You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - I Want You – Marvin Gaye

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Marvin Gaye's I Want You could be one of his greatest albums, and he didn't even write it. Producer Leon Ware wrote most of the songs for himself. Marvin Gaye was only supposed to record the title track. But he heard Leon playing a demo of the album one night and stayed up listening until morning. The next day, he asked Ware if he could have the whole thing.In this episode, Peter and Adam break down why the title track, "I Want You", might be one of his best songs, and whether the rest of the album can possibly live up to it.This episode was recorded before the passing of James Gadson (June 17, 1939 – April 2, 2026), the drummer on I Want You. Gadson was one of the defining session drummers of 1970s soul. He was the drummer behind "Lean On Me," "I Will Survive," "Express Yourself", and the groove that powers this very album. Rest in peace, James.-------------------------------Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs:https://openstudiojazz.com/yhi------------------------------Adam and Peter break down Marvin Gaye's What's Going On: https://youtu.be/PHowrEiaInQ-------------------------------About You'll Hear It:In this popular music series, Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.-------------------------------Sign up for the You'll Read It newsletter for little known stories about the artists you love:https://youllhearit.com/newsletter-------------------------------00:00 I Want You - Marvin Gaye00:39 Welcome: You'll Hear It from Open Studio01:53 Who is Leon Ware? The Man Behind the Music07:23 "I Want You"14:39 The Keys Are Back! Breaking Down "I Want You"16:52 Isolated Stems on "I Want You"20:53 Can the Rest of the Album Live Up to Track 1?21:52 Kendrick Lamar's Interpolation25:27 "Come Live With Me Angel"28:20 "After the Dance"31:11 "Feel All My Love Inside"35:03 "I Wanna Be Where You Are"38:18 "All the Way Around": The Best Moment On the Album?40:07 "Since I Had You"42:07 "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again"43:40 "After the Dance"45:16 "After the Dance (Vocal)"46:41 Desert Island Tracks / Apex Moments / Bespoke Playlist Title55:00 Snob-o-Meter / Better Than? / Accoutrements58:00 Leon Ware Released HIS Version the Same Year59:44 GALA + Thank You1:01:23 Coda: "I Want You" feat. Brian Owens + James Gadson Tribute

Producer Leon Ware wrote this album for himself, but it took another man's genius to bring it to life. Marvin Gay heard music bleeding through a wall at the studio one night. He came to find out what it was, and he stayed up listening to it over and over again. The next day, he approached Ware and said, if you give me that album, I'll do the whole thing. It's I Want You, 1976,

possibly one of the best Marvin Gay albums, and he didn't even write it. I'm Adam Manus and I'm Peter Martin And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast Music, Explore. Explore, brought you today by OpenStudio. Go to openstudiojad.com for, oh, go ahead. Jazz lesson needs, Peter, we're just riffing.

We're just riffing. We stopped more time before Martin came in as well, which is one of the most awesome things about a truly awesome record that we're going to be exploring today. Buddy, this album is really keyed off of this opening track. We talk about it all the time. Opening tracks, how important they are to albums. Yeah.

This might be just like A number one. And I've got a hot take on this later, but I'll save it. I mean, we'll listen to I want you here in a minute. I want you. Kind of absorb the greatness of the title track. It's a dope track. This is a great album. This was 1976, a great year.

This was a bicentennial of our, this is one of those first years that I kind of remember as a young lad. This was a big, you know, like you had Y2K. Well, this was Y76. Why am I saying like that? I don't know, but it was a big year. Why indeed. It was the year I moved to St. Louis, because I like to make everything about me.

You do, you know what I'm saying? As we all do. Yes, and I do. So, yeah, but this is a cool record. Okay, so Leon Ware, that name, get used to saying that today because this is a towering figure over this record because this was supposed to be a Leon Ware record. Yeah.

And a lot of folks might be like, wait, who is Leon Ware? It's like one of those names that you've heard. And definitely, if you came up in the 70s or the 80s or even the 90s or even the 90s or actually even the 2000s, but mainly like if you used to handle, I like how you housed that LP right before we started. That was a pro move by you. But used to like read names.

I mean, you remember this when you read names and you'd be like, who is that? And look how big produced by Leon Ware. I miss it so much, man. Yeah. And so like that's the kind of, I think, reference point a lot of people have for Leon Ware. But he was one of the OG writers and artists at Moton,

but primarily known for his compositions, for his production. He had a bunch of solo. None of them really took off a whole bunch, but he had a very long and storied career all the way up. I mean, he just, he died within the last 10 years. I want to say six or seven years ago. Really interesting guy, though.

But one of the things was, he goes all the way back to the QA days at Motown. I think we talked about this in the What's Going On episode. Yeah. How Moton famously had a QA, a quality assurance department. Brilliant, genius. I don't know if they took that from the Sears folks over at the Sears catalog or what's happening.

But this is Leon Weir talking about that in an interview from our friends at Red Bull Music Academy. But they had a quality control meeting they had every Friday. Quality control meant that as a writer at Motown, you wrote a song every day, completed. What does that look like? I mean, is it like in the 20s in a Hollywood studio and the studio bus would walk around the premises? No, you did that at home. You did it at home. And then they had what they call the workroom.

The workroom was like six different rooms that had paper thin walls. You heard Holland, Georgia Holland, Stevie, Norman Whitfield, Ivy Johan. Everybody was at their acts. As I say, the wonderful thing about it was you learned how to concentrate on what you were doing. Yeah, so, I mean, this is such a cool thing, you know, proximity to power. you're talking about to the epicenter. So that's what Leon Ware came up in.

Yeah, I mean, just an incubator for great music coming out of there. Well, Marvin Gaye heard this opening track, I Want You, and was so enamored by it that he talked to Leon Ware and talked him into giving him the whole album for material. And it's a very strange and storied album, Peter. It really is, I think this is like a, you know what this is? it's like if you throw a huge rock into a pond, that initial huge splash, that's I Want You, the opening track, the title track,

and then every part of the album just sort of ripples out after it, which he kind of did on what's going on, but this is a little more myopic. Yes. This is about one thing. Yes. Getting down. It's really, honestly, it's not,

there's no, like, spirituality, there's no political stuff, there's no what's happening brother, there's nothing of that stuff. It's like, we are grown people, doing grown people's things. things. Well, that brings us to, I think, what we were talking about maybe being sort of the thesis for this episode, which is, you know, this question of, is this the ultimate grown folks album, right? When we talk about, you know, albums that adults put on when the kids go to bed, not that kids wouldn't like this record, it's just there'd be a lot of questions. Hey, mommy, what does he mean when he says that? You know what I mean? So this is one of those records that, you know, and it was sort of before the time when things flipped and, you know, you know, You started to have records that younger people listened to

that were very like in your face about sex and maybe less about sensuality. I would say this is more of a sensuality focused as opposed to it. I feel like maybe Prince was that crossover? He might have been. That crossover between that for people? Where it was like everybody could listen to it. Yeah.

And then it became kind of like, whoa. Right, right, right. But yeah, well, so it's interesting. You talk about spirituality versus sexuality and like this push and pull because Leon Ware and Marvin Gay actually sort of bonded over this idea and their own struggle with it.

They both grew up in deeply religious households. Marvin Gay had a lot of history with his father and his whole family of a lot of difficulties with spirituality and sexuality and sexuality and different concepts and stuff. But Leon Weir talked about this. I got one more little sound bite from him talking about Marvin. The story goes about the album was an album

that was actually mine. that I started out doing a demo session on Tibor Ross, who was Diana Ross's brother, who wrote Coral Rope I Want to Be Were Are with me. And we were doing a demo session, and I had a song called I Want You that was the filler of the demo session. Because we had three other songs, and we needed one extra song, and I put the song in as just another song. and Barry Gordy came in the studio I guess the second day the second and the third day

we were working on a divin session he said I like this song he said I like this song that's Barry Gordy of course founder Motam Records Tomo Records and then took it to Marvin he's like I like it but I think this should be Marvin so he was sort of the

the conduit and the one that sort of made that happen so let's listen to that opening track I want you I want you I want you oh yeah I'm so here for this guy Well, good, because you got about 90 seconds of...

Good. Vibing intro. Not enough. I could take 90 minutes. Honestly, so nice. Strings. Also, like, this is such a Marvin sound, though, man. On this track, pay attention to all the background vocal lines.

Yes. That's what Marvin gave us. Oh, so good. That's what he did to this whole album. Well, a lot of this, I don't know if this was one of the tracks. Like, they used Leow Ware's original, like, tracks, took away his vocals, and Marvin just added the vocals. bunch of these.

But but main vocals and background. Very C-sharp minor doring. I mean, if these strings were on the original neon wear, I could tell why Barry Gordy would like, this is for Martin. That bass? I just want to back it up real quick.

So hold on, I'm going to back it up. This is why a 90-second intro on the one chord is so effective. The first time the bass changes. The first chord is the The same as it has been for 90 seconds. The first time that bass goes to the four chord, it's so powerful. The lead up to it.

Because the one becomes the five. All of a sudden, yeah, all of a sudden we're done. Yeah, we're a minute in now. But like training your ear to just expect these things, you know, and then as soon as you go somewhere else, it's like this... And there's a lot of space on that baseline. For real. But there's this sweet relief.

It feels amazing. It feels amazing. One to four. Does that work? It's one to four minor. Six, yep. The major. A little temporary E major.

Yeah, this whole tune's about the relative minor, the major, shifting back and forth. And then the arrangement of production on this, there's a lot going on, but it's very, like everything's in its place, right? You got strings, got the guitar solo, you got the rhythm guitar, you got percussion playing nonstop. There's been bigger on those if you want. Of course, but they took out three chords. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's like a very sophisticated adult way of playing around with the major.

The minor becomes the five, then it feels like it's all going, you know, to the major, to the E. And it does sometimes. A lot of patience. Vocals throughout here. Marvin's vocals on this track. So good. So killing. Oh, we're going to check in all those for sure.

Is that Rainy? Chuck Rainy. Chuck Rainy? Chuck Roney plays based on some of this album. We're not sure the exact tracks. Oh, yeah, we don't have to break. No. Figures back in the horns.

Is this just guitar, a little bit of piano? There's horns. Oh, there's, okay. There's heart. I think those are horns. Then we got a long fade. Man, it's such a great, long, patient. Like, this is the most intense he gets vocally

is on the fade out, which is interesting, you know? Hey, Peter. Hey, you know, at the beginning of every show, I say, go to openstudiojazz.com for, Oh! It's a whole thing, right? But what is Open StudioJas.com? Well, this is the place that you can go to learn jazz chords, yes, jazz scales,

cool ways of playing music, you know, beginner, intermediate advance and all that. But more importantly, it's a place to go and participate in a little thing we'd like to call living in musical life. Now, is this like books? What's going on here? Well, it's videos, it's community. It's, you know, it's accoutrements, as we like to say. Live sessions on Zoom. Live sessions on Zoom, Open Studio Pro.

It's like any way that you want to, like, say you have a little time on a Sunday night or on a Tuesday morning or whatever, and you just want to, you know, get some stuff together, get some inspiration for your practice, for your development. It's an amazing community. We have folks from 165 countries, which is crazy. I know. Yeah, it is the largest global community of jazz musicians in the world. And they're getting together.

And don't be intimidated by jazz. Yeah, no, we talk about all kinds of music. Actually, a lot of music that we listen on this podcast. We talk about Marvin Gay. We talk about Stevie Wonder. We talk about Donnie Hathaway. We talked about DeAngelo, we talk about Bill Evans.

We talk about Steely Dan. We really learn how to play all that music and how to build your piano skills up so that you can play whatever you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So join us at open studio jazz.com. We have a 14-day free trial, as well as a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

So that's actually, what are we talking to there? Let's do a little piano math real quick. Okay, 44 days of 40. 74 divided by D minor 11, flat 7. 44 days. Oh, wow. 44 days. Go to openstudiojazz.com slash YHI.

That's open studio jazz.com slash YHI for who your jazz lesson needs. And don't worry. You won't have to learn how to do that. Back to the show. So you were talking about the, um... The BVs, man. The BVs.

So let's check a little bit of that out. This song is all about the BVs. Yeah. So if we get up to some classic Marvin Gay melodic content happening here, too. Horns. Oh, yeah. Sorry. My bad.

Man, those bongos. Greatest fall set of the 70s. This is still just over the intro. This is just the bass. I haven't heard that. Yeah. Those lower ones. It's amazing.

Yeah, you can't hear it when it's... It's funny. His little like throwaway improvisations are better than most people's like full-on performances versus, you know? First chorus, no ooze. Just said, but I want you to all of me too, want you to, I want you to know right thing. It was with the thirds come down there.

A little four-part harmony. Can you skip ahead to the second chorus, please? Yep. I think so. You can change your back somewhere. Somewhere. You want you the right way. I want you.

But you don't go, go, don't go to. But I want you to. Wanting to you, I want to, only thing bad, just like I want to. It's a little bit. Single line, but it's like three of them, right? On the background. That's amazing.

It's amazing. It's a different melodic line. And then it starts to expand. And it starts to expand. The 13, it's a minor 13, yeah. I can't, we can't gloss over that. So he just played, that's like a Miles Davis,

blue and green, Bill Evans. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah, I mean, like Marvin's, the way he heard vocals was very like, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing when people like, you know, the jazz influence. Everyone always thinks about like the groove

and his piano playing and stuff, but the way he heard harmony specifically with vocals, you know, his own voice. It was very... You know what it led to? It always makes me think about it. It's like the way Roy Hargra would put those parts on voodoo. You know, in the background, very Marvin-esque.

Yeah, great comp. Good. Let's check out the next... Wait, we've got to hear a little bit of this crazy stuff. Sorry, we could... And his rhythmic attenuation. And it starts to fade up. Credible.

Credible. A-plus. I mean, truly A-plus. I got, yeah. Should I do my hot take about this track now? Yeah. All right. I think this track, there are days. where this is my very favorite Marvin Gay song ever.

Even though he is not, I don't believe he's credited with writing it at all. Is that true? No, on this track? Yeah. No. This is... It's, yeah, Leon Weir and Teboway Ross.

T. Boy, Ross, Leiboy-Ware only. He has no writing credit. Yeah, they'd already written it. But when I think of my favorite Marvin Gay songs, there are stretches where this is by far my favorite. I like it more than anything on what's going on. but it's the rest of the album as we're about to hear

I think it struggles to live up to that hype of that first song well before we move on so you love this track I love this track turns out some other people do too this is one of the most sampled and covered songs coming out of like R&B of all time

I mean they captured like magic in a bottle with this one yeah this is actually one of my favorite Kendrick tracks right here yeah interpolation yeah as I can

a little older. I realize life is perspective. I like that piano. And my perspective made different from girls. Even though they're only triadding it. I want to say things. They play the nine. 11. All my fans, all my beautiful fans.

Percussion too in there, mimicking that. Temple's pretty close to, isn't it? Anyway, you know, Kendrick does this thing. To let you know what a nigger look like and a bulletproof. The hard part five. Got all the strings. Ain't on Photoshopping. Friends by a polo.

Go to. Well, you know, and I'm not trying to like... I still love this album. I'm not saying that the rest of the songs in the album are bad by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just saying, I Want You is so good that it's like on what's going on. You know, what's going on is so good. But then there's also what's happening brother. Right.

Inner City Blues. Mercy, mercy, mercy me. God is love. There's so many, like, incredible, incredible songs. And for me, I want you just, like, kind of overshadows the rest of this album. Even though I think I really love listening to it as a whole. I think it's really like a fun ride, but it's kind of, it doesn't. And we can talk about this, too, about, like, with what's going on,

Marvin's really going for something. And he's kind of in charge, musically, thematically, lyrically. Yeah. And I wonder what would happen if he would have been on the same thing. the ground floor of this. Right, because it's, yeah, I mean, it's not, like he, to me, Marvin personalized this album. This is a highly personalized, as in ZED.

But it's not as personal album like what's going on is. He took good material and made it great. Yes. But it's not like what's going on where it's like this masterpiece. Right. From start to finish. Right, exactly. And so there's all these Marvinisms all over this, especially with the back,

with the way he arranges the vocals, you know, and a lot of these tracks, like we say, were already recorded. So what he did was amazing, but I think it can't stand up, in my opinion, to what's going on because it just doesn't have that Marvin totality from that. And it's not a bad thing. It's just a different thing. It's a different thing. And also, you know, it's also different than let's get it on.

And his other albums from around this period. And Here My Dear, which I'm sure I hope we talk about Hear My Dear. Yes, yes, yes. Because that's a great story. That was right after this. Right after this. Yeah. And actually, this was very wrapped up in that because his,

This was talking about Anna Gordy, who he was married to for many years, who was, you know, a fair amount older than he was. Barry Gordy's sister. Barry Gordy's sister, but not only Barry Gordy's sister, but kind of the founder of Motown. Yeah. You know about that? Yeah, yeah, because she's the one who bankrolled.

And like she had started Anna Records before that, real visionary and pioneer in the music world, but they had a tumultuous ending to their marriage that was around this time. They were breaking up around this time, yeah? Yeah, I think they were already broken up. And Marvin had a younger girlfriend, Janice Hunter, who a lot of this, he was literally singing to her

when he did his vocal. While he was laying down. Yeah. Wow. Like in the studio. So it was... 70s were amazing. I know.

And she was very like... We used to be a great country. It was a big thing when Marvin moved out to, you know, I mean, what's going on to this? That was a big thing when he went out to L.A. Anyway, when Moton did. So it's going to track number two, because we were just getting rolling here.

Come Live with Me, Angel. Okay. That's pretty good, man. It's pretty good. I take it all back. It all works. This is one of those great, like, drum intros that we talk about, j-d-d-c-c-c-c-c-tac-tac-tac-a-dac-tac-o.

I want to rock with you. It's great. Rock with you. J.R. Robinson. But, like, this one's great because any of these intro, drum intros that are a little bit off-kilter when you really listen to them, at first it sounds like, sh-p-p-p-p-p-bang. I just saw a thing about drum introes that make you.

you feel off kilter. It's the whole thing. It's so good. And Quincy Jones, who was not part of this record, was famous for, like, getting this out of drummers. That was a big thing that he liked.

But it had been going on. Woo! Because he's got that... That syncopation. What? You can ride his ass off. Come on. It's a great track.

Pits? Yeah. Like Pits? I think this is the longest track on now. Seventy, so you've got to go to the inside. to really figure it out. Way down in the niche.

Yeah, this is the longest track. So I guess writing one song a day from Motown, that's how you get your sets and reps. They become a great writer as part of it. That's crazy. They made them write a song a day. I mean, we talk about it all the time here at Open Studio. You want to get good at something and do it every day.

Yeah. So this is a killer track. Great vibe. Awesome. Yeah. Written by Jackie Hill. Elliot and Leon where? Okay.

All right, were you going after the dance now? Okay, I love this track. I do too. This is so weird. The synth-a-mogue sound is so strange. Man, was there a little bit of like Stevie influence? Yeah. Like the most I think I've heard ever with.

I was listening to this the other day and you know what I thought of is there's a bunch of instrumental Jamiriqui tracks that I think have really ripped this off a little bit. Or been inspired by. Shout out to Jamirquay. Man, we've been getting a lot of Jamiriqui requests. If we wanted to jump in there. Do you do emergency on planet Earth or space cowboy? I would be super dumb. Yeah.

Let us know in the comments if you're interested in. This is after the dance. When I first heard of this track, I was like, Space Cowboy. Bass, right? Really, this whole album is just a very much alone time kind of album. Yes. You know what I mean?

Blows that way. And this is credited to Leah Ware and Marvin Game Ballard. I think it's just one of the two songs that Marvin. Oh, no, there's a couple more. There's a bunch more, sorry? the end we're going to get to, which is really interesting. But like the synth sounds,

the mode bass, or is that mood bass? I can't hear it well enough right now. But with the acoustic piano, with the synth line on top, so good. And then the percussion. And the drums are very,

like it's percussion up front. I mean, that's such a Marvin sound too. When you can make stuff like this with very potentially dated, sounding sounds, but man, it sounds like fresh. Let's go to the moon, bro. Come on, man. Let's get some spliff and go to the moon.

I mean, that's what they were saying. This is actually a very influential track in a lot of stuff that's happening today, contemporary jazz. Yeah, it's great. It's great. These first three tracks. And going to an instrumental on the third track, I mean, that wasn't heard of back actually back then.

That's like a Stevie thing, too. No, but all these little interludes that happen. The instrumental interludes, the little jams that happen. Some of them are like 45 seconds long. I think that is kind of unique, you know? Yeah. Not kind of unique. It is unique.

It is unique. And when we're going to get to the next track and then the one after it, which is sort of a hidden track. It wasn't listened on here, but it's got a great sort of thing, too. Okay, feel all my love inside. What does that mean? We don't know. Oh.

What does that mean? What a vibe? Can we get out the whiteboard, please? Yeah, I'm off the mind. string, vibes, take you back to Motown, I would make it love. I think theatrical, right? With the strings, the percussion, and the breakdowns, the flute,

and then when the drums come back in. But it's not like drum forward, right? Man, this is like such a different time. Honestly, Marvin Gaye is a vocalist. I think he wins the 70s. I just don't think there's anybody doing it in a complete and heartfelt and beautiful way better than him. He takes any material and he makes you care about it.

He makes you care about it, Peter, like all great vocalists should do. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And we're not seeing him as he's doing this. Like, he could have done this also, by the way, in the 90s. He was like, super charismatic, great-looking guy. Yeah. But he would be on TV occasionally, but it's not like it would be today where you'd have like, you know, or in the 90s.

Tick-Tac. Or in the videos or today we have TikTok. But he could have pulled this off at any era. And, man. But I am actually glad that he was... working in the 60s and 70s, because I think, I mean, first of all, he helped define both of those decades, but I think, man, they just, I'm just glad we got him on these, with these arrangements, with these kinds of songs. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean, it's like, he defined the time, but he also was like the kind of voice, the kind of spirit, the kind of, but also tormented, you know, tormented as a human. You know, I mean, we're all tormented, but he was very tormented. But his voice is timeless, dude. It's timeless, but he put that life, that humanity, love, sensuality, sexuality, relationships. And this was such a time, it's like, you know, when you would hear stuff as a young person and be like, ooh, you know, like, everything now is like, the kids know everything

because they can, they can see everything. We were talking about this, right? We were we talking about this? It's like, oh, were we talking about this on the, um, oh, I've been watching these James Bond movies on Netflix. Yeah, right? So I was telling you to Heather about it. this, you know, wildly horny, these movies in the 60s.

Right. And I was like, you know, I asked my dad, I was like, did you all know, like, when he wakes up on the plane and the woman's like, my name is pussy galore? Like, did he, do you, does everybody know what they're talking? And he was like, yeah, everybody knew. And I was like, at one point, people are a little bit more prude, but also like it was like grown up things are for grownups kind of thing.

Whereas now everything is for everybody kind of thing. And there's a real, at least here in the States. what I'm saying? It just feels like it was more innocent, but also at the same time, like, wildly more inappropriate compared to how it is now. Right, right, right, right, right. All right, cool. So let's move on.

We're at the end of the first side. And so this is cool. Okay, I want to be where you are. So this was, it wasn't like Michael Jackson's first hit, but it was one of his first hits on his solo record in 1972. The Leah Ware wrote for him. I love this harpsichord. one of the

20 albums Michael made before off the wall he was 13 years old or 12 damn he already had it come on did I leave your mind when I was gone

that's some Leon we got to start to about Leo Weir honestly Michael young Michael dude was Michael a blues singer

man man this is a rage of it man Pucks accord me Motown give me that fucking QA to punt I want to bring us to bring that back.

I'm sorry. No, honestly, though, hey listen, I'm super glad that artists can make music on their own, produce it independently and put it out. We do it. But a QA department would make all our lives a little bit.

It was just a cool thing. I mean, look, where they're less than stellar multi-records? Yes. Do we not really celebrate those on this podcast? Of course. But in general, during that period, man, they were hitting a, you know, The great ones were home runs.

Yeah, yeah. And look, you could be like, well, of course, they had the great ours, Marvin Gay, Stevie, Wonder, Diana, you know, you had the Supreme, whatever. But it's like, eh, but as we've shown before, it's nature and nurture. Yeah, do we have to talk about money jungle again? We can bring that up.

Are you sure about that? I'm sure about that. But, yeah, so anyway, so this was kind of a cool thing because they threw this in, like, at the end of the first half of this record, and then I love, well, let me just let me just let it play, because I think we can listen to the whole thing. I want to be where you want.

Because it's kind of like, how's this going to work into a grown folks record, right? Marvin will do it. Marvin will make that. Man, his singapation. I want to be. Three ways he's already said that lie. I've got to be. 11.13.

Man, this is like the slick. Is this disco? I can't, I don't want to denigrate it. A little bit. Nothing wrong with disco, but I'm the greatest disc. Frank. he's naming his kids that's his kids names

so it's almost like this is the only it fades out that isn't about making kids it's about I want to be with but I always like

for me I don't know I might be reading something into this but this is like and then it just fades out that's the whole time it's literally like

one time through the the verse and chorus it's like okay this might be TMI so let me know we can edit this out if you want to

but I was imagine this is like Marvin grown folks stuff is going on with the other music blah, blah, blah, blah. Maybe there's a little break. Go check on the kids. You know what I mean?

That's part of being a couple and procreate. You got the kids in there. He's literally going in there and doing that, checking all the kids. And then back to, I want you, right? Am I reading too much into that? No, I think you've nailed it, but I actually want to hear five more minutes on that. No, no, that's it. Okay, now we're on side to. Oh, I love this. Segue.

Now we're going to what's going on again. Who said we can't do this? Nobody said you can't do this. bass drum recording well the QA QA department was gonna have to have it It's peak kick drum recording You kidding me

That's it so that's just the little segue Sorry I screwed up the It goes straight into it All the way around Sam Charlie I want every kick drum around here to sound like 1976 You know what can we go right

We're gonna go right into my apex moment I'm gonna go early on this Is that okay? Yeah this is all the way around Yep Right there That little flat five thing. Yeah, a little C-sharp, a half-de-minis.

Come on. Yeah, the half-de-minished. It's a great move. Very what's going on, ask, right? Are we sleeping on it? What starts on the half-de-minished on what's going on? And it's on the flat at fifth as well. Is it what's happening, brother?

No. It's something on there. This is in the... Oh, hey, brother. Yeah, it is what's happened. It's actually the same thing. It's the same key, too. So this is where in the key of G, and then it's...

It's on this, and you're expecting the intro to go to G, but it goes to... Is Leon Ware a genius? Is Leon where a bad dude? Bad dude. Genius. We don't... I mean, I can throw the G word around. All right.

A number of G thing, genius thing. But I love that starting on the half diminished on. And this is so... You're so far away. From G major up to... Da, baby. Yeah. Oh, great harmony.

Okay, should we move on? Let's keep this party going. Since I had you. I'm sorry. Soon, I'll be loving you again. No, since I had you. Yeah, I was going to say. Sorry.

Got out of our mic, bye. Oh, yeah, this is where he's doing a little Marvin rap on this. The piano and the vibraphone. I too, baby. Snare drum. Oh, wait, this is my lovers? About nine. I'm telling you, man, we used to make great things here.

These here in the United States. And these here in the USA. It's Phil USA. Went to side two. That's going to be in my quibble bit. Okay. Okay, cool. Soon I'll be loving you again.

Who's this on, is this Bongo? Yeah. Eddie Bongo Brown. Come on. Man. He wins this album. Bongo Brown. See on the five there.

Great change. Major seven. This is kind of, I forgot. this is kind of a harmonic delight, you know? Rappers delight, this is a harmonic delight. I'm telling you, this album has so much going for it. Really, really great listen. All the way through.

And this is the thing, Marvin Gay, great pianist, great harmony arranger, especially with the vocals we're talking about that. But Leon Ware, you can kind of hear. He's pushing it next level in terms of like the jazz. But Leon Ware came up as a jazz player. That was another thing. Like he came up in Detroit. I mean, you had this, you know,

Detroit was the epicenter of one of the best public school music programs, and then you had their feeding into Motown, Hitzville, Tamla, QA department, all this. You know, it was really kind of the perfect storm, but you had some incredible musicians and just camaraderie, but also rivalry. Yeah, all these great jazz players, and then going into the R&B thing.

I really love the last two tracks, how this ends. Because it's the penultimate track is, I want you. Yeah. But it's like an intro jazz. Right. You know what I mean? Only listed on the LP, I believe, yeah. And then the very last track is after the dance, which is that third track. Yeah, but with vocals.

But with vocals. Should we just go straight through to it? I'm going to see if this will play it right. I'm going to try to get it because I think it just flows right into it. It won't. It's back from the beginning of Side 2. Damn, that bass drum is snapp. But this is very what's going on using these themes throughout.

You know what I mean? Repeating things, using interludes. I think it works really well. I mean, it's like with relationships, right? You have interludes, you've got peak moments, all these different things. That's why. Oh, the way that's this. They let it hang, no, like.

Details, yeah. Can you clarify something? Does Marvin Gaye love minor nine chords? Yes or no? He 100% loves minor. Does he like to extend that one to the 11th sometimes? He does. Does he like a string, a unison string line hanging out around the nine?

Yeah. In fact, he does. He's okay with it, at least. Oh, he's more than okay with it here. That is cool. He's got his vocal stylings, but he's got his harmonic stylings too. But I wonder, you know, this is all Leon Ware.

I wonder if Leon Ware is just picking up some of what's going on stuff, you know? For sure. Because this is like... Vice versa. Well, but what's going on happened way before this. Yeah, but Leon Weir was writing stuff before, for Moton before.

That's true, yeah. And then it ends with after the dance, but with the vocal. This is a really good song. Nice little trumpet vibe in there. I'm hoping this is going to go right. into it. We'll see. This is really good.

It's a great ending to the album. Yeah. This is almost my apex moment, but what is that groove? What you call this groove? It's not like a heavy back, I mean, there is the backbeats there. It's just on four, right? Like I saw you dancing on Steam. Yeah.

No, it's not the robot? No, that's incorrect. Man, that snare only on four as genius. Heck. I never noticed that. I never noticed that. Yeah, man. All right, let's get into some categories.

Desert Island tracks, Peter, what do you got? I mean, I'm going to state the obvious I want you. I also have that. Any of the versions? Well, I mean, the interludes are to say it. It's the glue, you know? Specifically the first track. And having just listened to all of these, I'm going to stand by it.

Is that yours too? The whole album is really good, and there's a lot of good songs on here. And it's not fair to compare everything to what's going on. Because what's going on is, you know, it's like one of the greatest albums ever made. Yeah. But it's like to hear that, to hear the track, I want you. Yeah.

It's like, man, if there would, if he could have done what he did with what's going on and have like four or five of those, this could have been as, as I think, like, lauded. It's still amazing. It's still better than 99% of any album you would hear from this era. But man, it's like, that first song is so good at almost, like I said, overshadows, for me, it almost overshadows everything else. That's interesting. Upon kind of diving back into this record after some time. I'm almost feeling like this

I mean I wouldn't it doesn't need to be about is this better than what's going on I totally agree that's why I was kind of a folly but it is but it's a natural thing with an artist can't help to compare

yeah and I would say I actually think this holds up better than I thought because I agree with you I think I want you is that's my desert iron chalk I think it's the strongest track but this fact that they have it kind of

come back these callback it's kind of a cool way to connect it's what they do with what's going on yeah and I think I think that like diving all to this to this Leon Ware harmony and stuff, like this album actually has some things that what's going on doesn't have. Like it's got even more of the minor nine and a lap, like, and some of them, I mean, not to say that that doesn't need that.

I'm just saying that there's real meat on the bones all throughout this record beyond I want you. I agree. I think it's the strongest. But I don't think that the fall off is, I think it's just an interesting way to kind of place the record to come out, like to not make that like the penultimate or like right, like at the end of the end of the first side or what you know there's different places can we talk about here my dear for a second speaking of this because he's going through this breakup yeah with anna gordy and here my dear is him

and i think it's here my dear like here my dear like so i think in the divorce this is yeah i don't know if you might fact check me i think in the divorce like she gets a lot of percentage for his next album on motown i think it was like what ended up being most of the or not all of the royalties the the advance for the royalties on the next record. And he knew that going in. Yeah. You know. But they had been broken up.

With spite in his heart. He wrote, Here My Dear. Yeah, and it's a great record. It's a really good record. I haven't listened to it in a while, and I know I was supposed to have a track in here,

but we're running out of time anyway. But it's like... Pretty amazing. It would be interesting to think about that coming off of this as well. What's your apex moment? That half diminished, man. That's really good. All the way around.

Mine is that the first chorus of I want you when the bass drops, I think it's just unbelievable. You got a bespoke playlist title, Peter. Groom Folk's music. That's a great title. I have Quiet Storm. That's how we say it in St. Louis. Quiet Storm.

And some of the other ones I was thinking about, and maybe you've got some for grown... Like, if we're going to talk about, it's just the ultimate... This may be the greatest grown folks music album ever. I'm going to put that out there. Bonnie rates Nick and Tyne. Nick of Time.

Yeah, that's good. Very good. Let's get it on, of course. I think that was his record right before this, unless he had something else in between it. Between. Yeah. Barry White, can't get enough.

Can't get enough, you love. I mean, that's a little different vibe. Prince's first six albums? Yeah, anything Prince did. Maxwell's Urban Heng Suite. Oh, great call. Which, produced by, and much of that is written by Leon Ware, interestingly enough,

in mid-90s. Voodoo? Voodoo. Great call. Yeah. Algreen, let's stay together. Perfect. Can we do Algreen?

Can we do Algreen? Remember when we played with that band a couple years ago? That was awesome. Before COVID? That's great. So, yeah, okay, so that's bespoke list. We got both of ours.

Quibble bits. There are any quibble bits? Are you making fun of me? No. I do have some quibble bits. Yes. So I mentioned the simulated sex that was going on. It just happened one too many times.

Like, I'm not being a prude about it. What do you mean? It's literally all over the album. I know, that's what I'm saying. The first time you hear it, which I think is on, is it on come live with me, Angel? It might be on come live with me, Angel, which is the second track,

is the first time we hear the woman simulating, like, groaning and moaning. Can this just be something that's barely in the background? Why do we have to, why we got to make it so much on the nose? What are you talking about? No, I'm just saying like, it's so effective. During that trumpet solo, you're like,

oh my gosh, what is this album about? This is great. I think they just go to the well too much. They do. And it makes me feel a little bit like less than. That's what I'm saying. When it's like, really? Well, I mean, it's a long record.

Are you saying something here? I mean, it's just like, I mean, maybe that's a long record. I've never heard that much, you know, anyway. Actually, how long is this record? That's great. I also have a hot take. Okay. I got another hot take.

Oh, is that one of the categories we have? No, I'm adding it. It's in line with the sort of myopic tone of the album, which is really all about making love. But, you know, and again, going back to what's going on. Amazing variety of themes on what's going on. obviously political, cultural, brotherhood, spirituality, and inner city blues, like all of these incredible themes, love as well. And similar things going on in this album.

And I think, like, what if he were able to do, what if he were able to do that after what's going on? Because he doesn't really do it again. After what's going on, I think Marvin Gay was like, you know what, I said what I'm going to say. Right. The world's still going to hell. Right.

I'm going to have fun. Yeah. Let's just have fun. And I'm like, man, what if he like, I mean, you can go either way on that. After you make something as masterful as what's going on that is like so charged with like the moment. Yeah. And he was like, you know what? Let's just get it on.

Right. For the next. Like literally. 12 years, basically. No, I think that that's kind of a simplistic take on it. It definitely is. But I think it may be very accurate too. You know, and I think that that's part of like the beauty of Marvin Gay's artistry is that like great artists are who they are.

Like their art is is delivered in a way that with such a level of honesty that, you know, we may be able to connect. I mean, everybody's always more layers than this. But in terms of like his recorded output and like what I've heard and seen in interviews and research and stuff, I think that very much. I mean, when he went out to L.A., when his marriage broke up, he was married to a woman. that I believe was 17 years older than him. Anna Gore. And it's like, and then had a,

what nowadays would be considered an underaged girlfriend, you know, teenager, 16, 17, whatever, which wasn't, I don't think is big of a thing then. Not great. It wasn't great, but I mean, there was that, like, I mean, he was tormented on some level, whatever you want to call it.

So, but there was an honesty in this record very much in that, like, this is who I am, at least during this period. And I think you're right. It's, you know, whether or not that was, had anything, like, what's going on was on his mind or if it was like, when you make something that monumental, if you're like, oh, my God, I've been to Mount Rushmore, what else can I see? Yeah, it feels like he's kind of coming down from that. Yeah, but I think the family, you know, situation and, I mean, you know, his, and unfortunately, his, his demise was tragic.

I mean, there was a lot of tragedy that came out of his music with so much beauty. I mean, he's really a one-of-one kind of artist, really amazing. Other than that, I think that's all I got. Except for... No, that's all I got. What do you got, quickly? I mean, I put this down, but now listening to it, again, I'm not even sure. I had to start strong and maybe starts almost too strong in terms of, like, the balance of this record.

Definitely something I think is going on here. Yeah. And that's... Like, what if it's... It doesn't fall apart, though. No, no, no, no. That's not... Be very clear here.

It's so good. All, like, back to front. But what if I want you was the fifth track? Right. Like, what if we were leading up to that, you know what I mean? And then you're... you were like, oh my God. Yeah, with the first track on the second side.

I mean, there's a lot of... Yeah, something. Yeah, good. Snobometer. Four. Oh, good, we're close. I'm five. Okay.

Better than... Should we do better than Songs of the Key of Life? Because I think that was the same year. Wasn't that 706? Better than Songs of Key of Life? No. No. No.

Okay. Okay, Accoutrements. I'm excited about this. I've got eight. I've got nine. I could almost go ten, but there's a few other design things. I love, okay, so this is an iconic work by an artist who was very interesting history,

Ernie Barnes. He's one of the only... I mean... I mean, as soon as I, you know, this is like good times. If you grew up during this period... You can't tell me that... ...olde's, early 80s. Ryan Coogler didn't have this somewhere in the back of his head when he made sinners, though.

That looks like sinners. Yeah, absolutely. So this is the Sugar Shack. Well, it's actually a version of it that was commissioned for this album. but Ernie Barnes had made this iconic painting before this shout out Durham, North Carolina, where he's from, which is where a lot of my family's from. His nickname was Big Rembrandt, because he also played in the NFL.

Big Rembrandt? Yeah, because he was an offensive lineman for him seven years with the San Diego Chargers. But his real calling was art, and he had an amazing career with art. This painting, not the one... Actually, no, I think it's the original one, is in the house in Beverly Hills, of Eddie Murphy owns the original to this.

No way. It was bought. And I think that this version, so he kind of redid it with some stuff specific to this and did another version, and it sold for a couple million dollars a few years ago, even just their version. But I think it's so great.

It's terrific. This is from Ernie's when he was a kid, downtown Durham, North Carolina. He went to the Armory, and this was, if it wasn't the show, it was a show like this that Duke Ellington was playing, that he went when, and he was young. He was like 15 years old,

and he remembers everybody dancing and how they looked and stuff. Unbelievable. Yeah. But I mean, some of the stuff on the back, I mean, this is like a close-up, which is cool, but I don't know. It only slightly pulls it down. Yeah, the painting itself is amazing. Some of the other stuff are on the design.

Sugar shake. Pulls it down to me for an eight. Up next. Up next. Oh, what do you have for Accumacherama? Oh, you said eight. Got it. You know what?

I am going to go up next. I am going to go Jimmy Rekoi's Spice Cowboy. Ooh. Nice. Nicely done. Thank you. I was going to go Songs of the Key of Life due to the year, but you mentioned voodoo earlier, that would be a vibe

if you want to stay. Like that's not as a sexy zone there. It's sexy, but it's not as much of a skin sexy maybe as this. Tell me what a skin sexy is. Do we have time for that? You know what? Instead of that, why don't you tell them what happened before we started this episode? We lost our shit. We were both

first time ever. Crying laughing. Literally crying. I had tears. I had to get tissue paper. Tito had to get tissue paper. Okay. We'll talk about that next time. Why were we crying and laughing? I can't even remember now, but it was fun. We were trying to do the intro.

We just couldn't. With the backdrop, if I want you as the song, it's just too sexy. We forgot something. Can we play one more thing real quick? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, Leon, where, famously,

as we talked about. Leon. Where? Scott. Chopin. Okay. He gave this record. Nobody has a reference to that. He gave,

as a, you know, gave and collaborated with a record that he basically was already making, which was what this record, as we said. but he basically still released that record, but he wrote a bunch of new stuff with the same kind of vibe called, and it's good.

Musical massage. Came out the same year, a couple months later. And this is kind of a... The King of Horny Music? I'd heard, yeah. This is a killing. I was listening to this. I never knew about this record.

It's got all the stuff that we'd associate with. Horned up. Horned up. Bongoes. That's so good, though. Leon Ware could sing, too. I mean, this could be 1983. When is this?

1976. No. Yes. I'm going on a Leonware deep dive. You know what? I'm remembering now. Yeah, no, I heard this record. I was like I knew I'd heard if,

when I was in Japan, They have these like soul R&B, like, bars or coffee shops. This, back in the 90s, I remember this guy playing me this record. I was like, who's the name? I mean, I knew him from the name, but I didn't. So he's kind of like a cult follower. That's fantastic. Yeah, you'd like the arranging on here and everything.

Anyway, musical massage. All right, man. Have you ever had one of those? We don't know. Every day. We're supposed to say something at the end of this thing. Oh, if you made it this far, please go and give us a review on Apple.

Yeah, go to the app that you're on right now on your phone. Yeah, no, you should do this. Give us a little bit of a rating review massage, right? Yeah. Seven stars. Yeah, yeah, seven stars. It's not possible, but you've got to do it somehow, some way. You can figure it out in the comments.

We're also going to reintroduce a little thing called Gala because some of our dear listeners have been putting that in the comments. Look, if you want to put a rating, go to Apple. If you want to leave us a comment, go to the YouTube. Even if you just like to listen to us and you don't want. Or Spotify. We got a thriving comment section on Spotify. Really?

Can you send me the password? Thanks. Anyway, people have been asking about the gala, which is the gentleman and ladies agreement. We actually stole gala. It's not an apple. Gala apple. It's not a fundraiser.

A gala. The gentleman and ladies agreement wherein we give you this show for free. However, it's not free. And we also stole this from another podcast, like literally word for word. We've stolen everything on the show from another podcast. But I think it's a podcast nobody listens to this doesn't have a lot of it. Anyway. No, people do.

And shout out Bill Martin, my father, who just had his 85. fifth birthday. And shout out to the manisist, Deb and Lester, who just had their 50th anniversary. My parents this past weekend, yeah. Without these folks and this record, were they all, they could have been, we don't know. I'm just saying, I was born. Wait, what year were you born?

It lines up. And Bill Martin wanted to remind me, he said, you know what? I said, how are you feeling about turning 85? You said, well, I know one good thing that I did in this world. I got you guys to stop saying snobometer and say snobometer. It is honestly, One of Bill Martin's many cultural contributions.

Until next time, we'll hear it. Just return, sweet darling.