Trouble Man (album)
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| Trouble Man | ||
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| Soundtrack by Marvin Gaye | ||
| Released | December 8, 1972 | |
| Recorded | 1972 | |
| Genre | Soul/Funk | |
| Length | 38:25 | |
| Label | Tamla | |
| Producer(s) | Marvin Gaye | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Marvin Gaye chronology | ||
| What's Going On (1971) |
Trouble Man (1972) |
Let's Get It On (1973) |
The Trouble Man soundtrack album was an experimental 1972 music project for Marvin Gaye.
Fresh off the left-field base success of his classic 1971 album, What's Going On, Gaye was intrigued by Hollywood. Early in Gaye's career, he was given a chance to play his idol Sam Cooke in a proposed movie about the slain singer's life, but turned it down because he felt it odd about a movie being made on someone who died only months before. Gaye had also acted in two films, including The Ballad of Andy Crocker and Hot Chrome and Leather. The singer moved to Los Angeles in 1972 after he accepted the offer to do a soundtrack album.
Like Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield, Gaye took to recording a soundtrack for a blaxploitation film. Trouble Man. This one, a thriller based in the ghetto, was made solely for the soundtrack Gaye composed and produced himself. Unlike Superfly and Shaft, the soundtrack to Trouble Man doesn't feature love songs; except for a few vocal jabs by Gaye, it is made up entirely of instrumental pieces. The title track was released in several different mixes. The vocal version became another big hit for Gaye, reaching #7 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart in 1973.
Critics deem Trouble Man on par with Hayes and Mayfield's albums. Gaye was soon followed by other contemporaries including James Brown (Black Caesar), Willie Hutch (The Mack; Foxy Brown) and Barry White (The Together Brothers) .
The "Trouble Man" song was Gaye's venture into a more blues influenced sound missing from his previous work. According to Gaye, the song was autobiographical to his nature. Years after his death, the message of "Trouble Man" has reigned as true as anything Gaye has recorded, and was also the title of a Marvin Gaye biography: Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye.
[edit] Track listing
- "Main Theme From Trouble Man (2)" (Gaye) – 2:30
- "'T' Plays It Cool" (Gaye) – 4:27
- "Poor Abbey Walsh" (Gaye) – 4:13
- "The Break In (Police Shoot Big)" (Gaye) – 1:57
- "Cleo's Apartment" (Gaye) – 2:10
- "Trouble Man" (Gaye) – 3:49
- "Theme From Trouble Man" (Gaye) – 2:01
- "'T' Stands For Trouble" (Gaye) – 4:48
- "Main Theme From Trouble Man (1)" (Gaye) – 3:52
- "Life is a Gamble" (Gaye) – 2:32
- "Deep in It" (Gaye) – 1:25
- "Don't Mess with Mister 'T'" (Gaye) – 3:04
- "There Goes Mister 'T'" (Gaye) – 1:37
