Marvin Gaye — I Want You
By the turn of the 1970s, Marvin Gaye gained new heights of success and critical acclaim with What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On. An album dedicated to his future wife, I Want You dives deeper into sexual themes and eroticism when compared to his previous album.
Marvin Gaye
By 1976, Marvin Gaye went through a tremendous artistic evolution since his Motown introduction in 1961 with his debut album, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye. In the 1960s he released nine studio albums and five collaborative albums, three of which with Tammi Terrell. Gaining chart topping singles along the way with songs such as Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and You’re All I Need, both performed with Terrell. 1970 saw the release of his tenth album, That’s the Way Love Is, a respectable album that continued to sonically follow the Motown sound that was highly successful during the previous decade.
However, by 1971 Gaye would release an album that would revolutionise not only his own career, but would revolutionise Soul music. What's Goin On, showed Gaye taking a different direction, releasing a socially conscious concept album centered around themes of poverty, social injustice and the impacts of the Vietnam War. The album would go on to be a critical and commercial success, giving Gaye a new found level of respect as an artist and with many viewing it as one of the best albums of all time.
Marvin Gaye with Janis Hunter Gaye
The following year showed Gaye taking another musical turn with Trouble Man. A soundtrack album both written and produced by the singer for the Trouble Man movie, with Marvin scoring another commercial success with the title track. Continuing his tremendous work ethic, Gaye would yet again release another career defining album with Let’s Get It On, this time creating a spiritual healing album centred around both love and sex.
With I Want You, Gaye teamed up with fellow Motown musician, Leon Ware. The album dives deeper into themes of sex, however in a more erotic manner. Additionally, the album is also influenced by Janis Hunter Gaye, Marvin’s second wife.
The album starts off with the title track and lead single. On the song, Marvin fights for his partner’s love, as he sings on the chorus “I want you, but I want you to want me to”. Sonically, the song is beautiful and it is well produced, the use of live instrumentation with various instruments such as bongos, guitars and drums blend incredibly well together. The follow up, “Come Live With Me Angel” is another standout from the album, Marvin effortlessly sings over the jazz instrumental, singing about his desire for his lover to live with him in isolation.
The album takes the turn towards sensuality, with “Feel My Love Inside”, this is perhaps where it’s most obvious that the album is centered around Janice Hunter Gaye. She is essentially Marvin’s muse. This is also the case with other songs on the album, like “Soon I’ll Be Loving You Again”. Records like the two just mentioned were defining moments, as they were sexually charged and incredibly detailed for its time, for example on the latter Marvin sings “I want to give you some head” a lyric like that was unheard of at the time.
Unfortunately, there is a gripe that I have with the album. During the album, there are jam sessions of repeated instrumentals, for example there are two “I Want You” jam sessions where the instrumental of the lead single is just repeated. The third track is an instrumental of the last track, “After the Dance”. These tracks, instrumentals or jam sessions are completely unnecessary and don’t serve a purpose. They seem to be fillers just to make the album longer, and can ruin the flow of the album. If instrumental interludes were wanted, why not place something different instead of reusing the production of songs within the album?
Besides that, the rest of the album is phenomenal. ”Since I Had You” is incredibly well written, as the song is based around Marvin reuniting with a previous lover and wanting her back. Whilst the album closes off just as strong as it started, with the second single from the album, “After the Dance”. Soulfully singing over one of the album’s most laid back instrumentals, “After the Dance” is just so smooth it just puts a smile on your face.
Though many will view What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On as Marvin’s greatest pieces of art, I Want You should receive huge amounts of praise as well. Do I believe that it’s on the same level as the previous two albums? I don’t. Although, its influence on R&B and Soul music is clear, especially on artists such as D’Angelo, Erykah Badu and even Sade. I Want You is a part of Marvin’s incredible run during the 1970s, where he solidified himself as one of the greatest artists of all time. Creative, bold and inventive is what Marvin Gaye was, and I Want You is proof of that.