"CAPTAIN BILLY’S MAGIC 8 BALL" -MARVIN GAYE - "SEX AS SPIRIT" FEATURING THE ALBUM "LET'S GET IT ON" IN HIGH DEFINITION WITH THE CAPTAIN'S NARRATIVE -EPISODE # 69 -THE CAPTAIN EXPLORES HIS COVE OF 8 TRACKS TREASURES FOR INSIGHT AND DELIGHT

"SEX AS SPIRIT"

LET’S GET IT ON by Marvin Gaye (Tamla, 1973)


In the 1950’s, Americans with seduction on their minds put Jackie Gleason’s records on the hi-fi; in the 70’s it had to be the late, great Marvin Gaye. Speaking from personal experience, making love to Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On was a free passage to a timeless paradise of spiritual transcendence. The luscious, multi-layered, funky, slow jams of sensual worship cradled us lovers in the arms of blissful oneness. 

Clearly, I wasn’t alone in that opinion. Let’s Get it On, inspired by his second wife, Janis Hunter, was Marvin’s most successful album, making it to #2 on the Billboard chart. In terms of an artist achieving his full power, this concept album surpassed the iconic What’s Going On in its popularity, signaling the amazing growth of one of this nation’s premier singer-songwriters. Tragically, Marvin’s life was cut short, at age 44, by bullets fired from a gun he bought for his own father 11 years later, putting a button on a disastrous familial cycle that started with horrific childhood abuse.

Unfortunately, the circumstances of his death might cloud his enormous artistic achievements somewhat, but considering that Marvin’s creativity was driven by a lifelong desire to overcome this early trauma, it’s even more admirable that it yielded such great art for all of us to cherish. Quoting David Ritz: Marvin’s work reveals a “struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers, the hunger for God.”

I got the message, Marvin.