April 1 is known in the English-speaking world as April Fools' Day, equivalent to our April Fools' Day. That is why, when the news broke on April 1, 1984, that singer Marvin Gaye had been shot to death by his own father, many thought it was a bad joke. “Singer Marvin Gaye, murdered by his father after a tense argument,” headlined EL PAÍS. The tragedy occurred on the eve of what was going to be the 45th birthday of the American musician (born April 2, 1939 in Washington). The fatal history of pop was already well populated with the deaths of great stars due to suicide, overdoses, car or plane accidents, but for an artist to die at the hands of his own father was unthinkable.
An element that only adds confusion is that the reason was apparently banal, the result of an argument between Gaye's father and mother in the house that the family shared in Los Angeles at the time, concerning insurance papers. The singer, out of control under the effects of cocaine and PCP, reacted by physically attacking his mother. He took out the revolver that his son had given him a few months before, turned against him and shot him twice. The first of them, straight to the heart, was lethal. The jury's verdict exonerated Marvin Gay Sr for self-defense (the artist would change Gay to Gaye as his stage name). His wife, Alberta Cooper, immediately asked for a divorce and the murderer died of pneumonia in a nursing home in 1998, at the age of 84. In reality, those who had followed the career of the author of
What's Going On
more or less closely
were not so surprised by what happened. Such a tragic end to his life was something that, in a way, was seen coming.
More information
Depeche Mode, from madness in a Madrid mansion to “the most depraved tour of all time”
The charisma of Marvin Gaye, author of a work full of humanism and a few odes to love, from the most spiritual to the most lubricious, contrasts with a tormented life, weighed down by the turbulent relationship with the man who gave and took his life. . Marvin Gay Sr. was a preacher belonging to the so-called House of God, a conservative Christian congregation with elements of Pentecostalism and Orthodox Judaism that required compliance with very strict codes of conduct. Although Mr. Gay was not so much about himself: according to his family he would later relate, he was an alcoholic man and prone to extramarital affairs. Cruelty and domestic violence were all too common during the musician's childhood and adolescence.
A young Marvin Gaye pictured in 1961.Afro Newspaper/Gado (Getty Images)
“This explains Marvin's flight forward with his permanent obsession with sex, which he lived with a great feeling of guilt,” explains music critic Luis Lapuente. It is even said that young Marvin changed his original surname (from Gay to Gaye) due to the continuous bullying that the other children subjected him to, who were fond of ridiculing him with all kinds of homophobic insults, although a more mythomaniac story indicates that he also did it to look like his admired Sam Cooke (born Cook). In her sister Zeola Gaye's memoir,
My Brother Marvin
,
she
says that her father used to wear women's clothes in her house, which tormented and traumatized the singer.
Alberta Gaye, center, during her son Marvin Gaye's funeral in Hollywood, California, in 1984.Ron Galella (Ron Galella Collection via Getty)
Even in his most successful moments, the singer rarely enjoyed his popularity, and found himself mired in multiple contradictions. He was one of the great champions of social justice, but, at the same time, he went into exile in London and the Belgian city of Ostend in the early 1980s due to his problems with the American treasury. At that time, he is remembered as a compulsive consumer of pornography and a cocaine addict with suicidal tendencies and a paranoid temperament that led him to become obsessed with the fact that there was a plot to assassinate him, for which he frequently wore bulletproof vests. That paranoia was what prompted him to give his father the .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with which he fatally ended up taking his life, instead of using it for his protection.
The tragic dimension of the event was also enhanced by the contrast between the erratic state of life in which Marvin was then and his magnificent creative and commercial moment. In 1982, he had released his album
Midnight Love
, which, especially thanks to its song
Sexual Healing
, had become the most successful of his career. He had even been chosen to sing the US anthem at halftime of the NBA All Star in 1983, before figures such as Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and Julius Erving.
Marvin Gaye collecting a Grammy in 1983.Armando Gallo (Armando Gallo/Getty Images)
Midnight Love
was the last work in a career that was cut short too soon. “It is difficult to predict what would have happened next. I like to imagine that she would have gone on to release some great records in that vein, so sensual, that perhaps she would have completed a great double live gospel album, like Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace. And that she would have recorded some contemporary soul album with producers like Danger Mouse, for example. But who knows, at worst it would have become an old glory of those that end up singing in the casinos of Las Vegas,” ventures Luis Lapuente, scholar of disco and soul music and author of books such as
History of disco music
.
Frictions with Motown
There are more biographical factors that ended up shaping Gaye's work, as confirmed by the critic, also known as Doctor Soul. “When his brother Frankie returned from Vietnam and saw first-hand the atrocities of that war, he felt the need to record
What's Going On
, with that pacifist and spiritual air that his songs exude,” recalls Lapuente. We are talking about what is unanimously considered one of the capital works in the history of popular music, published in 1971. “With that album, Marvin contributed to changing the course of the Motown label, and of soul, at a key moment, and for several reasons. First, he was one of the first black artists to make the leap from song to concept album format. In addition, he supported a very social and demanding approach to aspects such as racial equality or ecology, which, at that time, was almost an unprecedented topic. With that album, in addition, he recognized for the first time the importance of the great Motown studio musicians, by appearing their names in the credits.
Our protagonist's relationship with the emblematic Detroit record company also had its turbulence. Her first steps on the label, directed by the aggressive Berry Gordy, were made by combining some singles as a vocalist with work as a session drummer, until in 1962 she obtained her first big hit,
Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
.
A year later he married Anna Gordy, the boss's sister, but that didn't make his life any easier either. Another of his most mournful memories was the moment when, during a performance, singer Tammi Terrell (with whom he had recorded a number of successful duets, such as
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
) fainted in his arms. her. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor from which Tammi died in 1970, which plunged Marvin into a major depression. He even considered abandoning music at that time and switching to American football. Berry also did not welcome the twist offered by his brother-in-law in
What's Going On
, as it seemed too risky for him to deliver such a politicized work. According to the Motown boss, the reputation of the author of
I Heard It Through The Gravepine
as a soul heartthrob for all audiences and of Motown itself as a
good-natured
and apolitical musical factory could be destroyed.
Gaye's marital relationship with Anna Gordy was another big problem in his life. A hell. They separated in 1973, but their divorce process was stormy and concluded four years later. “When the marriage broke up,” recalls Lapuente, “Marvin recorded another of his great LPs,
Here, My Dear
, with turbulent autobiographical songs. The profits from the sales of that album were going to be entirely for Anna, as specified in the divorce papers.” That happened in 1978 but, in between, in 1973, he delivered another historic album like
Let's Get It On
, “another concept album, this time focused on sex, thus inaugurating an entire subgenre within soul, where artists like Teddy Pendergrass would travel. , Luther Vandross, R Kelly and many more to this day,” says Lapuente.
Janis Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall in New York in the seventies. Sonia Moskowitz (Getty Images)
It can be said, in fact, that these two capital works have been extremely influential to this day. Especially
What's Going On
, the first attempt to construct what could be called the great African-American album, an ambitious work that would pave the way for Prince (
Sign O' The Times
), Public Enemy (
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
). , Kanye West (
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
), Beyoncé (
Lemonade
), Kendrick Lamar (
To Pimp A Butterfly
), D'Angelo (
Black Messiah
) or Kamasi Washington (
The Epic
) and that will surely continue with more future examples.
Cursed man, cursed 'biopic'
Forty years after his disappearance, another great American story is found in Marvin Gaye's biography. Through it, very relevant ideas about the development of the music and entertainment industry can be inferred, in parallel, with the same evolution of soul music. About the unhealthy, traumatic relationship between the fascination with firearms, sex, religion and domestic violence. About the beginning and end of the
hippy
utopia in collision with the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the arrival of the Black Panthers and the fight for civil rights, until entering the very entrance of
yuppie
culture with the Reagan administration .
Mural in New York with Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye, by artist Lex Bella (2020).Bill Tompkins (Getty Images)
It is, in short, such a juicy plot that it seems incredible that it has not yet reached Hollywood. But there has been no shortage of attempts, especially in recent years. In 2006, the
Sexual Healing
project began
, with James Gandolfini and Jean-Luc Van Damme among the surprising cast of producers. This biopic would narrate the last three years of the life of the singer, who was going to be played by Jesse L. Martin, who had a reasonable resemblance to Gaye, and directed by Lauren Goodman. The film has taken countless turns since then. In a second attempt, it was decided that the director would be the renowned Julien Temple and that the lead actor would be Lenny Kravitz. The popular singer was in Ostend and visited some of the key places in Gaye's biography but, in the end, he dropped out of the project. The latest that is known, if we trust the information posted on the IMDB portal, is that the film is still in the production phase, with Temple as director and Jesse L. Martin again playing Gaye.
In 2008 it was suggested that it would be F. Gary Gray (the director of Straight Outta Compton, biopic of the rap group NWA), who would bring
Marvin
to the screen , a film that, this time, would cover the singer's entire biography. Around the same time, Cameron Crowe (
Almost Famous
) embarked on a project titled
My Name Is Marvin
, for which there was speculation that it would star Will Smith, but the director declared in 2011 that it was not the time to do that. movie. Five years later, the filming of a series was announced in which Jamie Foxx would play Gaye, and, in 2018, it was Dr. Dre who decided to produce another film, which Allen Hughes would direct. None of these attempts have seen the light, it is rumored that, mainly, due to the refusal of the singer's heirs.
You can follow ICON on
,
X
,
, or subscribe to the
Newsletter here
.