In Our Lifetime (Marvin Gaye album)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Love Party" redirects here. For the political party in Italy, see Love Party (Italy).
In Our Lifetime?
Marvin's Room
(Los Angeles, California)
Seawest Recording Studio
(Honolulu, Hawaii)
Odyssey Studios
(London, England)
GenreSoul, funk, jazz
Length41:30 (Original album)
40:07 (1994 re-release)
138:01 (2007 edition, two-disc)
LabelTamla
ProducerMarvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye chronology
Here, My Dear
(1978) 		In Our Lifetime?
(1981) 		Midnight Love
(1982)
Singles from In Our Lifetime?
  1. "Ego Tripping Out"
    Released: September 28, 1979
  2. "Praise"
    Released: February 6, 1981
  3. "Heavy Love Affair"
    Released: April 20, 1981

In Our Lifetime? is the sixteenth

Anna Gordy.[2] Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, In Our Lifetime? was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.[3]

Conception

In 1979, Marvin Gaye found himself at a professional and personal low ebb. Two years without a hit since "

Dinah & Friends, with the performance later being featured on the DVD
, Marvin Gaye - The Real Thing: In Performance 1964-1981.

Test pressing artwork for the cancelled release of Love Man.

The song was supposed to be the leading track off Gaye's next album, a disco-styled album he titled Love Man, with tracks he had recorded at his

voluntary bankruptcy
, later resulting in the shutdown of his recording studio, which further depressed Gaye.

An ill-fated reunion with Janis around this time led Gaye, high on cocaine, to point a knife to Janis's heart, causing another separation.

Princess Margaret
, leaving Krueger to sue him for breach of contract; eventually, Gaye and Krueger settled their dispute without having to go to trial.

Gaye, now scared of a possible arrest warrant for avoiding the IRS, decided to settle in London where he partook on the city's nightlife and suffered a relapse. By now, Gaye had learned of freebasing while living in London and would spend weeks getting high. Gaye also began to reevaluate the Love Man album stating "I had to do something for money, but I also had an obligation - to the truth. Motown wasn't giving me a cent 'cause they were yelling how they'd spent a fortune on the Love Man cover and here I was holed up in Hawaii telling them the love man was dead. He was. The love man was me and I needed to stop that shit."[7] Gaye rethought the album's concept and said he "saw how silly I'd been. Who needed another record moanin' and bitchin' 'bout some woman? Why did I have to regain my throne as the sex king? Who cared about competing with Michael Jackson and Prince? Look what was happening with the world. I had a message to spread. I had my theme."[7]

Recording

The first recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin Gaye Studios in Hollywood and then at Honolulu's Seawest Recording Studios. Upon arriving in London in 1980 where he settled, Gaye recorded his new concept for the album at London's Odyssey and

AIR Studios. Songs that Gaye had recorded while in Los Angeles and Hawaii changed from their original approach. The original version of "Love Party" was titled "Dance 'N Be Happy" and mainly focused on his fallout of his marriage to Janis Gaye, only to be rewritten as a pseudo dance song with gospel-influenced lyrics. The blues song, "Just Because You're So Pretty" transformed into "Love Me Now or Love Me Later", which focused on the concept of "good and evil" souls that Gaye felt existed inside human beings, mainly himself. The funk song, "I Offer You Nothing But Love", was transformed into "In Our Lifetime", which included chants from one of Gaye's musicians ("come let's all get funky if you dig the right/come let's all get funky if you dig the wrong"), with the lyrics talking about a possible Armageddon approaching. The mild disco sound of "Lover's Plea" again was altered for more gospel influences in the song "Praise", even praising Stevie Wonder
for the inspired riff for the song ("Stevie, we really dig you/hope you don't mind this riff from you"). "Life is For Learning" didn't change from the original song much except for the song's original title with the singer focusing on how he approached his music ("the artist pays the price/so you won't have to pay/if we would listen to what he has to say"). "Funk Me" was altered from the more sexually charged version from Love Man (its original title chanted "funk me" three times) and "Heavy Love Affair", his one song in which he discusses his fallout with Janis, was originally "Life's a Game of Give and Take", ironically doing the reverse of his other songs in which the original song discussed personal issues with his own life and flipping them around to focus on his fallout with Janis. "Far Cry" was the only newer song from the sessions in London to be featured along with the instrumental "Nuclear Juice". Gaye also revived and reworked "Ego Tripping Out" twice as a possible entry into the album, before ultimately omitting the song from the final album tracklist.

By late December, Gaye had finished the rough draft of the album and later revised the album in a

What's Going On, Let's Get It On and I Want You. However, around this time, one of Marvin's touring and recording musicians, bassist Frank Blair, decided to take the contents of the album's master tapes to Motown's Hollywood offices, which was done unbeknownst to Gaye, who was remixing and editing the album in Odyssey Studios in London. Motown, still angered over Gaye's backing away from the Love Man project, revised the album for several weeks.[8]

Release

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
BBC(favorable)[10]
Chicago Tribune[11]
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80sA−[12]
Tom HullB+ ((3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention))[15]
The New York Times(favourable)[14]
Record Mirror[13]

When In Our Lifetime was finally issued in recording stores on January 15, 1981, Gaye was angry over its rush release.[16] He later said, "How could they embarrass me like that? I was humiliated. They also added guitar licks and bass lines.(The former actually happened with Heavy Love Affair.) How dare they second guess my artistic decisions? Can you imagine saying to an artist, say Picasso, 'Okay Pablo, you've been fooling with this picture long enough. We'll take this unfinished canvas and add a leg here, an arm there. You might be the artist, but you're behind schedule, so we'll finish this painting for you. If you don't like the results, Pablo, baby, that's tough!' I was heartbroken. I was deeply hurt. Motown went behind my back. That's something I'll never forgive or forget."[17][18] Upon hearing it, he said the label had re-edited the album without his permission.[17] However, sales for the album were low, despite its critical success, producing a sole R&B hit with "Praise" and peaking at number thirty-two on the Billboard Top 200 album charts, but hitting number six on the Billboard R&B album charts. After its release, Gaye asked to be let go from his contract.

Gaye's request was finally granted after

CBS Records' urban division president Larkin Arnold bought him out of his Motown contract, thus ending the singer's 21-year relationship with the company in 1982 (Gaye then eventually recorded his final album to be released during his lifetime, Midnight Love, in Belgium and Germany
).

Over the years, the album was forgotten, until it was re-released by Motown on compact disc in 1994 to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Gaye's death, including the song "Ego Tripping Out" as part of the track listing.

On June 19, 2007, twenty-six years after the album's release, Hip-O Records re-released the album as an expanded edition, which included not only the album as originally released but also alternate takes from London's Air and Odyssey Studio sessions, the original 1979 single of "Ego Tripping Out", as well as an alternate cut from the In Our Lifetime sessions.

The second disc released what was from the Love Man sessions with instrumental productions that were included in Lifetime under different lyrics and different titles. The reissue restored the question mark at the end of the title and was limited to 5,000 copies.[19]

Track listing

All tracks were written, arranged, composed and produced by Marvin Gaye.

Original 1981 release

Side A

  1. "Praise" – 4:51
  2. "Life Is for Learning" – 3:39
  3. "Love Party" – 4:58
  4. "Funk Me" – 5:34

Side B

  1. "Far Cry" – 4:28
  2. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" – 4:59
  3. "Heavy Love Affair" – 3:45
  4. "In Our Lifetime" – 6:57

Expanded edition

Disc one (bonus tracks)

  1. "Nuclear Juice" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) – 5:46
  2. "Ego Tripping Out" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) – 4:55
  3. "Far Cry" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) – 6:21
  4. "Ego Tripping Out" (Love Man: The Single) – 5:13
  5. "Ego Tripping Out – Instrumental" (Love Man: The Single) – 3:43

Disc two

  1. "Praise" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 5:09
  2. "Life Is For Learning" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 3:53
  3. "Heavy Love Affair" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 4:40
  4. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 5:43
  5. "Ego Tripping Out" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 4:37
  6. "Funk Me" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 5:13
  7. "In Our Lifetime" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 5:51
  8. "Love Party" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 5:18
  9. "Life's a Game of Give and Take" (The Love Man Sessions) – 4:57
  10. "Life Is Now in Session" (The Love Man Sessions) – 4:04
  11. "I Offer You Nothing But Love" (The Love Man Sessions) – 6:03
  12. "Just Because You're So Pretty" (The Love Man Sessions) – 5:06
  13. "Dance 'N' Be Happy" (The Love Man Sessions) – 6:49
  14. "Funk Me, Funk Me, Funk Me" (The Love Man Sessions) – 5:49
  15. "A Lover's Plea" (The Love Man Sessions) – 6:10

Personnel

  • Marvin Gaye – vocals, keyboards, drums
  • Robert Ahwry – guitar
  • Gordon Banks – guitar
  • Frank Bates – bass, background vocals
  • Frank Blair – bass, drums
  • Candace Bond – Executive Producer
  • Jon Walls – Recording & Mix Engineer
  • Ray Brown – trumpet
  • William Bryant – drums, keyboards[citation needed]
  • Elmira Collins – vibraphone, background vocals
  • Raymond Crossley – keyboards
  • Fernando Harkness – saxophone
  • Joe James – percussion[citation needed]
  • Gary Jones – percussion, conga
  • Lee Kentle – drums, background vocals
  • Nigel Martinez – drums
  • Kenny Mason – trumpet
  • Joe Mayo – percussion
  • Sidney Muldrew – French horn
  • Curtis Anthony Nolen – guitar
  • Raphael Ravenscroft – alto saxophone
  • Dr. George Shaw – trumpet
  • Nolan Andrew Smith – trumpet
  • David Ritz – liner notes
  • Preston "Bugsy" Wilcox – drums
  • Ron Slenzak – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year Chart Position
1981 Pop Albums 32
Black Albums 6

Singles

Year Title Chart Position
1981 "Heavy Love Affair"
Black Singles
 61
"Praise" Black Singles 18

References

  1. Motown Records
    . January 1981.
  2. ^ RS Biography of Marvin Gaye. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-08-29.
  3. ^ Allmusic critic Jason Elias says In Our Lifetime was "one of his finest later albums and captures him at his craft was maturing and becoming more multifaceted". All Media Guide, LLC. Retrieved on 2008-08-29.
  4. ^ a b c Ritz 1991, pp. 265.
  5. ^ Ritz 1991, pp. 264.
  6. ^ What's Going On: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye, PBS, 2006
  7. ^ a b Ritz 1991, pp. 267.
  8. ^ Ritz 1991, pp. 280.
  9. ^ Elias, Jason. "Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime". allmusic.com. AllMusic.
  10. ^ Aaron, David (2007). "Marvin Gaye In Our Lifetime? Review". bbc.co.uk. BBC.
  11. ^ Kot, Greg. "Review: In Our Lifetime[permanent dead link]". Chicago Tribune: 4. July 22, 1994. (Transcription of original review at talk page)
  12. ^ Robert Christgau review
  13. ^ Sexton, Paul (March 7, 1981). "Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime". Vol. 28, no. 10. Record Mirror. p. 14. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  14. ^ Rockwell, John (March 1, 1981). "THE AFRICAN INFLUENCE ON POP AND JAZZ MUSICIANS". The New York Times.
  15. ^ Hull, Tom (November 2013). "Recycled Goods (#114)". A Consumer Guide to the Trailing Edge. Tom Hull. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  16. ^ Ritz 1991, pp. 280–281.
  17. ^ a b Ritz 1991, p. 281.
  18. ^ Des Barres 1996, p. 114.
  19. ^ "In Our Lifetime re-release". Hip-O Select. Retrieved August 29, 2008.

Sources

External links
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