Opinions On Eveything

Yesterday I went and picked up this great new DVD collection of Marvin Gaye in performance. This is the first in what should be a series of like minded DVDs for Motown artists. It's only fitting that the first DVD would feature the Prince of Soul Marvin Gaye.

Marvin was never comfortable performing in front of an audience and wasn't much of a dancer either but despite these knocks against his live performing he was still able to exude charm and captivate an audience.

The DVD features fully remastered mixes of his lip-synched performances that really makes the aural experience much better.

Here are the track listings and my thoughts on a couple of them:

1. Hitch Hike (Filmed In 1964)

2. Pride And Joy (Filmed In 1965)
3. Can I Get A Witness (Filmed In 1965)
4. Pretty Little Baby (Filmed In 1965)
5. Ain’t That Peculiar (Filmed In 1965)
6. You’re A Wonderful One (Filmed In 1965)
7. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (with Tammi Terrell) (Filmed In 1967)
8. I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1969) (Filmed In 1969)
9. What’s Going On (Filmed In 1972)
10. What’s Happening Brother (Filmed In 1972)
11. Come Get To This (Filmed In 1981)
12. Let’s Get It On (Filmed In 1981)
13. Distant Lover (Filmed In 1979)
14. A Funky Space Reincarnation (Filmed In 1979)
15. Ego Tripping Out (Filmed In 1979)
16. Heavy Love Affair (Filmed In 1981)

The "I Heard it through the Grapevine" performance is the first non lip synched song and it's just amazing. I've only seen snippets of this performance so I had no idea how great it was. Marvin sang the song on a sparse arrangement that was heavily piano based. You could feel the pain in his voice as he sang the song and the piano playing was VERY jazz influenced. In fact the sound of this arrangement is very much in the vein of what would become What's Going On. At the end of the song Marvin gets into an ad lib session where Marvin sounds like a jazz man in his element.

"What's Going On" and "What's Happening Brother" are from the long lost Save the Children film that was backed by the Rainbow-PUSH coalition headed up by Jesse Jackson. Again i've only seen snippets of that performance. This performance was seminal Marvin Gaye. The bongo heavy arrangement with Marvin on piano is just out of this world. At about the halfway point of the song Marvin decides to turn it into a jazz jam session. Marvin was more of a two fisted piano player but when he's on top of his game his piano playing is superb.

So at this point in the song Marvin gets more into a scat rythm with his singing that's very intereting. Now on the original album "What's going on" bridges to "what's happening brother" and Marvin does this in the live performance. As they bridge to the latter song everything is cut out except the bongos and the piano. Marvin sings the last part of the song and he sounds incredibly heavenly as if the spirit of God has taken over. When I heard that I immediately got chills up and down my back. It's very hard to explain but for that short instant in time I was taken away and wrapped up in Marvin's piano playing. So if anyone had doubts that What's Going On was a divine album then watch this performance. It's easily the best on the disc.

Did you know Marvin did a music video? It's true!

Apparently it was a "promotional film" of the song "A funky space reincarnation" from the neglected (at the time) Hear My Dear album. Marvin looks like he was hanging out with Isaac Hayes and George Clinton! The set was elaborate and eye candy was used a bit as well. All of that would become a staple of music videos in the 80s. So I guess Marvin was ahead of his time....again

The last two performances on the disc are from his last sessions at Motown. Interestingly tho these lip synched performances are the most animated out of all of marvin's performances on the disc.

On "ego tripping out" Marvin actually looks like he's having fun singing about his ego and the redemption of himself as he's dancing and grooving to the beat. As I said earlier he was never a great dancer and at times he looks like a chuck and jive type of performer but that's not such a bad thing with the song he was performing in that clip.

The DVD includes interview clips interspersed with the performances. Most of which comes from various Dinah Shore shows. The last couple clips really made me feel sorry as Marvin looked really beat up. Marvin was a talent that was never meant to last a full lifetime. He took on so much emotional, mental and physical abuse in his life that's it's amazing that he lasted as long as he did.

The interview clips are interesting tho and I had a good belly laugh at one clip where he, Dinah Shore and a couple other ppl are talking about Hear My Dear and Sally Struthers blurts out "you wrote that!?" and Dinah had to explain that Marvin basically did everything on that album. You could see that Dinah was slightly annoyed at Struthers' stupidity.

Last but not least 7 performances are included in a cappella form where you hear Marvin recording his 60s hits. It's very interesting to hear marvin singing without the music backing him up. You really get a sense of how amazing his voice was and how he could change his vocal range within a song.

Overall this DVD is highly recommended for Marvin Gaye fans and for anyone wanting to see a master on stage.