Marvin Gaye
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Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 8 May 1976
A COUPLE of weeks ago our very own Mr. Murray suffered a bitter anti-climax after waiting nigh on two years to hear the latest ...
Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz
Review by Chris Salewicz, Time Out, 8 July 1985
The anguished life of Marvin Gaye ended on April 1, 1984, at the home in Los Angeles he had bought for his parents, when a ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 September 1976
The Motown great on touring and performing; on the new I Want You and interviewer Cliff White's bad review of it; on his older material, and the difference between English and American audiences; on the meaning of life and death... and his fear of flying and spiders. Read a transcript of Cliff's interview.
File format: mp3; file size: 36.8mb, interview length: 38' 20" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
A Great Visit To Hitsville U.S.A.
Interview by Dave Godin, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 September 1964
by DAVE GODIN as told to Norman Jopling ...
Mr. Gordy has a formula for success — 'It is Love'
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 10 October 1964
THE BEATLES have done terrible things to the American record industry. Nobody knows what to record any longer. Should they try to reproduce what is ...
Marvin Gaye: Marvin — He Never Forgets A Face
Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 28 November 1964
PETER JONES TALKS TO AMERICA'S SMOOTH-VOICED BLUESMAN, MARVIN GAYE, THE LATEST OF THE TAMLA-MOTOWN STARS TO HIT BRITAIN ...
Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, January 1965
THOSE ROLLING STONES, with their headline-hogging activities have always been controversial. There are more Stone-knockers than door-knockers in some of the snootier parts of the ...
America Hits Back With Tamla Motown Attack
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 March 1965
IN RETALIATION to the British craze sweeping the States, America launches its biggest-ever campaign to bring back the Yanks into the British charts in the ...
Column by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 26 March 1966
SAD NEWS for Byrd lovers — Gene Clark is suffering from "nervous strain" and has been advised by doctors not to undertake any further personal ...
Albums from The Temptations, Butterfield Blues Band, Marvin Gaye and Sammy Davis Jr.
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 15 October 1966
Temptations have got a big seller ...
Tempo: R&B and Jazz Album Reviews
Review by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1966
FOR SOME reason, recordings of live rock and roll shows are selling very well. You can hardly hear the music above the enthusiastic audience response ...
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 21 January 1967
PAUL JONES: 'I've Been A Bad Bad Boy' (HMV). Sounds a bit like Paul Jones. Great — I like this one. I like that 'bad, ...
Marvin Gaye: "The Music Really Saves Me"
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 28 January 1967
THERE ARE some performers who succeed in escaping the boundaries and restrictions normally imposed upon their profession. They somehow manage to go "above and beyond ...
Marvin and Kim: Swingin' Twosome!
Profile and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 11 February 1967
SIX FEET high, aged 27, songwriter, athlete, ballad singer and rock 'n' roller — this is Marvin Gaye. Attractive, intelligent, married to a producer and ...
Marvin Gaye Is The Nicest Tamguy
Interview by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 11 March 1967
MARVIN GAYE has got to be one of the nicest performers to come out of Motown headquarters in Detroit, which is famous for sending out ...
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston, John Lee Hooker, Byrds, Prince Buster et al Album Reviews
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 6 May 1967
Some sophisticated new Motown albums ...
Singles from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Aretha Franklin, Lee Dorsey and Stevie Wonder
Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 21 October 1967
MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMI TERRELL: 'Your Precious Love'; 'Hold Me Oh My Darling' (Tamla Motown TMG 625). What a beautiful record this is. A medium-pace, ...
Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 13 January 1968
THE BIG R & B companies have a habit of LP release lists which make mouths watery with anticipation. Of course the omnipresent financial problem ...
New LPs from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Blue Cheer and John Fahey
Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 30 November 1968
Marvin and Tammi: big warm glow! ...
Albums from the Supremes and Marvin Gaye
Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 11 January 1969
THOSE TAMLA GOODIES ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bayou Country (Fantasy 8387)
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 19 January 1969
Second Album for Clearwater ...
Marvin Gaye: With The Solo Success Comes A Little Sadness
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 5 April 1969
MARVIN GAYE PHONES FROM DETROIT AS 'GRAPEVINE' HITS No. 1 ...
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 29 November 1969
THE PERSONABLE Mr. Gaye is in top form on this album, which teams him up with Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. Marvin has ...
A Study of Marvin Gaye's Liberation
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 12 June 1971
MARVIN GAYE is a mystery man. Most people know him as the singer who made the biggest-selling Motown record ever – 'I Heard It Through ...
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (Tamla-Motown)
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 23 July 1971
An in-depth review of Marvin Gaye's chart-topping American album, What's Going On. ...
Washington's Week Of Marvin Gaye
Report by Phil Symes, Disc, 3 June 1972
AFTER A self-imposed exile lasting almost four years, Marvin Gaye, whose What's Going On album was one of the most acclaimed of 1971, returned to ...
Stylistics sock it out sweetly
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 10 June 1972
THOUGH THE music of Detroit, Memphis and Muscle Shoals receives more publicity over here, the East Coast city of Philadelphia, just over 100 miles south ...
Comment by Bob Merlis, Words & Music, July 1972
WE'VE BEEN experiencing a remarkable phenomenon in recent months; the re-emergence of rhythm and blues as an important force in American popular music. Since it ...
Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man (Tamla Motown)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 13 January 1973
THE GAYE JAMES BOND ...
Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man (Motown); Diana Ross (And Others): Lady Sings the Blues (Motown)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973
SOCIOLOGISTS LIKE TO talk about black people mimicking whites, and I suppose that it is inherent in the presumptions most of us make about black ...
Marvin Gaye: Let's Get It On (Tamla)
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 28 September 1973
UNLESS A veritable monster soul single rears its head during the final quarter of this year, Marvin Gaye will have the pleasure of having the ...
The Pointers: Sign of a Wasted Rock Culture
Profile by Vernon Gibbs, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
ANYTIME THE American media welcomes a new act with such an overt display of scraping and bowing for superlatives, it's time to be suspicious. ...
Marvin Gaye: Let's Get It On (Tamla Motown STMA 8013 £2.38)
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 26 October 1973
IN A MINIMUM of words, this is THE album of the year! After the gem album, What's Going On, everyone has been wondering if marvellous ...
Entertainers: Ashford and Simpson
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Essence, December 1973
"OH, I JUST love Marvin Gaye," Valerie Simpson says, bouncing up and down with all the enthusiasm of an avid fan. "He's such a beautiful ...
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 6 December 1973
THE SMILING face of Diana Ross froze as she answered the question. The gauche bastard had just asked how she felt replacing Tammi Terrell in ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 8 October 1974
THOUGH JOHNNY Bristol has been involved with recording success for years now, his past track record stems from his career as a record producer. But ...
Marvin Gaye May Not Be Goin' On
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Zoo World, 7 November 1974
"SOMEBODY PLEASE turn that thing down," Marvin Gaye casts this weary appeal to one of the numerous aides that flitter through his suite in New ...
Marvin Gaye: I Want You (Tamla Motown) ****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 1 May 1976
MARVIN GAYE is in the fortunate or unfortunate position of being regarded as a prophet-cum-saviour. ...
Review by Simon Frith, Street Life, 15 May 1976
Temptations: Wings of LoveMarvin Gaye: I Want YouLee Garrett: Heat For The Feets EVEN SOUL musicians grow old and, though black music has never ...
Marvin Gaye: I Want You (Motown)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Circus, 10 August 1976
MARVIN GAYE, one of the most durable pop presences — his three-record compilation is easily the solidest of Motown's Anthology series — has in recent ...
Marvin Gaye (1976) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 28 September 1976
This is a transcript of Cliff's audio interview with the Motown legend, conducted in London the day after he played the Royal Albert Hall. Listen ...
Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Cliff White, Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
WELL, IT finally happened. After much speculation, confusion and gnashing of teeth, the rehirsuted one arrived in Britain for the first time in 12 years, ...
Marvin Gaye: Cool Soul Genius Wows Albert
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 9 October 1976
Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, LondonTHERE HAS to be a reason for hiring the Albert Hall. It's true that information sometimes gets lost over the ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 9 October 1976
MARVIN GAYE's chosen an interesting stage of his career to re-visit these shores after a 12-year absence. ...
The Marvin Gaye Interview: Earthly Fights and Mystic Flights
Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 9 October 1976
"HOW ARE you? I must say you have the patience of Job." ...
Interview by Tom Vickers, Phonograph Record, June 1977
COMPLEX, MYSTERIOUS, INSPIRED & STUBBORN KIND OF FELLOW ...
Marvin Gaye: Live at the London Palladium
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977
ALONG WITH Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye must be considered one of the most reticent pop performers. This is his second live album in three years, ...
Marvin Gaye, Average White Band: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 17 September 1977
Body and soul singer ...
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 6 January 1979
I SUPPOSE I should be grateful to the new Marvin Gaye album for something – I did a very surreal drawing in pencil while wading ...
Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear (Tamla Motown)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 6 January 1979
IF THE LANGUAGE is clearly familiar, the filling clear, the concept perhaps a little cloying then at least, at length, the soul is back to ...
Marvin Gaye: The Meek Shall Inherit... The Bankruptcy Court
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 6 January 1979
RING out the trumpets! Roll out the carpets! Marvin Gaye’s released his first studio album for two years! I’m tempted to add, Bring On The ...
Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear: A Masterpiece after all?
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979
EDITOR'S NOTE: A couple of weeks ago, Vivien Goldman trashed Marvin Gaye's new album in these columns. A dissenting voice pleads to be heard – ...
Stand Up For Your Rights, My Brothers: Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear
Report and Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 20 January 1979
WHILE TOURING Britain last September, the Temptations were not shy about slagging off their former record company, Motown. Numerous quotes from my interview with the ...
Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 16 June 1980
MARVIN GAYE'S music, which in his early days epitomized the high-octane energy so consistently produced by that greatest of all pop factories, Motown Records, moved ...
Marvin Gaye: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 21 June 1980
MARVIN GAYE'S show on Sunday was pure class. A bit schmaltzy in places, but still classy. When he arrived onstage in a conservative dark jacket, ...
Marvin Gaye: The Gaye-ity and Pain of the Love Man…
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 15 July 1980
In this B&S exclusive, Marvin Gaye tells Roger St. Pierre about his problems and his search for a soulmate, and runs through his next album, ...
Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime (Motown)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 7 February 1981
SOMEHOW ONE forgives the sermonising in Marvin Gaye that irritates in other soul stars. Visually he fits the bill – he might almost be the ...
Marvin Gaye: For Once In A Lifetime
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 21 February 1981
AFTER NEARLY two hours in that bedroom, Lydia finally gave up. By any standards she'd waited long enough for her Marvin Gaye interview – a ...
Marvin Gaye: Star in the Remaking
Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 February 1981
Marvin Gaye was Motown's blue-eyed boy of the '60s. Then, he fell dramatically. Mick Brown describes a soul man's self-searching. ...
The New Age Metaphysics Of Marvin Gaye
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 28 February 1981
Music, Love, Divinity, & The Shape Of Things To Come...The Motown Marvel feels The Force. ...
Smokey Robinson: Being With You (Tamla)/Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime (Tamla)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1981
THESE ALBUMS are blueprints for romantic strategies. Hearing them together is like eavesdropping on both halves of a double date, comparing style of seduction. ...
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 14 June 1981
ON SATURDAY nights in 1956, transistor radios in the hands of eager teenagers all over America shuddered with the sensual sound of Elvis Presley's 'Hound ...
Glad To Be Gaye: Marvin Gaye: Apollo Victoria, London
Live Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 27 June 1981
APART FROM the odd dash of Las Vegas, a little hammed up stage behaviour, and a constant projection of distracting holiday snaps of our hero ...
The Superstar: Much More Than The Just The music
Overview by Vernon Gibbs, Billboard, 5 June 1982
IT MAY be one of the most frequently misused of the music industry's accolades, since in a business full of stars there are few genuine ...
Marvin Gaye: Mr Midnight In The City Of Angels
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 11 December 1982
DON'T WALK along Sunset Boulevard, otherwise you'll end up as part of the freakshow on the sidewalk rather than a spectator at The Last Great ...
Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love (Columbia) ****
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1983
AS A COMEBACK album, Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love is remarkably arrogant: it simply picks up from 1973's Let's Get It On as if only ten ...
Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love (CBS)
Review by Carol Cooper, Musician, February 1983
UPON RELOCATING to England in 1981, Marvin Gaye complained to London's New Musical Express that his last Tamla release, In Our Lifetime, was flawed because ...
Marvin Gaye: Radio City Music Hall, New York
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 4 June 1983
THERE IS a video tape circulating around Black Rock (CBS corporate headquarters) that is a five-minute demonstration of Marvin Gaye's pure genius. It records a ...
Obituary by Mick Brown, The Guardian, April 1984
MARVIN GAYE, who was so shockingly killed in Los Angeles on Sunday, one day before his 45th birthday, was not only a consummate soul music ...
Obituary by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 7 April 1984
With the death of MARVIN GAYE, black music lost one of its most eloquent voices. Colin Irwin documents a brilliant but tempestuous career. ...
Marvin Gaye: Death Of A Midnight Lover – A Tribute To A Trouble Man
Obituary by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 7 April 1984
The romantic spirit of rising young black America in the '60s, Marvin Gaye evolved into a radical voice testifying pleasure and protest. A brilliant artist, ...
Marvin Gaye: Into the City of Angels
Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984
GAYE FUNERAL REPORT • FATHER CHARGED ...
Trouble Man: Marvin Gaye 1939-1984
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 May 1984
Long before the shooting, Marvin Gaye's life had become a nightmare of drugs, debts and family discord ...
Marvin Gaye: No-One Quite Like Him
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record, July 1984
Blessed with a cool born of control rather than emotional distance or reserve, Marvin Gaye was the artist who best expressed Motown's mix of disparate ...
No One Quite Like Him: The Art and Artistry of Marvin Gaye
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record, July 1984
I USED TO think Marvin Gaye was the most underrated soul singer of the '60s. Now I'd expand that judgment, not only because of his ...
David Ritz: Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye (McGraw-Hill; 367 pages; $16.95)
Book Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 May 1985
The Sordid Story of An R&B 'Angel' ...
Furor over X-rated Marvin Gaye LP
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1985
Co-producer says he changed lyrics to one song; associates blast quality of other tracks ...
Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime (Columbia)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1985
JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to go back into the bedroom, here comes Dream Of A Lifetime, an appropriately kinky coda to the ...
Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye (by David Ritz, Michael Joseph £6.95)
Book Review by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 7 September 1985
BIOGRAPHER RITZ, who was collaborating on a life of Marvin Gaye with the soul singer when events overtook him, was certainly in the cat-bird seat ...
Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1985
PRETTY STRANGE DUDE this Marvin Gaye. What's Goin' On, indeed. Lived his last days inna free base daze, died in a hard-to-believe Oedipal nightmare. ...
Berry Gordy: The Tracks of My Years
Interview by Michael Goldberg, New Musical Express, 18 August 1990
BERRY GORDY, the man who invented the "Sound of Young America", has seen the story of his monumentally influential Motown label told in a succession ...
Report by Lloyd Bradley, The Independent, 9 May 1991
Lloyd Bradley on the changing fortunes of the Motown label ...
Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear (Motown)
Review by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, 1 December 1993
ALMOST SILENTLY, Motown have finally issued this all-but-forgotten masterpiece on CD. ...
Marvin Gaye: The Ostend of the Road
Film/DVD/TV Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 28 March 1994
Arena's vivid documentary evokes Marvin Gaye's final years ...
Marvin Gaye: The Classics Collection/Dream Of A Lifetime/Romantically Yours
Review by Nick Coleman, MOJO, October 1994
IN 1985, a year after his death, Gaye's Dream Of A Lifetime and Romantically Yours appeared in the CBS catalogue to confirm what we already ...
Marvin Gaye: The Master 1961-1984 (Motown)
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, July 1995
BIOGRAPHER DAVID RITZ HAS WRITTEN thousands and thousands of words on the ineffable talent of Marvin Gaye. This is possible. So all-encompassing are the pleasures ...
Young Crooners Learn The Subtle Art of Seduction
Report by Amy Linden, The New York Times, 7 April 1996
A QUIET revolution is at hand in urban music. Gone is the boasting about the girl you seduced last night and can't remember today. These ...
Marvin Gaye: Ed Townsend Remembers Marvin Gaye
Profile and Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, 23 October 1998
MOTOWN'S MARVIN GAYE more so than any other male soul singer, represented the essence of the seventies. ...
Retrospective by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2000
"His fears mounted — nuclear apocalypse, gunmen out to get him…" ...
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, May 2001
SOME YEARS ago I interviewed Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile for MOJO. A musician known for his restless lifestyle, I asked him if there ...
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, July 2001
13 of the 30-odd albums released in the his lifetime: five twofers from the Sixties, an expanded 30th anniversary edition of his 1971 classic and ...
Marvellous Marvin Reconsidered
Book Excerpt by Ian MacDonald, 'The People's Music' (Pimlico), July 2003
RARELY DID AN artistic persona run more counter to the truth than in the case of Marvin Gaye. Onstage, he was the quintessence of urbanity: ...
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2004
Marvin Gaye was the first superstar of soul. He was also a tortured narcissus in thrall to sexual and narcotic cravings. And then, on April ...
Time Machine June 1981: Marvin the Paranoid Singer
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, June 2004
"MARVIN GAYE'S British tour is back on again," claimed a press report. "The dates originally announced were scrapped 48 hours later, on the grounds that ...
Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, Los Angeles Times, 29 October 2004
THE ROLLING Stones were there, along with James Brown, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye and more, filmed live before their screaming ...
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Radio Times, 2005
FOR SOME PEOPLE, the terms "Soul" and "Motown" are almost synonymous. When they think of soul music, timeless sounds and images of the Supremes and ...
Essay by David Stubbs, The Guardian, 19 November 2005
IN SPRING 1981, in an act akin to James Brown relocating to Hull, a 42-year-old cash-strapped Marvin Gaye took the Southampton ferry to the Belgian ...
Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye
Book Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2005
DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY of the Trouble Man ...
Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear: Deal Me Out
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 17 February 2008
At the age of 39, Marvin Gaye's marriage hit the rocks, and he was forced into the studio to pay the divorce fees. Reissued 30 ...
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 19 September 2008
He co-wrote and produced some of Motown's greatest hits ...
Review by Daryl Easlea, bbc.co.uk, 2009
The very essence of Marvin Gaye as the sensualist ...
Why the early '70s was the greatest period for live soul albums
Guide by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, December 2016
JAMES BROWN invented the modern live soul album with the release of Live at the Apollo in 1963, and Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and Etta ...
Inner Sleeve: Marvin Gaye's I Want You (Tamla)
Comment by Michael A. Gonzales, The Wire, August 2018
This month's artwork chosen by Michael A Gonzales. Cover painting by Ernie Barnes ...
see also Tammi Terrell
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