WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.700 You know, when you just sort of look at a vinyl 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:04.960 record, it looks like this perfectly smooth, 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.919 flat piece of black plastic. Yeah, completely 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:10.779 uniform to the naked eye. Right. It's elegant. 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:13.599 But when you actually drop the needle into those 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.140 grooves, what you are really hearing is friction. 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:19.000 Oh, absolutely. You're hearing a diamond violently 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.420 dragging through this like jagged microscopic 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.199 canyon just to produce the sound. And the beauty 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.420 is literally created by that tension. I mean 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:31.300 without that drag, without that intense physical 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:33.820 friction, there is no music at all. Exactly. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.140 And I don't think there is a better way to describe 00:00:36.140 --> 00:00:38.960 the landscape we are stepping into today. So 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.979 welcome to today's deep dive. We are looking 00:00:40.979 --> 00:00:43.820 at the life, the music and the incredibly complex 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:46.740 legacy of the Prince of Seoul, Marvin Gaye. It 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:48.859 really is a massive topic. It is. And we've got 00:00:48.859 --> 00:00:51.240 a comprehensive stack of biographical material 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.979 to pull from today. These are detailed Wikipedia 00:00:53.979 --> 00:00:56.520 excerpts covering everything from, well, his 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:58.799 childhood in a Washington, D .C. public housing 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:01.939 project, all the way to his tragic death and 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:05.359 his posthumous impact. And it's a life story 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.000 that completely defies every simple categorization 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.579 you try to place on it. It really does. So our 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:14.959 mission for you listening today is to shortcut 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:17.540 your journey to being truly well informed about 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:20.219 one of the most culturally significant artists 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:23.060 of the 20th century. Which is no small task. 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:26.530 No. Definitely not. We are going to unpack the 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:29.609 ultimate paradox of Marvin Gaye. Like, how did 00:01:29.609 --> 00:01:32.269 a man who was constantly torn between spiritual 00:01:32.269 --> 00:01:35.930 heights and carnal depths and between rigid controlling 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:38.689 systems and his own fierce artistic independence 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:42.030 somehow manage to revolutionize modern music? 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:44.310 OK, let's unpack this, because Gaye's story is 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:46.829 so much more complex than just a string of classic 00:01:46.829 --> 00:01:48.950 hit records you hear at weddings. Oh, far more 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:51.170 complex. I mean, to really understand the artist, 00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:52.870 you absolutely have to start with The Crucible. 00:01:52.969 --> 00:01:55.030 that formed the man. Right, which takes us back 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:58.510 to Washington, DC, 1939. He was born into a public 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:00.590 housing project in an area that he and his friends 00:02:00.590 --> 00:02:03.390 nicknamed Simple City. Simple City, right. Yeah, 00:02:03.549 --> 00:02:05.310 they called it Half City, Half Country because 00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:09.090 of the unpaved roads and the lack of electricity. 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:12.129 But his home life was anything but simple. He 00:02:12.129 --> 00:02:14.250 actually started singing in church at age four, 00:02:14.389 --> 00:02:16.379 accompanied by his father. And his father was 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:19.120 a strict minister. Exactly. And that dynamic 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:21.199 right there with his father is the bedrock of 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.400 his entire psychological profile. The church 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:27.520 they belong to, the house of God, had this incredibly 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:31.439 strict conservative code of conduct. They observed 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:33.919 the Sabbath on Saturday. They demanded absolute 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:37.020 strict adherence to biblical law. But the discipline 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:40.240 at home went way, way beyond religious instruction. 00:02:40.819 --> 00:02:42.520 The source material notes that his home life 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:45.879 involved brutal whippings by his father for absolutely 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.830 any perceived shortcoming. The quote from Gay 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:51.310 himself about that is just chilling. He described 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:53.490 living in his father's house as being like living 00:02:53.490 --> 00:02:56.750 with a quote, cruel and all powerful king. Wow. 00:02:57.009 --> 00:02:59.270 Yeah, it wasn't just discipline. It was a regime 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:02.210 of terror. In fact, Gay credited his mother, 00:03:02.389 --> 00:03:04.629 Alberta, who constantly encouraged his singing 00:03:04.629 --> 00:03:07.689 with literally saving him from suicide as a teenager. 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:10.969 That is just so heavy. And you can see how that 00:03:10.969 --> 00:03:13.469 need to escape the pressure of his home life 00:03:13.469 --> 00:03:17.159 drove him to drop out of high school at 17. He 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:19.520 goes and enlists in the United States Air Force. 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:21.759 Right. But think about what he's actually doing 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:25.400 here. He is fleeing an authoritarian father who 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:28.659 demands absolute obedience only to volunteer 00:03:28.659 --> 00:03:31.310 for the United States military. Which is arguably 00:03:31.310 --> 00:03:33.889 the most rigid authoritarian system on earth. 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:35.610 I mean, I'm trying to wrap my head around that 00:03:35.610 --> 00:03:37.830 logic. It's like jumping out of the frying pan 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:40.530 and into a meticulously organized fire. It's 00:03:40.530 --> 00:03:43.250 a pressure cooker. It really is. And the intense 00:03:43.250 --> 00:03:46.490 heat and restriction of his father's abuse either 00:03:46.490 --> 00:03:49.810 breaks a person or, you know, it forges this 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:51.629 unbreakable need for self -expression. Which 00:03:51.629 --> 00:03:54.349 is exactly what happened. because predictably, 00:03:54.629 --> 00:03:57.210 he hated the Air Force. Soccer. Right. He found 00:03:57.210 --> 00:03:59.530 himself doing all this menial labor, just totally 00:03:59.530 --> 00:04:02.370 disenchanted, so he actually feigns mental illness 00:04:02.370 --> 00:04:04.310 to get a general discharge. Which, honestly, 00:04:04.569 --> 00:04:06.810 faking a psychological break is a massive, highly 00:04:06.810 --> 00:04:09.969 risky move for a teenager in the 1950s. It shows 00:04:09.969 --> 00:04:12.789 an astonishing level of desperation to regain 00:04:12.789 --> 00:04:15.449 control of his own life. And what's fascinating 00:04:15.449 --> 00:04:19.009 here is the exact wording his sergeant used in 00:04:19.009 --> 00:04:21.899 his outgoing performance review. The surgeon 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:24.699 wrote that Airman Gay, quote, cannot adjust to 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.740 regimentation nor authority. Cannot adjust. I 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:29.240 mean, that is the understatement of the century. 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:31.819 Precisely. And that wasn't just a military problem. 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:34.920 That inability to adjust to authority became 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.819 the defining characteristic of his entire artistic 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:40.120 genius. Right. He couldn't stand the Air Force 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.420 telling him when to make his bed. So you can 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:44.379 imagine how he reacted when the music industry 00:04:44.379 --> 00:04:46.379 tried to tell him how to sing and dress. Oh, 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:49.319 because he walks right into another highly structured 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:53.740 machine. So it's 1960, and he gets signed to 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:56.899 Barry Gordy's Tamla label. Which eventually becomes 00:04:56.899 --> 00:04:59.300 Motown. Right, Motown. Now Motown was famous 00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:01.759 for being a hit factory. They literally modeled 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:03.920 their production process on the Detroit auto 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:07.230 assembly lines. Just a well -oiled machine. Exactly. 00:05:07.470 --> 00:05:09.990 They had songwriters, session musicians, and 00:05:09.990 --> 00:05:13.029 singers all working in this highly regimented 00:05:13.029 --> 00:05:16.129 system designed to produce polished, agreeable 00:05:16.129 --> 00:05:19.009 pop stars that could cross over to white audiences. 00:05:19.370 --> 00:05:22.459 They even had an in -house grooming school. for 00:05:22.459 --> 00:05:25.860 the artists. Oh, right. The John Robert Powers 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:29.079 School for Social Grace. Yes. They taught their 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:32.240 artists how to walk, how to sit, how to hold 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.519 a microphone gracefully. It was all about maintaining 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:39.360 this immaculate, non -threatening public image. 00:05:39.779 --> 00:05:42.519 And Gay famously refused to attend. He just wouldn't 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:44.920 do it. Which brings up a great question. How 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:46.720 much of his later rebellion against the music 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.540 industry was actually just a continuation of 00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:50.360 his rebellion against his father? Oh, it's a 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:52.350 direct parallel. Furthermore, he didn't even 00:05:52.350 --> 00:05:54.129 want to be an R &B star at first. He wanted to 00:05:54.129 --> 00:05:56.449 be a jazz crooner. Like Frank Sinatra? Right, 00:05:56.569 --> 00:05:58.329 Sinatra or Nat King Cole. He wanted to sit on 00:05:58.329 --> 00:06:00.449 a stool with a cigarette and sing jazz standards. 00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:03.009 So instead of being this immediate breakout pop 00:06:03.009 --> 00:06:05.069 star, he actually starts out playing session 00:06:05.069 --> 00:06:07.329 drums for other artists. Yeah, for people like 00:06:07.329 --> 00:06:10.449 Stevie Wonder and the Marvelettes. For like... 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.199 $5 a week. But eventually, the Motown machine 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.399 does what it does best. They pair him with the 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:17.980 right material, and he finds massive pop success 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:20.860 in the mid -60s. Particularly with his duet partner, 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:24.180 Tammy 12. Oh, they had those huge, soaring hits 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.620 together, like, ain't no mountain high enough. 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:29.220 Their voices just complimented each other perfectly. 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:33.259 They really did. But then, the absolute unthinkable 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:38.120 happens. In October 1967, tragedy struck during 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.839 a live performance in Virginia. Tammy Terrell 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:44.300 actually collapsed and gazed arms on stage. Wow. 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.339 Just awful. They discovered she had a malignant 00:06:47.339 --> 00:06:50.129 brain tumor. And after multiple surgeries and 00:06:50.129 --> 00:06:52.410 a really grueling decline, she passed away in 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:55.089 1970. But there is a brutal irony to what happens 00:06:55.089 --> 00:06:56.949 next. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:06:57.329 --> 00:06:59.490 Because during this period of men's grief over 00:06:59.490 --> 00:07:01.610 Tammy's illness, while he is essentially watching 00:07:01.610 --> 00:07:04.670 his closest creative partner fade away, his solo 00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:06.490 track, I heard it through the grapevine, is released. 00:07:06.490 --> 00:07:09.230 And explode. Right. It stays at number one for 00:07:09.230 --> 00:07:12.209 seven weeks. It sells millions. It becomes his 00:07:12.209 --> 00:07:14.370 biggest hit. And for those of you listening, 00:07:14.889 --> 00:07:17.689 try to imagine reaching the absolute pinnacle 00:07:17.550 --> 00:07:19.910 of your career, the thing everyone tells you 00:07:19.910 --> 00:07:22.089 you're supposed to want but you feel fundamentally 00:07:22.089 --> 00:07:24.410 shattered. The timing couldn't have been worse 00:07:24.410 --> 00:07:26.870 for his mental state. Because of his depression 00:07:26.870 --> 00:07:30.029 over Tammy, he felt he didn't deserve the success. 00:07:30.470 --> 00:07:32.930 He literally said he felt like a puppet for the 00:07:32.930 --> 00:07:36.569 label. The psychological toll here is just profound. 00:07:36.850 --> 00:07:40.779 I mean, he is grieving. And simultaneously, the 00:07:40.779 --> 00:07:43.899 Motown system is aggressively capitalizing on 00:07:43.899 --> 00:07:46.899 his voice, a voice he feels he has no ownership 00:07:46.899 --> 00:07:49.339 of at that moment. He felt like just another 00:07:49.339 --> 00:07:52.600 cog in Barry Gordy's assembly line. He was so 00:07:52.600 --> 00:07:54.779 desperate for an identity outside of the Motown 00:07:54.779 --> 00:07:56.839 machine that he actually sought out a position 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:58.379 playing professional football. OK, wait, I have 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:00.139 to push back on this a little. He tried out for 00:08:00.139 --> 00:08:02.420 the Detroit Lions. Was he actually a serious, 00:08:02.699 --> 00:08:04.699 conditioned athlete or was this just a massive 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:07.360 ego trip because he was bored and rich? Well, 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.019 there's a bit of both, but primarily it was a 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:13.040 desperate search for autonomy. He had befriended 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:15.660 some of the players he bulked up and he genuinely 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:19.040 wanted to play wide receiver. That is wild. The 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.079 team. actually let him practice with them, largely 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.500 for the publicity, but the head coach ultimately 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:28.319 declined to sign him. Why? Because he was terrified 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.240 that Gaye would get injured on the field and 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.240 ruin his music career. The coach didn't want 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:35.759 to go down in history as the guy who got Marvin 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:38.299 Gaye paralyzed. Okay, yeah, that makes perfect 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:41.220 sense. But that need for autonomy doesn't go 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:43.159 away just because he couldn't play football. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:45.980 It finally reaches a boiling point at the dawn 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:49.070 of the 1970s. Right. Gay was watching the country 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:51.730 fracture. He's seeing the Vietnam War escalate. 00:08:51.809 --> 00:08:54.330 He's seeing racial injustice. He's seeing environmental 00:08:54.330 --> 00:08:56.769 fears dominate the news. The whole culture was 00:08:56.769 --> 00:08:59.409 shifting. Exactly. And he decided he couldn't 00:08:59.409 --> 00:09:01.710 just sing Polish love songs anymore. He wanted 00:09:01.710 --> 00:09:04.649 his music to hold a mirror up to reality. And 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:07.169 the result was his absolute masterpiece, What's 00:09:07.169 --> 00:09:09.490 Going On. And the catalyst for this shift is 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:10.950 interesting. It was actually a member of the 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:14.289 Four Tops, Obie Benson. Oh really? Yeah. Benson 00:09:14.289 --> 00:09:17.029 had witnessed an act of horrific police brutality 00:09:17.029 --> 00:09:20.019 at an anti -war rally in Berkeley. It really 00:09:20.019 --> 00:09:23.100 shook him. So Benson brought the conceptual framework 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:26.840 of a protest song to gay and gay took it and 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:29.860 expanded it to address the entirety of the American 00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:32.379 crisis. Right. He wanted to address the war, 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:35.759 racism, the environment. And just to be clear, 00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:38.360 we are purely reporting on the historical themes 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:40.639 of the album here, not taking any political sides. 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:43.460 But for gay, these were the issues he felt compelled 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:46.240 to speak on. Absolutely. But when Barry Gordy 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:49.500 heard the title track, What's Going On, he He 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:51.840 flat out refused to release it. He called it 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.879 the worst thing he'd ever heard. He said it was 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:56.179 too political and he was terrified it would alienate 00:09:56.179 --> 00:09:59.009 their pop audience. So what does Gaye do? The 00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:01.389 guy who faked mental illness to get out of the 00:10:01.389 --> 00:10:04.309 Air Force, he goes on strike. He refuses to record 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:06.929 a single note of new material until the label 00:10:06.929 --> 00:10:09.509 releases that song. And I always wonder about 00:10:09.509 --> 00:10:12.610 this dynamic. Is true artistic innovation only 00:10:12.610 --> 00:10:14.649 possible when you are willing to burn bridges 00:10:14.649 --> 00:10:17.450 and risk your entire livelihood? Well, in a system 00:10:17.450 --> 00:10:20.850 as rigid as Motown was, yes. He literally held 00:10:20.850 --> 00:10:24.029 his own career hostage. And if we connect this 00:10:24.029 --> 00:10:26.990 to the bigger picture, that strike changed the 00:10:26.990 --> 00:10:29.389 entire power dynamic of the music industry. How 00:10:29.389 --> 00:10:32.409 so? Well, when Gordy finally relented, and he 00:10:32.409 --> 00:10:34.370 mostly did because executives sneak the track 00:10:34.370 --> 00:10:36.269 out to radio stations where it immediately blew 00:10:36.269 --> 00:10:39.769 up, the song shot to number one. And because 00:10:39.769 --> 00:10:43.269 of that, Gay then possessed the leverage to demand 00:10:43.269 --> 00:10:45.509 total creative control to produce the full album. 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:48.330 Right. And what he delivered completely broke 00:10:48.330 --> 00:10:51.039 the mechanical rules of R &B. The source material 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:54.279 mentions he used a, quote, continuous segue flow. 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:57.100 Which was revolutionary. Yeah. For you listening, 00:10:57.299 --> 00:10:59.740 instead of three minute catchy singles with silence 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:02.259 in between, the tracks on what's going on bleed 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:04.580 into each other like a continuous suite of music. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:07.000 It's seamless. You hear party chatter. You hear 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:09.740 saxophone lines drifting in and out. It forces 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.340 you to sit and listen to the whole album as a 00:11:12.340 --> 00:11:15.259 singular documentary like experience. Exactly. 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.759 And then there is the way he recorded his vocals. 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:20.909 He pioneered complex vocal multi -tracking. Right, 00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:22.690 which sounds really technical, but think of it 00:11:22.690 --> 00:11:25.529 this way. Instead of painting a flat portrait, 00:11:25.950 --> 00:11:28.929 he was suddenly sculpting in 3D. Oh, I like that 00:11:28.929 --> 00:11:32.289 analogy. By layering his smooth tenor, a growling 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:35.389 rasp, and this unreal falsetto all over each 00:11:35.389 --> 00:11:38.730 other, he created a vocal hologram. Yeah. You 00:11:38.730 --> 00:11:41.129 could walk around inside the harmony. It wasn't 00:11:41.129 --> 00:11:43.649 a choir backing him up, it was Marvin backing 00:11:43.649 --> 00:11:45.990 up. Marvin backing up. It was a sonic revelation. 00:11:46.169 --> 00:11:50.389 And that artistic triumph translated into incredible 00:11:50.389 --> 00:11:53.129 financial leverage. Didn't he get a massage contract 00:11:53.129 --> 00:11:56.090 out of it? He did. It resulted in a historic 00:11:56.090 --> 00:11:59.669 $1 million contract in 1971, which was the most 00:11:59.669 --> 00:12:01.730 lucrative deal for a black recording artist at 00:12:01.730 --> 00:12:04.429 the time. But more importantly, it shattered 00:12:04.429 --> 00:12:07.110 the Motown assembly line model. Right. It paved 00:12:07.110 --> 00:12:09.129 the way for other artists like Stevie Wonder 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:11.470 to demand their own creative autonomy and produce 00:12:11.470 --> 00:12:14.210 their own sprawling masterpieces. But you know, 00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:16.649 as we see over and over in his life, every action 00:12:16.649 --> 00:12:19.529 has an equal and opposite reaction. Having conquered 00:12:19.529 --> 00:12:21.789 the spiritual and political realms with what's 00:12:21.789 --> 00:12:24.190 going on, his artistry and his personal life 00:12:24.190 --> 00:12:26.610 swung violently in the opposite direction. The 00:12:26.610 --> 00:12:28.649 pendulum swings back. It's like his life was 00:12:28.649 --> 00:12:31.230 a rubber band stretched to its absolute limits 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:33.529 between the sacred and the profane, the spiritual 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:36.769 and the carnal. And you have to wonder, can an 00:12:36.769 --> 00:12:38.990 artist sustain that level of tension without 00:12:38.990 --> 00:12:42.029 eventually snapping? Usually not. And the shift 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:45.720 is jarring. Because in 1973, he releases, let's 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.700 get it on, an album that was hailed for its sheer 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:51.419 unapologetic sensuality and carnal energy. And 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:53.720 it became a massive commercial hit. Huge hit. 00:12:54.100 --> 00:12:56.259 But behind the scenes, the structure of his personal 00:12:56.259 --> 00:12:58.879 life was beginning to collapse. Right. His marriage 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.240 to Anna Gordy, who, by the way, was Barry Gordy's 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:03.340 sister. Which means his boss was also his brother 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:06.500 -in -law. Exactly. That marriage ends in a very 00:13:06.500 --> 00:13:09.860 bitter, drawn -out divorce. And the legal fallout 00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:12.039 from that leads to one of the strangest projects 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:15.830 in music. The 1978 double album, Here My Dear. 00:13:16.110 --> 00:13:17.850 Yeah, because as part of the divorce settlement, 00:13:18.330 --> 00:13:21.009 the judge ordered Gay to pay Anna Gordy a portion 00:13:21.009 --> 00:13:23.429 of the royalties from his next album. Which is 00:13:23.429 --> 00:13:26.230 just wild to think about. Like, what does it 00:13:26.230 --> 00:13:28.570 actually sound like when a man is legally forced 00:13:28.570 --> 00:13:31.669 to make art to pay off his ex -wife? I mean, 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:33.730 I would be tempted to just record myself humming 00:13:33.730 --> 00:13:36.110 for 40 minutes and hand it in. And funny enough, 00:13:36.289 --> 00:13:38.919 that was initially his plan. Wait, really? Yeah. 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:41.019 He wanted to record something quick and lazy 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:44.720 just to satisfy the court order. But his perfectionism 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.299 wouldn't let him. Oh, of course. Instead, he 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:50.840 spent months crafting this deeply intimate, passive 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.320 aggressive, sprawling double album detailing 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.580 the exact disintegration of their marriage. Wow. 00:13:57.779 --> 00:14:00.000 It sounds bitter. It sounds heartbroken. And 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.519 at the time, it was completely uncommercial. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:05.019 It totally flopped on the charts, though today 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:07.220 it's considered a cult classic. But because it 00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:08.879 flopped back then, it didn't generate the money 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.059 he needed. And this period is marked by an intensifying 00:14:12.059 --> 00:14:15.059 addiction to cocaine, coupled with massive financial 00:14:15.059 --> 00:14:17.779 mismanagement. It gets really dark. He suddenly 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:20.519 finds himself battling IRS tax debts, totaling 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:23.740 roughly $4 .5 million. He's making millions, 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:27.840 but he owes millions. And to avoid literal imprisonment. 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:30.940 for those back taxes. He had to flee the United 00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:33.879 States. He went into exile. Just incredible. 00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:36.320 He spent time in London living out of a van at 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:40.179 one point before a Belgian concert promoter essentially 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:43.519 smuggled him via ferry to Austin, Belgium. A 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.600 Motown superstar hiding from the IRS in a quiet 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:49.639 coastal town in Belgium. That is bizarre. It 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:51.720 sounds absurd, but Austin actually saved him. 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:54.480 for a time anyway, removed from all the enablers 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.659 and the chaos of his life in America. He lived 00:14:56.659 --> 00:14:59.100 in a modest apartment on the coast. He shied 00:14:59.100 --> 00:15:01.500 away from heavy drug use. He started exercising 00:15:01.500 --> 00:15:03.320 by running on the beach. He started going to 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:06.039 church again. And he slowly regained his confidence. 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:09.159 And from that unlikely exile, he mounts this 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:11.360 massive comeback. He signs with Columbia Records. 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:13.899 And that comeback gave us the 1982 smash hit, 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.330 Sexual Healing. which he literally wrote in his 00:15:16.330 --> 00:15:18.549 apartment in Austin. It became the biggest selling 00:15:18.549 --> 00:15:21.110 single of his career, and it won him two Grammys. 00:15:21.450 --> 00:15:23.929 But musically, the mechanism of how he made that 00:15:23.929 --> 00:15:26.629 song is what's so important here. He utilized 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:29.570 the Roland TR -808 drum machine. Oh, the 808. 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:33.029 Yes. Which fundamentally changed R &B, because 00:15:33.029 --> 00:15:35.409 before the 808, drum machines were largely seen 00:15:35.409 --> 00:15:37.509 as novelties. They sounded like cheap toys clicking. 00:15:37.629 --> 00:15:40.929 Right. But the 808... didn't use recorded samples 00:15:40.929 --> 00:15:44.470 of real drums. It used analog synthesizers to 00:15:44.470 --> 00:15:46.669 generate sounds that only approximated drums. 00:15:46.809 --> 00:15:49.009 So it's a completely artificial sound. Exactly. 00:15:49.330 --> 00:15:51.649 It produced this artificial booming sub bass 00:15:51.649 --> 00:15:55.029 kick and these crisp robotic hand claps. It didn't 00:15:55.029 --> 00:15:57.529 just keep time, it created a physical groove 00:15:57.529 --> 00:15:59.730 you could actually feel in your chest. And that 00:15:59.730 --> 00:16:01.909 deep synthesized heartbeat is the foundation 00:16:01.909 --> 00:16:04.250 of sexual healing. It really shows how adaptable 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:07.169 he was. Incredibly adaptable. Just as he revolutionized 00:16:07.169 --> 00:16:10.169 the 70s with organic layered concept albums, 00:16:10.809 --> 00:16:12.950 he completely reinvented his sound for the 80s 00:16:12.950 --> 00:16:15.929 by embracing electro -funk. That 808 sound he 00:16:15.929 --> 00:16:18.149 pioneered would go on to heavily influence the 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:20.509 entire genres of 80s hip -hop and contemporary 00:16:20.509 --> 00:16:22.690 pop. He really proved his genius wasn't tied 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:25.429 to one specific era or technology, and he proved 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:28.190 it again when he delivered a legendary rendition 00:16:28.190 --> 00:16:31.889 of the Star Spangled Banner at the 1983 NBA All 00:16:31.889 --> 00:16:34.120 -Star Game. Oh, that performance is iconic. He 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:36.419 walked out onto the court accompanied only by 00:16:36.419 --> 00:16:39.220 a drum machine beat and he turned a martial anthem 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:42.539 into this sensual soulful prayer. Yeah. It was 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:44.940 completely unprecedented and it's still considered 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:46.960 one of the greatest performances in sports history. 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:49.720 So he was back on top of the world. He had beaten 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:52.100 the IRS. He had beaten the industry. He was a 00:16:52.100 --> 00:16:55.379 massive success all over again. But unfortunately, 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:58.200 the internal demons hadn't been fully vanquished. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:02.179 Tragically, no. His triumphant 1983 comeback 00:17:02.179 --> 00:17:05.839 tour was grueling and he relapsed hard. Oh, man. 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.259 He was struggling with severe cocaine and PCP 00:17:08.259 --> 00:17:11.200 addiction, which triggered intense, terrifying 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:13.359 paranoia. He believed people were trying to kill 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.950 him. And in a devastating twist of fate. This 00:17:15.950 --> 00:17:18.210 paranoia pushed him right back to the very place 00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:20.109 and the very person he had spent his entire life 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.589 trying to escape. Right. Because of his deteriorating 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:24.869 state, he moved back into his parents' home in 00:17:24.869 --> 00:17:27.109 Los Angeles. And the conflict with his father, 00:17:27.269 --> 00:17:29.250 who was also reportedly struggling with alcohol, 00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:31.630 was immediate and constant. The pressure cooker 00:17:31.630 --> 00:17:34.170 was back on. It was a disaster waiting to happen. 00:17:34.490 --> 00:17:37.579 In his deeply paranoid state, Gay had actually 00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:40.839 purchased a .38 special handgun and gave it to 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:43.359 his father, ostensibly to protect the house from 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:46.079 intruders. Which was a fatal miscalculation. 00:17:46.259 --> 00:17:50.940 Yeah. On April 1st, 1984, the literal eve of 00:17:50.940 --> 00:17:54.400 Marvin's 45th birthday, Gay intervened in a verbal 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:56.500 fight between his parents over some misplaced 00:17:56.500 --> 00:17:58.599 business documents. And the altercation between 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:01.099 Marvin and his father. turned physical. After 00:18:01.099 --> 00:18:03.380 Marvin retreated to his bedroom, his father took 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:06.160 that same .38 special, walked into the room, 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:08.279 and shot his son twice in the chest, killing 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:11.029 him. It's just... It's hard to even process. 00:18:11.230 --> 00:18:13.809 His father later pleaded no contest to voluntary 00:18:13.809 --> 00:18:16.490 manslaughter. He had been diagnosed with a benign 00:18:16.490 --> 00:18:18.509 brain tumor, which the defense argued altered 00:18:18.509 --> 00:18:21.109 his behavior, and he ultimately received a suspended 00:18:21.109 --> 00:18:23.430 sentence. Right. So what does this all mean? 00:18:23.569 --> 00:18:25.930 We look at this incredible catalog of music and 00:18:25.930 --> 00:18:28.269 we look at the immense suffocating suffering 00:18:28.269 --> 00:18:31.089 that accompanied it. Do we romanticize the tortured 00:18:31.089 --> 00:18:33.230 artist too much? That's the big question. Like, 00:18:33.369 --> 00:18:35.750 was the suffering a necessary ingredient for 00:18:35.750 --> 00:18:38.349 the music to be that profound? Or was it just 00:18:38.349 --> 00:18:41.250 a tragic byproduct that robbed the world of decades 00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:44.009 more of his art? This raises an important question, 00:18:44.309 --> 00:18:46.569 especially regarding the cyclical nature of trauma. 00:18:47.390 --> 00:18:49.789 Gay's life began with his father's violence. 00:18:49.910 --> 00:18:53.109 Yeah. He escaped it. He achieved global success. 00:18:53.369 --> 00:18:56.529 wealth, critical acclaim. He pushed the boundaries 00:18:56.529 --> 00:18:59.589 of technology and genre. He created music that 00:18:59.589 --> 00:19:02.170 brought literal healing to millions of people. 00:19:02.289 --> 00:19:04.650 Millions. But his life ended in the exact same 00:19:04.650 --> 00:19:07.650 way it began, at the hands of his father. The 00:19:07.650 --> 00:19:09.809 music healed millions, but it couldn't save the 00:19:09.809 --> 00:19:11.710 man from the violence of his own origin story. 00:19:11.869 --> 00:19:14.430 That is deeply tragic. But the legacy he left 00:19:14.430 --> 00:19:16.869 behind is truly staggering. He was inducted into 00:19:16.869 --> 00:19:19.309 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone 00:19:19.309 --> 00:19:21.609 consistently ranks his albums and his voice among 00:19:21.609 --> 00:19:24.890 the greatest of all time. His 70s work essentially 00:19:24.890 --> 00:19:27.769 laid the blueprint for the entire neo -soul movement 00:19:27.769 --> 00:19:30.430 of the 90s and 2000s. And his influence is so 00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:33.210 enduring that even his estate remains a powerhouse. 00:19:33.490 --> 00:19:36.410 Oh, yeah. They famously won that massive multi 00:19:36.410 --> 00:19:39.750 - million dollar copyright lawsuit over the pop 00:19:39.750 --> 00:19:43.069 song blurred lines. Right. Proving that the literal 00:19:43.069 --> 00:19:45.549 DNA of his music is still the foundation of the 00:19:45.549 --> 00:19:49.089 charts today. His artistry was a bridge. He blended 00:19:49.089 --> 00:19:51.829 the raw pleading emotion of the Pentecostal church 00:19:51.829 --> 00:19:55.369 with the sleek smoothness of pop and combined 00:19:55.369 --> 00:19:57.869 both with the political awareness of a generation 00:19:57.869 --> 00:20:01.940 demanding change. He proved definitively that 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:04.119 an artist didn't have to choose between commercial 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.440 success and profound social commentary. He took 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:10.119 the pain of his youth, the rigid structure of 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:12.220 an industrial pop factory that tried to put him 00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:15.559 in a box, and his own intense personal demons, 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.079 and he somehow transmuted all of that friction 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:20.400 into a catalogue of music that permanently altered 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.599 the cultural landscape. Which really did. And 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:24.299 for those of you listening, I think there's a 00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:26.859 profound takeaway here. Whenever you feel caught 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:29.359 between conflicting pressures, maybe doing what 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:32.319 is expected of you by a boss or a system, versus 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:34.859 doing what you inherently believe is right, you 00:20:34.859 --> 00:20:37.140 can look to Marvin Gaye's strike over what's 00:20:37.140 --> 00:20:40.079 going on. It is the ultimate historical example 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:42.960 of betting on your own vision, even when the 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.329 authorities tell you it will ruin you. He refused 00:20:45.329 --> 00:20:48.410 to be a puppet. He demanded to pull his own strings, 00:20:48.509 --> 00:20:50.970 even if they occasionally tangled. Exactly. And 00:20:50.970 --> 00:20:53.170 I want to leave you with a final thought to mull 00:20:53.170 --> 00:20:54.970 over, something to consider as you listen to 00:20:54.970 --> 00:20:58.529 music today. If a young Marvin Gaye brought an 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:01.329 unpolished, deeply political, slow burn track 00:21:01.329 --> 00:21:04.289 to a label right now, Would the algorithm even 00:21:04.289 --> 00:21:07.190 let us hear it? That's a great point. Or is the 00:21:07.190 --> 00:21:09.150 modern music machine with its obsession with 00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:12.450 15 second viral hooks exactly the kind of rigid 00:21:12.450 --> 00:21:14.650 authority figure that Gay would have gone to 00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:17.329 war against? Something to think about next time 00:21:17.329 --> 00:21:19.710 your streaming app auto plays your next track. 00:21:19.869 --> 00:21:21.849 It's been a real privilege to explore this legacy 00:21:21.849 --> 00:21:24.150 with you. Same here. Until next time, keep listening 00:21:24.150 --> 00:21:24.549 closely.