Let's Get It On

Let's Get It On is the twelfth studio album by American soul musician Marvin Gaye, released August 28, 1973, on Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during June 1970 to July 1973 at Hitsville U.S.A. and Golden World Studio in Detroit, and at Hitsville West in Los Angeles. Serving as Gaye's first venture into the funk genre and romance-themed music, Let's Get It On incorporates smooth soul, doo-wop, and quiet storm. It has been noted by critics for its sexually suggestive lyrics, and was cited by one writer as "one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded".

Following the breakthrough success of his socially conscious album What's Going On (1971), the album helped establish Marvin Gaye as a sex icon and furthered his mainstream appeal. It spawned three singles, "Let's Get It On", "Come Get to This", and "You Sure Love to Ball", that each attained Billboard chart success. Let's Get It On became the most commercially successful album of Gaye's recording career, and it further expanded his creative control during his tenure with Motown. Its sexual balladry, multi-tracking of Gaye's vocals, and seductive, funk sound influenced later R&B artists and production.

The album has been regarded by many music writers and critics as a landmark recording in soul music. It furthered funk music's popularity during the 1970s, and its smooth soul sound marked a change for his record label's previous success with the "Motown Sound" formula. In 2001, Let's Get It On was reissued by Motown Records as a two-disc deluxe edition release featuring extensive liner notes and digital remastering, as well as several material from the initial recording sessions. In 2003, the album was ranked number 165 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Background

In the spring of 1972, Marvin Gaye was suffering from writer's block.^[1] Following the release of his most commercially successful album up to that point, What's Going On (1971), and the soundtrack album to the blaxploitation film Trouble Man (1972), Gaye had struggled to come up with new material after Motown Records had renegotiated a new contract with him. The contract provided him with more creative control over his recordings. The deal was worth $ 1 million, making him the highest-earning soul artist, as well as the highest-earning black artist, at the time.^[2] He was also struggling with deciding whether or not to relocate to Los Angeles, following Motown-CEO Berry Gordy's move of the record label and replacement of the Detroit-based Hitsville U.S.A. (Motown Studio A) recording studio with the Hitsville West studio in Los Angeles. Amid relocation and his lack of material, Gaye was struggling with his conscience, as well as dealing with expectations from his wife, Gordy's sister Anna. Gaye's separation from Gordy pressured him emotionally. During this time, he had also been attempting to cope with past issues that had stemmed from his childhood.^[1]

During his childhood, Gaye had been physically abused by his preacher father Marvin Gay, Sr., who disciplined his son under extremely moralistic and fundamentalist Christian teachings. As a result, the meaning and practice of sex had later become a disturbing question for Gaye. As an adult, he suffered with sexual impotence and became plagued by sadomasochistic fantasies, which haunted him in his dreams and provoked some guilt in his conscience. According to Gaye's biographer David Ritz, "his view of sex was unsettled, tormented, riddled with pain".^[3] Gaye learned to cope with his personal issues with a newly found spirituality. He began incorporating his new outlook into his music, as initially expressed through the socially conscious album What's Going On, along with promotional photos of him wearing a kufi in honor of African traditional religions and his faith.^[1]

Concept and recording

By winning over record executives with the success of his previous studio album, Gaye had also achieved artistic freedom, which he would use, following his brief separation from wife Anna Gordy, to record a studio album that was meant, according to Gaye's intentions, to surface themes beyond sex.^[3] As with What's Going On, the album was also intended to have a deeper meaning than the general theme that was used to portray it; in the case of the former, politics, and with its follow-up effort, love and romance, which would be used by Gaye as a metaphor for God's love.^[3] In his book Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, David Ritz wrote of Gaye and the musical inspiration behind Gaye's second landmark record:

If the most profound soul songs are prayers in secular dress, Marvin's prayer is to reconcile the ecstasy of his early religious epiphany with a sexual epiphany. The hope for such a reconciliation, the search for sexual healing, is what drives his art ... The paradox is this: The sexiest of Marvin Gaye's work is also his most spiritual. That's the paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers—the hunger for God. In those songs of loss and lament—the sense of separation is heartbreaking. On one level, the separation is between man and woman. On a deeper level, the separation is between man and God.^[4]

—David Ritz

Gaye proceeded to record some more politically-conscious material at the Golden World Records studio, known as Motown's Studio B, as well as the preliminary vocals and instrumentation for some of the material to be featured on Let's Get It On.^[5] Following the earlier sessions in Detroit at Golden World, Gaye recorded at Hitsville West in Los Angeles from February to July 1973.^[5] Accompanied by an experienced group of session musicians called The Funk Brothers, who had contributed to Gaye's What's Going On, and received their first official credit, Gaye recorded the unreleased songs "The World is Rated X" and "Where Are We Going" and the single "You're the Man" (1972) at Golden World.^[5] "Where Are We Going" was later covered by trumpeter Donald Byrd. Gaye had planned the release of an album titled You're the Man, but it was later shelved for unknown reasons. The songs that were to be included on it, along with other unreleased recordings from Hitsville West and Golden World, were later featured on the 2001 re-release of Let's Get It On.^[6]

The album's first recording, "Let's Get It On", was composed by Gaye with friend and former Motown label mate, singer-songwriter Ed Townsend, of "For Your Love" fame.^[1] Following a brief discussion with him, Gaye agreed to record the rough draft of a song the two artists had worked on together.^[1] Townsend assisted Gaye with production for the rest of the album, which was to be titled after the former song. Let's Get It On was recorded at several sessions throughout 1970 to 1973.^[5]

Music

Title track

Originally, the opening song and title track on Let's Get It On was written as a religious ode to life, but was later re-written as a more political first draft of the song by Motown songwriter, producer and singer Kenneth Stover.^[1] Upon hearing Gaye's preliminary mix of the political version of "Let's Get It On", Townsend protested and claimed that the song would sound and fare better with sexual and romantic overtones. In his words, he thought the song "should be about making sweet love."^[7] Gaye and Townsend then rewrote the song's lyrics together with the original arrangements and musical accompaniment of the demo intact. The well-known single version of "Let's Get It On" was inspired by Janis Hunter, whom Gaye had become infatuated with, following their introduction to each other by Ed Townsend during the initial sessions.^[1] Townsend later cited Hunter's presence during recording of the album as motivational for Gaye's emotional input.^[8] Gaye's intimate relationship with Hunter later would become the basis for his next studio album I Want You (1976).^[9]

The single version of "Let's Get It On" featured soulful and emotional vocalizing and performing by Gaye with multi-tracked background singing, also provided by Gaye, accompanied by the song's signature, and most notable feature, the funky guitar instrumentation by studio session player Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin.^[10] Music journalist Jon Landau has dubbed the song "a classic Motown single, endlessly repeatable and always enjoyable".^[10] In a 1973 article on Let's Get It On for Rolling Stone, Landau elaborated on the song's notable style and sound, as he wrote:

It begins with three great wah-wah notes that herald the arrival of a vintage Fifties melody. But while the song centers around classically simple chord changes, the arrangement centers around a slightly eccentric rhythm pattern that deepens the song's power while covering it with a contemporary veneer. Above all, it has Marvin Gaye's best singing at its center, fine background voices on the side, and a long, moody fade-out...^[10]

—Jon Landau

"Let's Get It On" was reprised on the fourth track of the album as "Keep Gettin' It On", also known as "Let's Get It On, Pt. 2", which served as the sequel and continuation of the original song. While continuing with the title track's overall sensual theme, it also carried some political, as demonstrated in the line "won't you rather make love, children/as opposed to war, like you know you should." The track ended the first side of the album, which was entirely produced by Townsend and Gaye together.^[10] Throughout the recording of the title track, Gaye became inspired to revive previous recordings from his 1970 sessions at the Hitsville U.S.A. Studio, which he had yet to finish.^[1]

Content

The tracks from the earlier sessions includes the doo-wop-leaning "Come Get to This", "Distant Lover", and "Just to Keep You Satisfied". "Distant Lover" has Gaye crooning over serene instrumentation, leading to soulful screams near the end; from a heartbroken croon to an impassioned wail.^[11] The song's lyrics chronicled the yearning its narrator feels for a lover who is "so many miles away", as he pleads for her return and laments the emptiness he feels without her. Music writer Donarld A. Guarisco later wrote of the song's sound, in that "Marvin Gaye's studio recording enhances the dreamy style of the song with stately horn and strings, tumbling drum fills that gently nudge the song along, and mellow, doo wop-styled background vocals that echo "love her, you love her" under his romantic pleas.^[11] The song later became a concert favorite for Gaye and a live concert version, featuring female fans screaming in the background, was released as a single off of his Marvin Gaye Live! album in 1974.^[11] Gaye and Townsend worked on four songs together, including the ballad "If I Should Die Tonight", while Gaye composed the majority of the remaining four songs, re-examining older songs.^[6]

The smooth soul album closer "Just to Keep You Satisfied" was originally recorded by Motown groups, including The Originals and The Monitors, and had been originally recorded as a song dedicated to long-standing love.^[6] By the time Gaye recorded his own version, he had re-written the lyrics and arrangement of the song to talk about the demise of his volatile marriage to Anna Gordy Gaye, who was, ironically, the original song's co-writer.^[1] Background vocals for the material on Let's Get It On were contributed by Marvin Gaye with the exception of "Just to Keep You Satisfied", which were done by The Originals, and featured a classic doo-wop vocalizing style. Most of the instrumentation for the album was done by members of The Funk Brothers, including bassist James Jamerson, guitarists Robert White and Eddie Willis, and percussionist Eddie "Bongo" Brown. Marvin also contributed on piano during the recording sessions.^[12]

"You Sure Love to Ball", recorded at Hitsville West, is one of Gaye's most sexually overt and controversial singles, with its intro and outro featuring moaning sounds made by a man and woman engaged in sex.^[13] The sexual-explicit and risqué nature of the album's content were, at the time, controversial, and the recording of such an album was deemed as a commercial risk by Motown A&R's (Artists and Repertoire) and label executives.^[13] In the album's liner notes, Gaye explained his views on the themes of sex and love, stating "I can't see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies. I think we make far too much of it. After all, one's genitals are just one important part of the magnificent human body ... I contend that SEX IS SEX and LOVE IS LOVE. When combined, they work well together, if two people are of about the same mind. But they are really two discrete needs and should be treated as such. Time and space will not permit me to expound further, especially in the area of the psyche. I don't believe in overly moralistic philosophies. Have your sex, it can be exciting, if you're lucky. I hope the music that I present here makes you lucky."^[14]

Reception

Commercial performance

Released on August 28, 1973, Let's Get It On surpassed Gaye's previous studio effort, What's Going On, as the best-selling record of his tenure with Motown.^[15] The album peaked at number two on the US Billboard Top LPs chart, succeeded by The Rolling Stones's Goats Head Soup (1973),^[16] while it also managed to reach number one in Cash Box for one week, as well as two weeks at the top of Record World's music charts.^[17]. Let's Get It On charted for 61 weeks on the Billboard charts,^[18] and remained at the top of the Billboard Soul Albums for 11 weeks, becoming the best-selling soul album of 1973.^[19] The album's lead single, "Let's Get It On", became one of Gaye's most successful singles, as it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on September 8, 1973.^[20] It remained at number one for two weeks, while also remaining at the top of the Billboard Soul Singles chart for eight weeks.^[19] The single was at that time Motown's largest-selling recording ever, selling over three million copies between 1973 and 1975.^[21] On June 25, 2007, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies in the United States.^[22]

Two of the album's singles reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including "Let's Get It On", which became Gaye's second number-one US single, and the top-30 hit "Come Get to This", which peaked at number 23 on the chart.^[23] The album's third single, "You Sure Love to Ball", charted at number 50 on the Hot 100 and at number 13 on the Soul Singles chart.^[23] Along with the album's music and sexual content, Let's Get It On's commercial success and promotion helped establish Marvin Gaye as a sex icon, while helping further expand his artistic control during his tenure at Motown.^[24] This commercial success also lead to a much publicized tour for Gaye to promote Let's Get It On and expand on his repertoire as a live performer.^[19] Successful concert performances of the album's material helped Gaye gain an increasing popularity and fan base in the pop market, while earning him a reputation as one of the top live performers of the time.^[19] His performance at the Oakland Coliseum during the 1973-1974 tour was released on the 1974 LP Live!, which would serve as Gaye's only release during his sabbatical period in the mid-1970s.^[25]

Critical response

Let's Get It On received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its seductive sound, groove, and Gaye's sexual innuendo and lyrics.^[18] Billboard called it "fine in terms of vocal attack and material [...] touches on the excellent in terms of instrumental support", while citing the title track and "Distant Lover" as the album's best recordings.^[18] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone found Gaye's performance on-par with that of What's Going On and complimented its themes of love and sex, stating "he continues to transmit that same degree of intensity, sending out near cosmic overtones while eloquently phrasing the sometimes simplistic lyrics".^[10] Landau found its second side "more daring and self-conscious" than the first and concluded by elaborating on its flaws and strengths, "Let's Get It On is as personal as What's Goin' On but lacks that album's series of highpoints. Instead, it ebbs and flows, occasionally threatening to spend itself on an insufficiency of ideas, but always retrieved, just in time, by Gaye's performance. From first note to last, he keeps pushing and shoving, and if he sometimes takes one step back for every two ahead, he gets there just the same — and with style and spirit to spare".^[10] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating and described it as "Post-Al Green What's Going On, which means it's about fucking rather than the human condition, thank the wholly holey".^[28] He viewed its title track "as much a masterpiece as 'Inner City Blues'", concluding that "this album prolongs its seductive groove to an appropriate thirty minutes plus".^[28]

Since its initial reception, Let's Get It On has been viewed by writers as a milestone in soul music.^[31] In his book The Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time, music critic Jimmy Guterman stated, "Let's Get It On was a bit more conventional musically (soul crossing into mild funk) and much more focused lyrically than its predecessor, What's Going On".^[18] Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot commended Gaye for using "the multi-tracked vocals perfected on 'What's Going On', this time to convey his most intimate desires", commenting that "while the album is replete with erotic imagery, both implied and explicit, it is also as much preoccupied with distance and unfulfilled need".^[27] Jason Ankeny of Allmusic called it "a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy", writing that "Always a sexually charged performer, Gaye's passions reach their boiling point [...] With each performance laced with innuendo, each lyric a come-on, and each rhythm throbbing with lust, perhaps no other record has ever achieved the kind of sheer erotic force of Let's Get It On, and it remains the blueprint for all of the slow jams to follow decades later — much copied, but never imitated."^[15] Ankeny dubbed it "one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded."^[24] Allmusic's Lindsey Planer has cited the album as a "hedonistic R&B masterpiece."^[6] BBC Online's Daryl Easlea found Gaye "in supreme command of his material", and viewed it as "much more than an album about simple lust [...] an iconic, rapturous work, but one very much laced with Gaye’s doubt and uncertainty. That said, many will be too busy basking in the glorious mood that the album creates to notice any dissent whatsoever".^[34]

Much like What's Going On, Let's Get It On has been included in a significant amount of "best album" lists by critics and publications.^[35] It was ranked number 58 on The Times's 1993 publication of the 100 Best Albums of All Time.^[36] Blender magazine ranked the album number 15 on its list of the 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time.^[35] In 2003, it was ranked number 165 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time publication, his second highest entry on the list,^[37] as well as one of three Marvin Gaye albums to be included; What's Going On (number 6) and Here, My Dear (number 462).^[38] In 2004, Let's Get It On was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and cited by The Recording Academy as a recording of "historical significance".^[39]

Legacy and influence

Motown

Because of the album and its singles' initial sales and response, Let's Get It On marked a change and transition in sound and production for Motown, which had previously enjoyed success with its trademark "Motown Sound". The label's well-known sound, however, was beginning to fade in popularity among the majority of R&B and soul listeners, while experiencing commercial pressure from contemporary styles that incorporated more diverse elements, such as Philly soul and funk.^[8] The Motown sound was typified by characteristics such as the use of tambourines to accent the back beat, prominent and often melodic electric bass guitar lines, distinctive melodic and chord structures, and a call and response singing style that originated in gospel music. In addition, pop production techniques were simpler than that of Gaye's 1970s concept albums. Complex arrangements and elaborate, melismatic vocal riffs were avoided by Motown musicians.^[8] Following his breakthrough with What's Going On, an "experiment in collating a pseudo-classical suite of free-flowing songs",^[40] Gaye used his artistic control to modify the sound and incorporate funky instrumentation, melismatic vocalization, and heavy vocal multi-tracking, in much contrast to the established production style at the label. In contrast to Motown's previously successful process of emphasizing an artist's single releases rather than their album, Gaye and fellow producer Ed Townsend followed a similar formula previously used on What's Going On, in which the album's songs flow together in a suite-form arrangement,^[41] opposing label CEO Berry Gordy's strong emphasis on hit single success.^[40]

R&B and soul

The album has affirmed Gaye's influence over later R&B styles and artists.^[31] Gaye's change of musical style and production soon became contemporary and popular, prior to the disco era of the late 1970s. Several successful Motown artists, including Lionel Richie and Rick James, were influenced by much of the elements of Gaye's recording style for their work in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[8] The slow jam sound and modern soul music production in general were greatly influenced by the album's use of vocal multi-tracking and instrumentation. Renown engineer Russell Elevado's work in the neo soul genre, including his production for D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000) and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), has been influenced by Gaye's and Townsend's production techniques and sound.^[8][42] The music atmosphere of the 1970s was heavily influenced by its success and sexual content, as its sexual-explicitness bended creative barriers in the music industry and led to an increased popularity of sexual themes in music at the time.^[8] Music writer Rob Bowman later cited Let's Get It On as "one of the most erotic recordings known to mankind."^[18] The album's success helped spark a series of similarly-styled releases by such smooth soul artists as Barry White (Can't Get Enough), Smokey Robinson (A Quiet Storm) and Earth, Wind & Fire (That's the Way of the World).^[8] The commercial success of such recording artists led to a change of trend from socially-conscious aesthetics to more mainstream, sensually-themed music.^[43] Gaye himself experienced subsequent success with his follow-up release I Want You (1976), featuring more sexually-explicit lyrics and expanded use of vocal multi-tracking, and with Here, My Dear (1978), which he based entirely on his tumultuous marriage to Anna Gordy.^[8] In an interview with music author Michael Eric Dyson, hip hop artist Q-Tip discussed the album's influence and significance to its time period, stating:

Although there was a 'conscious' revolution, there was also a great sexual revolution ... I think Let's Get It On was Marvin wanting to make commentary on what was happening. I think there was a big 'love-in' that was going on. And with him quoting T.S. Elliot [in his liner notes, that life amounts to "Birth, copulation and death"], and the young lady moaning [on the album], we hadn't heard that before. That was another first, as well as him capturing erotica like that, and weaving it into the music the way he did; it was mind blowing. I think it was a natural progression, because we were having a revolution with our minds, and then with our bodies at that time.^[43]

—Q-Tip

Following the success of funk records such as Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) and James Brown's late 1960s and early 1970s singles, Gaye's Let's Get It On helped further the funk genre's reach and influence in the music industry, as well as increase its mainstream appeal. Several contemporary R&B musicians, such as Prince, D'Angelo and R. Kelly, were greatly influenced by its vintage sound and seductive themes, incorporating much of Gaye's musical style into their music.^[8]

Track listing

Original LP

Deluxe edition

On September 18, 2001, Let's Get It On was reissued by Motown as a two-disc deluxe edition release, featuring 24-bit digital remastering of the original album's recordings, previously unissued material and a 24-page booklet which contains the original LP liner notes by Marvin Gaye, as well as essays from Gaye biographers David Ritz and Ben Edmunds.^[6]

Personnel

• Arrangement, Conduction (Orchestra): David Van DePitte (tracks: B1 to B4), Gene Page (tracks: B1), Rene Hall (tracks: A4)
• Bass: James Jamerson, Wilton Felder
• Bongos: Bobbye Hall Porter
• Bongos, Drums: Eddie "Bongo" Brown
• Drums: Paul Humphrey, Uriel Jones
• Engineer: William McKeekin, Art Stewart, Steve Smith, Lawrence Miles, Cal Harris
• Guitar: David T. Walker, Eddie Willis, Lewis Shelton, Melvin Ragin, Robert White
• Percussion (Mallettes): Emil Richards
• Percussion (Special Treatment): Bobbye Hall Porter, Ernie Watts, Plas Johnson
• Piano: Joe Sample, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Jerkins
• Photography: Jim Britt, Motown Archives
• Production, Lead vocals, Background vocals: Marvin Gaye, except where noted:
  • Background vocals: The Originals ("Just to Keep You Satisfied")
  • Co-production: Ed Townsend (tracks: A1 to A4)
• Vibraphone: Emil Richards, Victor Feldman

Charts

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to Let's Get It On is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net.^[35]

See also

• List of number-one R&B albums of 1973 (U.S.)
• Smooth soul

Notes

References

External links

• Let's Get It On at Discogs
• Let's Get It On (Deluxe Edition) at Allmusic