, sister of the Motown
founder and 15 years older than he, ended in divorce. The
pain and the massive finality of a $600,000 divorce
settlement provided the public gist of three of Gaye's
Motown albums--"Here My Dear," "I Want You" and "In
Our Lifetime."
In 1981 the federal government hit Gaye with a $2 million
bill for unpaid back taxes, and a second marriage, to Janis
Hunter, also ended in divorce when she left Gaye for
another sex symbol, singer Teddy Pendergrass. There
was also a suicide attempt in Hawaii, when Gaye said he
ingested an ounce of pure cocaine. At that time, he had
been reduced to living in a converted bread truck.
Ironically, Gaye served as an inspiration for Elaine
Jesmer's thinly veiled music biz novel, "Number One
With a Bullet."
Gaye left Motown in 1981 under a cloud of divorce,
bankruptcy and creative differences and in 1982 signed
with CBS when that company agreed to help him with his
financial difficulties. "Midnight Love" mixed the old
sensual ballad style with the new synthesized funk, with
Gaye playing most of the instruments himself, which is
something he never did on stage.
"I think anything I do is done out of my lust for life,"
Gaye once said, "my curiosity and my dedication as an
artist. I should live to the depths of depravity and I shall
rise to the heights of spirituality. There is no other way I
could became a fine artist.
"I was born to do what I do and I understand that and I take
things as they come. Many times it's difficult, but I do all
right."
Soon after, on "In Our Lifetime," he sang these lines:
"There are pitfalls in life/ We accept the pleasure/ We
accept the pain." Yesterday, they both ended for Marvin
Gaye.
---
Photo (at Carnegie Hall):
http://www.rockstore.net/Merchant/graphics/00000001/R.253%20MARVIN%20GAYE%2074.jpg
(w/Tammi Terrell):
http://classic.motown.com/images/local/umgartists/2263d386-67ab-4285-a7b6-2abbfc3ed954.jpg
(Marvin Gaye Sr.):
Mk40
"Bill Schenley" <stra...@ma.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Qu63e.249$gz3...@fe1.columbus.rr.com...
>
> Marvin Gaye, born in Washington, D.C., 45 years ago
> today, died yesterday in Los Angeles after he was shot.
> His father, the Rev. Marvin Gaye Sr., was booked for
> investigation of murder.
>
isn't since it was 21 years ago. And as I remember he did not go to
jail for the shooting.
Kathi
died in October of 1998.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Pentz_Gay%2C_Sr.
The Reverend Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr. (October 1, 1914 - October 10,
1998) was an African-American minister; a fundamentalist minister of
the Seventh Day Adventists and later a spin-off sect called the House
of God, and the father and murderer of famous Motown performer Marvin
Pentz Gay, Jr., later known as Marvin Gaye.
The father and son were said not to have gotten along. Gaye, Jr. was
said to have resented his father because he was a closeted
crossdresser. Gay, Sr. was displeased with his son's secular music and
lifestyle, and arguments between the two were regular and frequent.
Gay, Sr. shot his son twice in the chest and killed him during an
argument at the Gays' Los Angeles, California home on April 1, 1984.
He served five years probation for the filicide, after pleading no
contest to voluntary manslaughter, and was sent to a rest home for the
remainder of his life. He died of pneumonia in Culver City,
California, at the age of 84, in 1998.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/200833.stm
http://yahoo.eonline.com/News/Items/0%2C1%2C3811%2C00.html?yhnws
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Liz W
"Kathi" <kath...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:s63q41p1q6i524t3n...@4ax.com...
> Nope, Marvin Gay, Sr. (original family name spelling, without the 'e')
> died in October of 1998.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Pentz_Gay%2C_Sr.
> The Reverend Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr. (October 1, 1914 - October 10,
> 1998) was an African-American minister; a fundamentalist minister of
> the Seventh Day Adventists and later a spin-off sect called the House
> of God, and the father and murderer of famous Motown performer Marvin
> Pentz Gay, Jr., later known as Marvin Gaye.
>
> The father and son were said not to have gotten along. Gaye, Jr. was
> said to have resented his father because he was a closeted
> crossdresser. Gay, Sr. was displeased with his son's secular music and
> lifestyle, and arguments between the two were regular and frequent.
>
> Gay, Sr. shot his son twice in the chest and killed him during an
> argument at the Gays' Los Angeles, California home on April 1, 1984.
> He served five years probation for the filicide, after pleading no
> contest to voluntary manslaughter, and was sent to a rest home for the
> remainder of his life. He died of pneumonia in Culver City,
> California, at the age of 84, in 1998.
>
Kathi
>Wasn't Gaye's father diagnosed with a brain tumour?
Of that, I don't know. I found a very interesting article though. I
read only the first page, but if I had more time, I would like to read
it all.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious%5Fmurders/celebrity/marvin%5Fgaye/
Liz W
> On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:28:14 GMT, "Liz W" <are...@nabisco.com> wrote:
>
>>Wasn't Gaye's father diagnosed with a brain tumour?
>
> Of that, I don't know. I found a very interesting article though. I
> read only the first page, but if I had more time, I would like to read
> it all.
>
> http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious%5Fmurders/celebrity/marvin%5Fgaye/
>