Let's Get it On

Marvin Gaye

album cover

The Big Neon Sign over the Bedroom Door Says . . .

"Have your sex," Marvin Gaye writes in the liner notes of this landmark of bedroom soul. "It can be very exciting . . . if you're lucky." And if you're really lucky, that sex will feel a bit like this album sounds—slippery and heated and all-consuming, governed equally by urgency and tenderness. An essay on carnal delight in eight parts, Let's Get It On is one for the ages not just because of its plush backgrounds (particularly the wah-wah guitar of Melvin Ragin, a key player on the L.A. Motown sides) or its melodies (largely improvised), but because of Gaye's needy-man delivery, the way he transforms "please baby" into a bouquet of beautifully arranged pleas. He's just a few years removed from What's Going On (see previous page), his comment on society, but he's really worlds away: Sharing his formidable repertoire of bended-knee incantations, Gaye wants to stay in the bedroom as long as it takes to celebrate every last sacred ritual of love.

This album triggered an enormous outbreak of slightly salacious bedroom soul, much of it the equivalent of play-by-play coverage from ringside. Gaye's endeavor is different: Singing in that sly, delighted way, he brings listeners into his need, shares the pleasure and the torment, makes raw desire sound almost noble and immediate. When Gaye talks about getting it on, you are there.

Genre: R&B
Released: 1973, Motown
Key Tracks: "Let's Get It On," "You Sure Love to Ball," "Distant Lover," "Just to Keep You Satisfied"
Catalog Choice: Midnight Love
Next Stop: Teddy Pendergrass: Love Songs
After That: Astrud Gilberto: Finest Hour
Book Page: 305