The crowned Prince of Soul, Marvin Gaye. This Anthology spans a decade of his music. Gaye's Motown career started after the dissolution of the New Moonglows. He started out as the janitor and session drummer for the label. Eventually he worked up the ranks to become a recording artist. As part of the Motown Hit machine Marvin recorded many big numbers that would go on to be covered by some of music's biggest acts. By 1970 his singing partner, Tammi Terrell, died of a brain tumor, resulting in Marvin's spiralled descent into depression, he vowed to stay away from the music business, even going as far as trying out for the Detroit Lions. Just when it looked like it was over, Motown label-mates, the Four Tops, approached Gaye with a new song they needed his help on, called
What's Going On. Inspired by letters from his brother, about being in the Vietnam war, the Four Tops project was starting to look more like a new Marvin Gaye album, about war, poverty and social change, which was to become his greatest artistic achievement.
Now the Anthology itself, this is a back to back Motown masterpiece, there isn't a hint, or even a flutter of bad music on this three record set. My only real complaint is the last side, side six, it features four What's Going On numbers and two Trouble Man tunes, which is a soundtrack for a blaxsploitation movie. What makes the side so uneven is that the songs from What's Going On, which is a concept album using song cycles that weaves all the numbers together making it a whole instead of separate entities, they break the cycle apart and play songs that are taken out of their context.
Marvin Gaye went on to record for another decade making some hits and some duds. His personal strife against his father never left him, giving the artist anxiety and bouts of stage fright, no matter how much he tried to escape, his father was always there to break him down. In Marvin's last moments he was shot, point blank, by his father and deemed dead on arrival once the ambulance reached the hospital. It was later discovered that Gaye's father was suffering from a brain tumor, that was clouding his perception of reality and judgement. Marvin was one of the greatest artists of all-time, he grew up hard, crawling his way to the top with brilliance, charisma and charm!
