Sexual Healing

MARVIN GAYE – 17th And Final LP ‘MIDNIGHT LOVE’ Came Out 40 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Back in time

9 November 2022

The late soul icon MARVIN GAYE (1939-1984) released his first post-Motown LP MIDNIGHT LOVE on 8 November 1982, 40 years ago. His most successful one, thanks
in great part to its huge hit SEXUAL HEALING (more than 308 million strems on Spotify).

Rolling Stone wrote: “This record, which has become the biggest crossover hit of the
singer’s career, is a comeback for Gaye, whose last couple of albums, despite their funkster
defenders, committed the unpardonable sin of tedium. The album has the rhythmic tension, melodic delicacy and erotic resilience of Gaye’s greatest music, and it extends those attributes by applying contemporary synthesizer gimmickry judiciously and soulfully. Gaye plays about eighty percent of the instruments here himself, and his synthesizer work, as well as his drumming, is a revelation. And everything here, including the ribald greeting-card verse
of the lyrics, underscores the relentless erotic obsession that’s at the core of Gaye’s concerns.” Score: 4/5.

Full album stream on Spotify

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MARVIN GAYE: Bio – Discography

Immortal Soul Legend MARVIN GAYE Back In OSTEND…

Posted on by JL

20 December 2020

I’m enjoying my Xmas holidays (with my wonderful wife) at the Belgian coast, in Ostend.
The historic city where the late great soul legend MARVIN GAYE lived for 18 months. He arrived on a liner from England on Valentine’s Day 1981.

Struggling with financial problems, a broken heart, drugs and alcohol he wanted to leave America and work out solutions for his problems. He went to stay with Freddy Cousaert, an Ostend hotelier and occasional manager, who offered to give him a home.

The what’s going on star regained a taste for life, no longer hanging out with the wrong crowd and put himself back together, in semi-anonymity… and he wrote Sexual Healing while being in Ostend.

Check this short, amazing footage from Gaye’s stay in Belgium…

As I had a walk a couple of hours ago I was completely surprised when I saw this advertising board/poster saying Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love Tour. Being curious, of course, I checked Ostend website. There I found what this is about: “During the walking documentary Marvin Gaye “Midnight Love Tour” you will learn everything about his comeback and how the monster hit “Sexual Healing” came about.” Cool, I know what to do tomorrow.

MARVIN GAYE: Website

(pic by Turn Up The Volume!)