"Let's Get It On" by MARVIN GAYE – August 1973 US LP on Tamla Records (September 1973 UK on Tamla Motown) – Featured Guests Include The Originals, The Monitors, Joe Sample and Wilton Felder of The Crusaders, Ray Parker, Jr., Willie Hutch, Dean Parks, David T. Walker, Leroy Emmanuel, Bobby Keys, Michael Henderson and many more (September 2001 US Universal/Motown Deluxe Edition 2CD Expanded Edition Reissue and Remaster with 27 Unreleased) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...You'll Like It!"

 

At the risk of limb-loss and threats of being forced into a Sweeny Todd type barbers at midnight on the day of judgement - I'm going to put out an unpopular opinion, nay sacrilegious and possibly even scurrilous assessment.

 

While "What's Going on" puts Marvin (hot like an uv-in) Gaye firmly on the shoulders of Gods, I always thought 1973's lovers album "Let's Get It On" was good rather than great and not quite the masterpiece of lurve-sexy bedroom delight everyone claims it is.

 

So why five stars for a record I think is only deserving of four? I'm reviewing the 'Deluxe Edition' 2CD Reissue of "Let's Get It On" and on top of the newly remastered eight album tracks, you get a whopping 29 extras – 27 of which are Previously Unreleased (the other two are period tie-ins issued in the 90s). And in the main, they are truly stunning - pushing this 2-Disc 2001 Expanded Edition splurge into the stratosphere.

 

Like most music fans, if I've a fave album and Universal or Sony has done a 2CD Deluxe Edition of them, I'm going to own it. But we have found that time and time again, the unreleased stuff (or rarities as they like to call it) was unissued for a reason. But here, the sheer wallop of all that extra brilliance is screaming at you - almost too much in that it sometimes drowns out the core eight we're supposed to be celebrating. 

 

In fact, when you're listening to the truly fantastic grooves being achieved in instrumentals like say "Song No. 3" or "Cakes" - it's like listening to an entirely different Marvin (hell some of "Cakes" even has a Northern Soul shuffle to it).

 

Soul fans will salivate too at those session-men names (some superstars in their own right) - Herbie Hancock on Keyboards, Wilton Felder and Joe Sample of The Crusaders on Bass and Keys, James Jamerson also on Bass, Ernie Watts on Sax, Uriel Jones on Drums with Ray Parker, Jr., Melvin 'Wah Wah' Ragin, Leroy Emmanuel, Dean Parks, David T. Walker and Willie Hutch on Guitars along with many others.

 

Over on CD2 in the 'Working The Groove' clutch of tunes section we even have Fonce and Larry Mizell of Blue Note/Donald Byrd "Spaces And Places" fame providing funky backing vocals on the gorgeous "Where Are We Going?" – Track 11. With stuff like "The World Is Rated X", you get to hear a 1975/1976 Funk-Sexy-Soul Music sound, three years before it became commonplace. In short, there is a whole lot on offer here - a slew of creativity that's thrilling to eavesdrop on, and all of it sounding super-duper spiffing your honor. Forgive me people, but let's get it on and on...

 

US released 18 September 2001 - "Let's Get It On: Deluxe Edition" by MARVIN GAYE on Universal/Motown 440 014 757-2 (Barcode 044001475726) is a 37-Track 2CD Reissue and Remaster with 27 of its 29 Bonus Tracks being Previously Unreleased (Tracks 14 on CD1 and 20 on CD2 were issued before). It's part of Universal's DELUXE EDITION Series and plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (70:29 minutes):

ORIGINAL ALBUM

1. Let's Get It On [Side 1]

2. Please Stay (Once You Go Away)

3. If I Should Die Tonight

4. Keep Gettin' It On

5. Come Get To This [Side 2]

6. Distant Lover

7. You Sure Love To Ball

8. Just To Keep You Satisfied

Tracks 1 to 8 are his thirteenth studio album "Let's Get It On" - released August 1973 in the USA on Tamla Records T 329V1 and November 1973 in the UK on Tamla Motown Records STMA 8013. Produced by MARVIN GAYE, ED TOWNSEND - it peaked at No. 1 on the US R&B LP charts and No. 39 on the UK Rock LP charts.

 

SESSIONS (All Tracks Previously Unreleased Except 14)

9. Song No. 3 (Instrumental, 5:30 minutes)

10. My Love Is Growing (Working Titled 'Super Polished', 4:20 minutes)

11. Cakes (Instrumental, 3:15 minutes)

12. Symphony (Undubbed Version, 2:50 minutes)

13. I'd Give My Life For You (Demo, 3:33 minutes)

14. I Love You Secretly by THE MIRACLES (Marvin Gaye co-written song, officially issued on The Miracles US LP "Renaissance" in April 1973 on Tamla T325L)

15. You're The Man (Alternate Version 1, 7:25 minutes)

16. You're The Man (Version 2, 4:45 minutes)

17. Symphony (Demo, 2:50 minutes) 

 

CD2 (77:01 minutes):

DEMOS, ALTERNATIVES MIXES & MORE

(All Tracks Previously Unreleased Except 20)

1. Let's Get It On (Demo, 5:14 minutes)

2. Let's Get It On (Part II) aka Keep Gettin' It On (Complete, 3:15 minutes)

3. Please Stay (Once You Go Away) (Alternate Mix with Horns, 3:50 minutes)

4. If I Should Die Tonight (Demo, 4:15 minutes)

5. Come Get To This (Alternate Mix, 2:48 minutes)

6. Distant Lover (Alternative Mix, 4:20 minutes)

7. You Sure Love To Ball (Alternate Mix with Alternate Vocals, 4:40 minutes)

8. Just To Keep You Satisfied (A Capella with Alternative Vocal, 4:40 minutes)

9. Just To Keep You Satisfied by THE ORIGINALS (1970, Original Single Mix Scheduled for Soul 35079, B-side of "God Bless Whoever Sent You" but Cancelled, 4:00 minutes)

10. Just To Keep You Satisfied by THE MONITORS (1968 recording, Richard Street Lead Vocals, 2:36 minutes)

 

WORKING THE GROOVE

11. Where Are We Going? (Alternate Mix, Produced by and Featuring Freddie Perrin and Fonce Mizell, 4:00 minutes)

12. The World Is Rated X (Alternate Mix, From Version That Appeared on the 1995 2CD "Anthology" compilation, 3:50 minutes)

13. I'm Gonna Give You Respect (2:55 minutes)

14. Try It, You'll Like It (3:55 minutes)

15. You Are That Special One (3:35 minutes)

16. We Can Make It Baby (3:20 minutes)

(Tracks 13 to 16 Produced by and Featuring songs from Willie Hutch recorded throughout 1972)

17. Running From Love (Instrumental, Version 1, 3:45 minutes)

18. Mandota (Instrumental, 3:00 minutes)

19. Running From Love (Instrumental, Version 2, 3:45 minutes)

20. Come Get To This (Live From Oakland, 2:57 minutes, First Issued in 1990)

 

The 28-page booklet inside the foldout card digipak (and outer plastic printed slipcase) is a tastefully laid-out piece of work. Someone did some serious work on this because it is crammed with Discography Details from the Motown Archive and Biographer DAVID RITZ and Music Author BEN EDMONDS pour of the Biographical stuff that puts it all into context (the groove and grind always aligned with conflict and contradictions). HARRY WEINGER also gives us insights in paragraphs he entitles "Finding The Groove – Adventures In The Vault" – Tape Preparation and Location. Impressive stuff.

 

The array of cool woollen beany hats Gaye wore at the time make for the most beautiful photos, but all of that is as nothing when you start to wade through the dirge of music (on top of the album) you are given. KEVIN REEVES has done literally hundreds of CD Reissues for Universal and his is a name I would actively seek out. Well his magic touch is very much in evidence here – all of it feeling muscular and sensual in a way that was lacking before. Not even the Demos or Alternates feel clunky – in fact – some are better recorded than some actual released material.

 

The album produced three 45s with wildly varying chart success. The title track previewed the LP by two months when "Let's Get It On" hit the shops in June 1973, but it was a smash and promptly topped both the R&B and Pop charts in the USA. That was followed by "Come Get To This" in October 1973 (No. 3 R&B and No. 21 Pop) - whilst the final overtly hip-swaying 45 tapered out even more - "You Sure Love To Ball" in early January 1974 managing only No. 13 R&B and No. 50 Pop. Sounding like a manifesto for the bedroom, I can only imagine how many homes had this on the turntable in 1973 and now count grandchildren all owed the Oven Man. But there is even better in the Bonus material...

 

Universal put out an Original Mix of "Where Are We Going?" on their 'Very Best Of' Marvin Gaye set in July 2001 – what we get here is an Alternate Mix that emphasizes the sexy piano and wah-wah guitar backbeat – a gem. That's followed by what has to be one of the best Marvin Funk discoveries of all - "The World Is Rated X" – laid down in 1972 with Marvin even putting in Saxophone. His vocal on this is passion personified – every line sung with a genuine conviction - that socially aware inner radar on his on fire. That is then whomped by the lovely Willie Hutch session of four songs – the nugget being the brass-bopper "I'm Going Give You Respect" – the kind of winner that makes you want to lay talcum powder on the kitchen lino and just sway and shuffle with your Northern Soul crew. Regardless of what else is on CD2 – if I only programmed Tracks 11, 12 and 13 together – I’d be in Marvin Nirvana. But then you are hit with three more...

 

Things get Fuzz-Guitar Funky with two Versions of "Running From Love" laid down in September 1971. The first sounds like a backdrop to The Temptations or even The Undisputed Truth before they go off to that war over there. Both are instrumentals co-written with Hamilton Bohannon and Michael Henderson – fantastic echoed guitar licks from Melvin "Wah Wah" Ragin, Ray Parker, Jr. and Leroy Emmanuel, while Marvin provided Keyboards, Bongos and Percussion. A couple of months later (December 1971), Marvin and Hamilton Bohannon put down the seriously Funky Guitar and Keyboards instrumental "Mandota" – all Blaxsploitation atmospherics that feels like a precursor to the "Trouble Man" soundtrack in 1973. The Second Version (Take 6) of "Running From Love" slows everything down to a sexy groove that again wouldn’t have gone amiss on Shaft or Trouble Man – all strings and grinding groovy Funk. It ends with a sensual audience-clapping Live Version of "Come Get To This" recorded 1974 and first issued on the 1990 Box Set "The Marvin Gaye Collection" – tasty and still Marvin cool.

 

Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" is one of those 2CD Deluxe Editions that provides a genuine embarrassment of riches - a real upgrade on what went before (Bob Marley's "Legend", Marvin Gaye's own "Trouble Man" Soundtrack 2CD Deluxe Edition, Whiskeytown's "Strangers Almanac" with Ryan Adams and The Who's "Who's Next" are among many others that warrant a DE merit badge too).

 

In the end, I'm probably like every other fan, I only have to hear his voice soar and parry with the melodies and I'm a goner. And that always makes me wish he wasn't.  

Come Get To This indeed because I guarantee, if you have any affection for the 1973 original, then this brilliant 2001 upgrade is a big You'll Like It!...