Here, My Dear (1978)
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye is one of the most impactful artists in the history of modern pop music. In 1978, well after establishing himself as a soul music icon, he released Here, My Dear. The double album was considered a flop when it came out, but has since formed a reputation as a one of the definitive anomalies in pop music. Here, My Dear did not see even a shred of the immense commercial success as its predecessors What’s Going On or Let’s Get it On. Gaye did not make it with the intent of succeeding, and the entire foundation of this record is rooted in self-loathing and bitterness. In many ways, Here, My Dear is the anti Let’s Get it On, but with an underlying beauty in how raw and emotionally human it is. This divorce record is a rare pop culture anomaly that could have only been made one time, and only by an artist of his stature.
Prior to 1971, the year that he released his landmark record, What’s Going On, there was a calculated formula for the aesthetic of Motown Records. Between 1962-1967, the majority of Motown recordings consistently relied on a blueprint created by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, & Eddie Holland. These three names may not be as well known as Marvin, The Jackson 5 or Stevie Wonder, but Holland-Dozier-Holland (H-D-H) was the holy trinity of charting music in the 60s, with Eddie handling lyrics and Brian/Lamont behind the musical compositions.
At the turning point of 1961, Marvin Gaye ditched a record contract with Chess Records, and signed with label head Barry Gordy to Tamla, which eventually became Motown. This also marked the point in which Gaye began his venture as a solo artist. Most people know the general sound of Motown circa the 60s. There is a very clear parallel between timeless hits like Gaye's own "Ain't No Mountain High'' or The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love." These songs sound noticeably similar because of the H-D-H blueprint. The vocalists were integral to these recordings, but the success would not exist without the core trio. As it has happened far too frequently before and since, the H-D-H/Gordy camaraderie came to a halt in 1967 in the form of a predictable legal dispute over royalties from the massive success across the Motown catalog. By 1968, the trio and Motown parted ways, creating the illusion of a guillotine above the future Motown Records.
(Left to Right: Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland)
Shortly after the demise of H-D-H, Gordy had no choice but to rethink the sonic blueprint of Motown. This resulted in one of the most innovative risks ever taken in pop music. With the absence of the trio that fueled the success of the label throughout the prior decade, Gordy turned the majority of ongoing creative control over to his biggest artists. With this new framework in place, Marvin Gaye began recording What’s Going On, a record which cemented his legacy as a profound and game-changing mega-artist.
Upon the release of What’s Going On in 1971, Gaye set a new precedent for “the concept album”. What’s Going On didn’t only begin a new chapter for Marvin Gaye, it shifted the sound of mainstream music permanently--but that was only the start for Marvin. Between 1971 and 1978, Gaye released five uniquely conceptual records, each one tackling a different sub-topic and more importantly, broadened his stylistic capabilities as an artist. Every track on What’s Going On contained a political undertone, zeroing in on topics such as injustice and racism. On Let's Get it On (1973), Gaye explored sexuality in a format unlike the majority of prior soul records, his album intentionally focused on the physical act of sex. I Want You (1976), a cult favorite, turned the sexual overtones that drove Let's Get it On, and integrated actual emotion and connection into his expansive soulful recipe. As time passed, Gaye never released a record that received the same universal acclaim as What’s Going On. Even with the overwhelming success and influence of What’s Going On, it remains impossible to understand Gaye’s legacy without examining his catalog further.
(Pictured Above: Marvin Gaye)
By 1978, Marvin Gaye and sex were synonymous. Sex was the primary topic of almost every song he released after What’s Going On. In the early 60s, Gaye married Barry Gordy’s sister, Anna Gordy. Anna was also a key to Motown’s success throughout the 1960s, co-composing several hits for artists such as Stevie Wonder & Marvin himself. In fact, Anna had significant ties to Marvin’s success, even co-writing songs on What’s Going On. For years, the couple’s marriage persisted through a lack of stability and trust, and fueled the fire for some of Gaye’s most famous heartbreak ballads, like “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”. By 1975, Anna filed for divorce. Nearly five years after the couple decided to separate, Anna Gordy & Marvin Gaye legally ended their marriage, with one of the final agreements leaving 50% of Gaye’s upcoming LP royalties to Anna Gordy. A very public divorce led Marvin to a traumatic personal crisis, which reached a breaking point in 1976 when he was arrested for failing to pay alimony on time. During this time, Gaye started recording the beginnings of Here, My Dear, all while leading the most private life possible.
Unlike the concepts he tackled previously, this project would not only pivot away from the topic of love, but actively refute it. Gaye spent nearly all of his career with Gordy, for better or worse. When their marriage fell apart, Gaye adopted a new persona full of fury and disdain toward his ex-wife. Here, My Dear is a cold depiction of two people who find each other, fall deeply in love, and then slowly grow apart as their relationship accelerates towards disaster. Utilizing his legendary, beautiful singing voice as a vehicle of expression, he constructed a despairingly introspective album. Above all, Gaye’s brutal divorce masterpiece is flooded with personal accounts reflecting upon his endless attempts to salvage what him and Anna once had. Within the first three songs, Marvin Gaye, known as a man of passion, sex and love, presents himself as heartbroken and distraught. The man who made his mark with Let’s Get it On stepped back into music shamefully owning defeat.
Here, My Dear opens up with a slow and somber track that serves as an introduction to the looming subject at hand. On this title track prologue, "Here, My Dear", Gaye begins the first chapter of a narrative on how his divorce destroyed his life. Right from the beginning, the listener is presented with an unexpectedly civil side of Gaye, a theme which echoes across all of the following four sides of the record. Gaye begins this tale without any sign of a grudge or even an ounce of animosity aimed at his former wife. The first few lines calmly dictate a sincere and heartfelt dedication of the album to Anna Gordy. On the title track, he speaks with conviction, insinuating that he did not want to get divorced, while at the same time wishing Gordy nothing but happiness and love in her life.
From there, Gaye zeroes in on his signature ability to tell a linear narrative through music. He very clearly depicts a beginning, middle and end, engrossed with the best and worst times of their union. The first conventional song on the album, entitled "I Met A Little Girl", works as a concrete beginning to the actual narrative, detailing his first encounter with Anna Gordy. Although he opens the record chronologically, most of the other tracks jump around the timeline of the marriage between Anna Gordy & Marvin Gaye, pivoting between good and bad memories. The inconsistent presentation of their marriage can be pieced together by the end of the record, but functions strongest as evidence of Gaye’s personal distress influencing his creative process.
(Pictured Above: Marvin Gaye & Anna Gordy)
This entire record unfolds through Gaye’s real-time reflections on failing as a husband. There are very few lines that can be framed as anti-Anna. With this theme of self-deprecation, some of the most unexpected emotionally charged songs ever written by Marvin Gaye appear on this album. "Anger" is a straightforward recollection of a high-stress Marvin clashing with Anna's criticisms, creating an endless river of disagreement and arguments. While the beginning of the song describes the actual anger that Gaye feels, the end of the song confronts the negative effect that anger has had on his life. It is as though Gaye is doing his best to declare that anger will never permanently define his life. To add to this train of thought, there are times when he even provides a solution in battling his irate state of mind by summarizing that sometimes he needs to take a step back and breathe.
Musically, Here, My Dear is endlessly versatile. 1978 was a cultural turning point between soul, jazz and disco--all of which are fused together in trademark Marvin Gaye fashion on this double LP. At times, there are moments where he tips his hat to the H-D-H collaborations that helped birth his legacy, as heard on the soulful, yet slower, ballad "Sparrow". To contrast the career-spanning tone and melodies heard on tracks like "Sparrow", Gaye begins to venture into the late 70s cultural phenomenon of disco. This can be heard within tracks like "Time to Get it Together", as well as the eight and a half minute funky groove "A Funky Space Reincarnation". Other iconic names such as Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin infamously made their own underwhelming contributions to the trending sub-genre, but Marvin Gaye fluidly executed the sound as though he created it. Here, My Dear contains some of his peak disco-soul crossover, a risky but successful approach to an untapped sound. "When Did You Stop Loving Me? When Did I Stop Loving You?" is just one of these great examples of a strongly executed disco/soul crossover.
Clocking in at just above six minutes in length, "When Did You Stop Loving Me? When Did I Stop Loving You?" is also a personal LP centerpiece, connecting the complications and confusion that haunt this record. This song paints Gaye struggling to grow as a self-respecting man, while also dealing with the pain of his divorce. Appearing early in the tracklist, the oddly upbeat heart-wrenching ballad places the audience in the middle of every emotion that Gaye illustrates across the remainder of the record. The lyrics depict a desperate Gaye trying to salvage a dying marriage, and then pivot into his acceptance regarding the realities of divorce halfway through the track. The reflection serves as one of Gaye's most humanizing moments, in which he allows himself to come to terms with and accept the downfall of his marriage. In the last minute of this tale of heartache, Marvin layers harmonies with overwhelming passion, questioning his sanity with the declarative “When did you stop loving me/when did I stop loving you?”. Raw emotion is a defining trait of this LP. By the late 70s, Marvin Gaye was long since revered as musical royalty, but on Here, My Dear, he is a fragmented individual.
Many of the songs that appear on Here, My Dear are double the length of a typical H-D-H Marvin Gaye track. The subject matter on this record is one that took over a decade of decaying love to fully realize. At this point, Gaye had too much to say for an average song length. On several of the album's longest songs, he recites different lyrics for each verse and chorus. Across some of these tunes, it is even unclear at times if there is a chorus, or what part of the song would operate as such.
The lack of traditional song structure seems to shed light on the true individual genius that was Marvin Gaye. Once his emotions took over, he broke every pop music archetype. By shattering the norms of formulated pop songs on What’s Going On, I Want You, Let’s Get it On & Here, My Dear, Gaye's ambitious experimentation somehow became the go-to formula for the average soul song. His contributions to the shift in the 'Motown sound' are one of the prominent reasons Motown Records survived in a post-H-D-H setting.
By providing his audience with a front row seat to a series of real events that took place in the most unhinged parts of his life, Gaye crossed a line that few other God-like artists have. As consumers of pop culture, we have a habit of placing innovative and impactful artists on a pedestal.Even when this social worship is well intended, it can end up actually being dehumanizing. The Marvin Gaye that the world knew until this point was charming, suave and understood as an authority on the topic of love. While this album is the antithesis of the far more popular Let's Get it On, it is also a reminder that even the most successful lovers experience inevitable heartbreak and associated pain. Here, My Dear is a concept album about a man coming to terms with the end of his marriage by reflecting on his own shortcomings. Marvin Gaye was a human being, and human beings are naturally flawed. This album sounds larger than life, but the main characteristic driving that sound is Marvin’s inability to be anything but human.
©Total Trash Ltd, 2021
