0:11

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0:13

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0:15

more kids. That's

0:17

right. That's right. It's Valentine's Day. I'm

0:19

trying to do sexy ones. It's Valentine's

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0:24

not sexy. You sound like Bruce Wayne. I

0:27

know it's not sexy. I will stop. It's

0:29

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0:32

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details. Okay,

1:41

if you're new

1:43

here, I'm actor,

1:46

writer, director, and sometimes DJ D'Allo.

1:49

And I'm producer, DJ, musicologist, luxury,

1:52

AKA the guy who talks about interpolation

1:54

on the internet. And I think it's

1:56

only appropriate that today, a day for

1:58

lovers, is the day for lovers. that

2:00

we choose to celebrate one of the

2:02

sexiest songs of all time. A song

2:04

that was number one in the US.

2:07

A song that went platinum. And while

2:09

there are no exact statistics for this,

2:11

probably accounted for more unplanned pregnancies in

2:13

the 1970s than any other recording. Very

2:16

likely. It's a very sexy song. It equals sex to

2:18

many people. It's become a staple

2:20

for any self-respecting make-out tape. Or make-out

2:23

playlists. No, no, I still call that.

2:25

I think tape is cool. Just calling

2:27

it a tape. Just call it a

2:29

tape. It established Marvin Gaye as a

2:31

true sex symbol and it established

2:33

the wah-wah pedal as the horniest sound

2:36

on planet Earth. Let's face it. You

2:38

get a little bit

2:40

of a wah-wah and then... It's amazing.

2:42

Boners are poppin'. This time on one

2:44

song... Boners are

2:46

poppin'. It's the Boner

2:48

Poppin' Edition. It's Let's Get It On.

3:05

I'm so excited about this episode. I have

3:07

a lot to say about Marvin Gaye. He's

3:09

one of my favorite artists of all time.

3:12

But before we start, I have to ask

3:14

luxury. Do you consider yourself to be romantic?

3:16

Sure. Hell, romantic. What's the most romantic thing

3:19

you've ever done? A very sexy man.

3:21

That's different from romantic, isn't it? Can

3:23

we make the distinction actually for the world to

3:25

understand? What is the distinction between romantic and sexy?

3:27

Where is the line? Do we even know? I

3:30

think you are sexy to the person you

3:33

are romantic with. Hopefully. You would hope it's

3:35

a two-way. Oh, I like that. Do

3:37

you think that this generation, because on

3:39

TikTok and stuff, I see so much

3:41

cringe content of young people that think

3:43

what they're doing is sexy, but it's

3:45

just cringy. Do you think that they

3:48

really think... Do You think what

3:50

they're trying to be is romantic and appealing

3:52

to their partners, but they think the road

3:54

to that is sexiness? I'm just playing with

3:56

the same thing. Every Generation thinks that romance

3:58

died the second that they died. They got

4:00

married and settled down. A look of this

4:02

given like asthma romantic but I think the

4:04

kids configure the kids are all right is

4:06

what I'm saying like you know ability it

4:08

all comes down to since the humor and

4:10

you know it's authenticity to being yourself as

4:12

as being your cell I have the Koreans

4:14

comes from when it it's so clear let

4:16

that they're trying to be something that's not

4:18

natural as most of the Koreans probably comes

4:20

from. Either people trying too hard

4:22

of people being oh judging the young at

4:24

those out of that that is also cringing

4:27

of as well as.seminary so will stop present

4:29

them you can kick off none of Texas

4:31

am would yeah let's get it on. Well.

4:33

Maybe I should say let's get into had

4:35

little known as a different meaning today about

4:37

soccer. How want to be hard and for

4:39

a heartbeat eight or nine assists of as

4:42

Oc about Marvin Gaye he's going to your

4:44

favorite artists and I give them a lot

4:46

to say for listeners or maybe less familiar

4:48

with Martin and frankly I'm one of them.

4:50

Teach. Teach us all educators. Why does he

4:52

matter to you as a marvelous so important

4:54

to me Like he really is like nothing

4:56

is created in a vacuum and there are

4:58

so many artists from. Jackie. Wilson

5:01

too. Smokey, Robinson

5:03

you know who are absolute innovators

5:05

eyes as feel. I do think

5:08

that Marvin is a very if

5:10

you're going to talk about music.

5:12

Very convenient bridge from Rmb. sort

5:14

of representing. Ah, The sort

5:16

of Boogie Woogie Mr. Rollicking styles of

5:18

like the fifties and even a Motown

5:21

song of which he was a part

5:23

of in the beginning of the sixties

5:25

into what we think of is today

5:27

as as contemporary aren't be like he

5:29

might draw a direct line from Marvin

5:32

to everybody from The Angelo to Bryson

5:34

Tiller in ways that it's It's harder

5:36

when you draw that line from Smokey

5:38

and Sam Cooke and some of the

5:40

other artists and are you making a

5:42

distinction between kind of more of a

5:45

soul singer versus. Assertive as well. I suppose

5:47

there is. It's hard. It's all about the

5:49

yeah I like even growing. I just sinks

5:51

in that you're making their just now between

5:53

Smokey vs ah I see it as the

5:55

in Alabama sir or something I think is

5:57

is in some ways of my be the.

6:00

Introduction of just blatant sexuality him to

6:02

the music. Ah, I'm in ways

6:04

that are wasn't there before and I do.

6:06

That's when the reasons why we chose Let's

6:08

get in on for discover other Marvin Gaye

6:11

songs that we could do on one song,

6:13

but we're coming up on Valentine's Day. Sure,

6:15

we're like what's the sexiest Sol we can

6:17

do and we were just almost immediately agree

6:19

that Let's Get In On is sexy Recall:

6:22

Regardless of the genre of music you're into,

6:24

my is a sexy some it's become a

6:26

template. It is represent sex so much so

6:28

that in this past couple years it's become

6:30

the tic toc meme of the intro. The

6:33

first. Offense was just a while I am

6:35

against routes is enough to target we that

6:37

a million videos on tic toc alone for

6:39

which just the intro to this on. Represents

6:42

sex and tells you that you're about

6:44

to watch a video. that either a

6:46

sexy video or it's kind of a

6:49

joke about like a skin about sex.

6:51

Yeah it's This is a song that

6:53

instantly conveys sexiness culturally. Absolute. Get M

6:55

M M M Y De bring it

6:57

up About Also because in preparing for

6:59

this episode I had no idea to

7:01

the song originally enough to to displace.

7:03

It insists oracle context. Were. Coming

7:05

out of a period where he's release one of the

7:08

most celebrated albums of all center I was going on.

7:14

says. I

7:21

want my absolute favorite. Like if I'm in

7:23

the right mood I was years. Certain songs

7:25

like you know, Lion High like I just

7:27

it's hard not to well up with tears

7:29

like well let's let's not. Let's pause on

7:31

every second because that's an important album now.

7:33

What's going on was a really important record.

7:35

Yeah for not as Marvin, but for as

7:38

I was gonna say for Motown answer You

7:40

see it's odd settings I did about Very

7:42

Greens album for Berry Gordy. Did Rothys put

7:44

it out and I want to put it

7:46

out and said it would be a career

7:48

ending mistake. Raise the worst. thing you've ever

7:50

heard to there was actually a back and forth

7:52

battle took several months before marvin finally put his

7:55

foot down and i think you self released it

7:57

originally so there's a lot of controversy surrounding that

7:59

that Then it became a hit and

8:01

as you're in the middle of saying,

8:03

it's a political album

8:05

more than it is a personal sexual record. It

8:08

was a very political album. It's

8:12

hard to say that any political music doesn't owe

8:14

something to what's going on, but

8:16

I think a lot of people were

8:19

probably expecting another really political album from

8:21

Marvin. As it turned out, no,

8:24

they got this album which

8:26

was very open with

8:28

the sexuality for the lack of any

8:30

other type. Let's

8:33

Get It On didn't start out that way. Let's Get It

8:35

On as an album and both as an

8:37

album and as a single both started off

8:39

political just like their predecessor. Then

8:41

something was just going on in his life. He

8:43

was growing apart from his wife, Anna

8:46

Gordy at the time. She's

8:48

falling in love with this new

8:50

person who finds herself in the studio, Janice

8:52

Hunter, who he will eventually

8:55

marry before the end of the decade.

8:57

We'll get into all that because first

8:59

of all, Anna Gordy is 17 years

9:01

older than Marvin is and

9:04

Janice is 17 years younger than Marvin is.

9:07

Something going on with the number 17. There's some

9:09

age range stuff going on there interestingly. That's

9:12

a big thing happening in his personal life right

9:14

in this moment and to your point, the transition

9:16

from making a political record to

9:18

making a sexual record happens in this song which

9:21

when we get to the song story, we'll get

9:23

into more detail. I

9:25

think you were in the middle of saying the song itself

9:28

started out as a political song, didn't it? Started

9:30

out as political and the same way that

9:32

what's going on was like over the top

9:34

open with its political messages.

9:38

This was an album that was

9:40

eventually going to be over the

9:42

top in its celebration of

9:44

sex. I think that

9:46

it was in the David Ritz book that

9:49

a case can be made, a strong case can

9:51

be made. This is the David Ritz biography of

9:53

Marvin Gaye. It's called Divided Soul. He

9:56

makes a strong case that this Song

9:59

and this album. The album. In.

10:01

Some ways creates the slow jam. Yeah, we

10:03

want to talk about their like. is this

10:05

the first as we think of it Modern

10:07

slowed that so instinct to me and I

10:10

think I think that is accurate. So we're

10:12

going to get into what slowdowns are and

10:14

sexuality Us on this episode we're going to

10:16

define sexuality with this episode the I I

10:18

just want to take a moment to put.

10:20

out there on public record people need to

10:22

know this about you because you and Bashir

10:24

your partner in crime for com and a

10:26

comedy make and twenty years you co created

10:29

Jimmy Fallon Slow Down the new. President

10:36

Obama has taken a hard

10:39

stance on immigration. He

10:41

wants to let everyone is. He

10:45

gonna do the runway. I me

10:47

to Jimmy's credit Jimmy has of as a. Outsize.

10:51

Can work goes into that show. He has a great.

10:53

Writer: brain and it seemed as he's like a

10:55

want to do something caught up sodium and is where

10:57

we do a. Slow. Jam and Bread.

11:00

We talk about what happened in his

11:02

and at that point busy and I

11:04

did go hospital right? What we thought

11:06

essentially would sound like an Usher song.

11:08

Okay, out with whether it wasn't based

11:10

on let's Go On there wasn't based

11:12

on let's Go On It was more

11:14

labor the Rmb of Arm era last.

11:16

Shy and Silk an usher. As

11:18

out as I big you know the depending

11:20

on when you as in this I did

11:22

the Superbowl just happened so you know that

11:24

Ma'am Gallup area of always upgrades for Atlanta.

11:28

My. Hometown been like yeah it was. It

11:30

was really ambitious because if you know only

11:32

super fans of Jimmy don't even know this.

11:34

But we sat down to write the first

11:36

with The Roots. you know when over really

11:38

big was on his very first episode and

11:41

then they are like we gotta do it

11:43

again and so we actually wrote an entirely

11:45

different songs for the second one above Be

11:47

a I g you know finance scandals that

11:49

I might. It was really hoping that they

11:51

some you know there are good a different

11:53

era for that. I'm nice and slow by

11:55

us or was like are go to I'm

11:58

Atlanta we're. likes can we talk AIG.

12:02

We were going to write an actual brand

12:05

new original R&B song every single time we

12:07

did that sketch. At this point,

12:09

even Jimmy was like, we're killing ourselves. There's a reason

12:11

why people do this full time for a living. So

12:14

we eventually settled in on this one version of

12:16

the song that was similar to the first time

12:19

we ever did it. So we didn't have to

12:21

write a new slow jam to do the song

12:23

every single time. But writing an

12:25

effective slow jam is not that easy as it

12:27

turns out. And trying to make it funny

12:29

is even harder. That's so funny.

12:32

Well, the idea of a slow R&B

12:34

sort of ballad, romantic sexy

12:36

right on that line that we were discussing earlier, that

12:38

idea has existed for some time. Sure,

12:41

there have always been songs and there have always been

12:43

ballads. I think the difference

12:45

here, again, is sort of the unchecked,

12:48

raw sexuality. And let's be honest here,

12:50

the raw, unchecked, black sexuality. I mean,

12:52

you've got to realize, it's just coming

12:54

out of the Civil Rights movement, black

12:56

people just starting to grow their hair

12:59

natural. And this, in some

13:01

ways, to free

13:03

sexuality is the next

13:05

step one could assume in the

13:07

political movement. And I do

13:09

find it really interesting that something

13:11

like What's Going On comes out and it's

13:13

so overtly political. Just two

13:15

years later, he comes out with an album

13:17

that's overtly sexual. And now, as a kid

13:20

growing up, I always heard so many baby

13:22

boomers and rock journalists say like, oh,

13:24

you know, the 70s let down the idealism

13:27

of the 60s. Everybody was trying

13:29

to make the world a better place in the 60s. You

13:31

hear a little bit of that in What's Going On. And

13:34

then by the middle and late 70s, it's all

13:36

about sex and everybody's giving up. Sex and partying

13:38

and fucking disco, right? And everybody's kind of giving

13:40

up on making the world a better place. But

13:43

I will say, in defense

13:45

of Marvin and those who were

13:47

into freeing up the sexuality of

13:49

the nation and then the mass

13:51

human mind, if you will, there

13:55

have been a lot of religious trauma and there

13:57

still is. So to them, this is

13:59

a very interesting thing. would have seemed like

14:01

the next step. And I know that Marvin Gaye

14:03

said in releasing Let's Get It On, he

14:06

really wanted to make sure that people saw

14:08

sex as a way of connecting with God.

14:11

And so to him, after fixing

14:13

society through political means,

14:15

it was important for him to

14:17

try and fix people's spirituality and

14:19

their view on God via

14:22

sex. Because that's so important to talk about you

14:24

in the context of Marvin and his life. Because

14:26

Marvin, Marvin is such

14:28

a troubled figure historically. Just

14:30

like looking at his story is really

14:32

tragic. I mean, not just the way

14:34

he was killed by his father, shot

14:37

dead at age 40. Heavy. Heavy stuff.

14:39

But his whole experience with his father

14:41

and his father's sexuality and his father

14:43

being a preacher and his hidden transvesticism.

14:45

Which, again, is something that

14:47

I feel like I didn't know about

14:49

his father's sort of ordeal about that.

14:51

I was fascinated to learn

14:53

that the E at the end of Gaye

14:55

was not there at his birth. He added

14:57

E. He was separating himself from his father.

14:59

I don't want to be a physician. He

15:01

was also giving a shout out to Sam

15:03

Cooke who also had a silent E at

15:05

the end of his name. And I guess

15:07

that Marvin had to deal with like, you

15:09

know, schoolboy taunts, you know, with having the

15:11

last name Gaye. So in another way, like

15:13

this E solved a lot of his own

15:15

personal issues. But you were just saying, I

15:18

mean, he was obviously so traumatized by that

15:20

early childhood experience of his father's conflicted sexuality,

15:22

it sounds like. And his father's being a

15:24

preacher, that the sort of mix of church

15:26

and sexuality and music for

15:28

Marvin Gaye was an avenue to figure

15:30

it out in a lot of ways to sort

15:32

of understand and express himself. It's a really interesting

15:34

story. Apparently, if you look at the Midnight Special

15:36

episode that Marvin Gaye did in the mid-70s, there's

15:39

a person who looks like a woman in the

15:41

audience wearing a wig and a

15:43

dress. That's his dad, right? And it's his

15:45

dad. Yeah, yeah. Which is, again, like just

15:47

something like, considering that his father was like

15:50

this die-hard preacher who, you know, I don't

15:52

think it can really be debated. Abuses, wife

15:54

abuses kids and then I tortured him and

15:56

never spared the rod, so to speak. It's

16:00

just a really intense story. So Marvin

16:02

getting into his sexuality with this song,

16:04

with Let's Get It On, was obviously

16:07

a choice that he made that was even more

16:10

fraught and weight. It's already culturally in 73 to

16:12

be doing, it was a big deal. I think

16:14

financially from the perspective of like the

16:17

record label not wanting this big change

16:19

to happen, it was a big choice.

16:21

And last but not least, personally, his

16:23

own personal experience, he's being incredibly brave

16:26

and vulnerable to come out and say,

16:28

I'm a sexual being, sex is okay,

16:30

it's 1973 and I'm Marvin Gaye

16:32

and Motown, be damned. And yet the

16:35

reception of this album is remarkable. Like

16:37

again, growing up in the shadow

16:39

of the baby boomers, I would have thought

16:42

that what's going on was the biggest record

16:44

of his career. But no, Let's

16:46

Get It On comes out and

16:48

not only outsells what's going

16:50

on, but it puts him on a whole new

16:52

level with a pop audience. But this song, Let's

16:54

Get It On goes to number one. A

16:57

overtly black sexual song

16:59

goes to number one and in a

17:01

lot of ways, it allows for the

17:03

Barry Whites. And

17:06

even it causes a career change

17:08

in the songwriting of people like Lionel

17:10

Richie and Maurice

17:13

White with Earth, Wind and Fire. It

17:15

opens up almost like a whole new genre and

17:17

a whole new space for R&B that to some

17:19

extent continues to this day. I think that when

17:21

we think about R&B in the sixties, it's kind

17:24

of rocking. It's kind of like a version of

17:26

like the British rock and the American rock. Like

17:28

they kind of have like these dance tempos from

17:31

the seventies on R&B goes towards love

17:33

and romance and love making, whereas rock

17:35

sort of stays on a like, you

17:37

know, get up and rage out. But

17:40

to your point and the explicit sexuality

17:42

that's ushered in with this song, before

17:44

it was romance, it was James Brown

17:46

is pleading. It's like sex,

17:48

there's sexiness and there's romance, but it's not as

17:50

like James Brown's screaming is not in quite the

17:53

same way as Let's Get

17:55

It On crooning. Orgasmic screams on

17:57

the record. I mean, like we haven't even talked about some of the other.

18:00

songs on the album but you should love to

18:02

ball like you know there are not

18:04

pulling any punch on there not that may not

18:06

be heard again for a while and I think

18:09

the only person who might have gotten to it

18:11

first might have been Serge Gainsbourg with right you

18:13

know his songs of like the term one on

18:15

proof okay

18:28

the the foreplay is over we told you

18:30

put the kids to bed after

18:33

the break we'll be pressing play on

18:35

the stems to this wonderful song and

18:37

hearing Marvin Gaye's vocals as well as

18:39

that wah-wah pedal when we get back

18:46

radio Andy hey it's Andy Cohen join

18:48

me on Andy Cohen live where it's

18:50

just you me and some of the

18:53

world's biggest celebrities Paris Hilton Chelsea and

18:55

there's a broken I love you Miley

18:57

thank you so much you can listen

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for the love of home. Welcome

20:53

back to one song. Okay, before we get

20:56

to these sexy sims, you have a little

20:58

bit of backstory for it. Right, I'm gonna

21:00

lead you up. We were talking about what's

21:02

going on which came out in 1971 and

21:04

Barry, here's the exact quote from Barry Cody.

21:06

I found that the worst record I ever

21:08

heard in my life is what he said

21:10

before he turned. What's going on? When Marvin

21:13

turned what's going on in to Barry Gordy, the

21:15

head of Motown Records founder, he said, this is

21:17

the worst record I ever heard in my life.

21:19

Marvin, you're absolutely insane and this is gonna be

21:22

the biggest fiasco that ever was. I

21:24

could tell you right now what Gordy didn't hear

21:26

was a hit single. Right. He was like, I

21:28

don't hear no singles. Yeah, I mean it didn't

21:30

sound like anything that had come before but that's

21:32

how art works and that's why there's this always

21:35

this sort of tension between art and commerce.

21:37

Let me say, I have never I have

21:39

never stated the sentence in my life in

21:41

defense of Barry Gordy. Listen,

21:46

sometimes you hear a big swing and

21:48

you're just like there's no way. I

21:50

remember the first time I heard Justin

21:52

Timberlake's sexy back. Yeah,

22:00

I remember thinking I like

22:02

house music. Yeah me too. I know exactly

22:04

the weirdo song I thought it

22:07

sounded so corny because the production is so

22:09

corny It's like it's like a bad house

22:11

track that the kick drum wasn't quite right

22:13

this like the sounds were wrong I told

22:16

her to me solid two years as a

22:18

DJ You could not

22:20

get out of not playing it like now I

22:22

weddings and clubs and everywhere's but the first time

22:24

I heard it I was like I this is

22:26

weird and the co there's a funny with a

22:29

come here girl It didn't even sound like a

22:31

bad house. I was like that was already into

22:33

like Da Punk and other cool stuff I was

22:35

like this does not so good. You know what

22:37

Barry Gordy sometimes you just can't hear and sometimes

22:40

the artist can't He can't be perfect. Um, yeah,

22:42

Barry Gordy generally a perfect individual But

22:44

not in this case, so he didn't like what's going on Thought

22:47

it was gonna be a big flop by the way fun fact

22:49

Do you know I don't know if you already know this but

22:51

do you you know at the beginning of what's going on? There's

22:54

like a party noise people talking. Do you know this people are

22:56

absolutely, you know, they are uh, it's Don Cornelius, right? It's

22:59

it's oh, I'm thinking of got

23:01

to give it up That's that's Don Cornelius and

23:03

a bunch of people hanging on this duty. Is

23:05

that true? Yes, it is. But tell me who

23:07

who are the voices we hear the beginning two

23:09

members of the Detroit Lions Who

23:16

then tried to recruit Marvin to join the team

23:18

and apparently he did Consider

23:21

trying out until it was he was

23:23

convinced an athlete that was an athlete

23:25

You know like little side little side

23:27

step here But marvin a we're going

23:29

on soul train with his friend Don

23:31

Cornelius and they would actually roll a

23:33

basketball hoop onto the dance

23:35

floor and they would like shoot basketball

23:37

and I was thinking like you can

23:39

have like the ultimate fantasy basketball team

23:41

of Like legendary singers if you have

23:43

Marvin Gaye, right? Maybe Prince like shooting

23:45

guard Master P apparently

23:48

almost made the pelicans.

23:50

Okay, you know, and they just need like two other people French

23:54

Montana, I think was pretty good at

23:56

Rutgers. I'm sure the Internet could correct

23:58

me if I was no no, they'll be distracted by

24:00

the fact that I had no idea there was a team called the Pelicans.

24:03

I've been out of the loop for a while. You're the Pelicans

24:05

if I'm not mistaken. I just haven't paid attention to basketball for

24:07

quite some time. Is Cornbread Maxwell still

24:09

playing? Oh gosh, we need to talk. But that's

24:11

a subject for another time. But you were saying

24:14

about Let's Get It On. So just a little

24:16

bridge to how we get to Let's Get It

24:18

On. After the huge success of What's Going On,

24:21

Marvin's next album was actually shelved in He

24:24

recorded an entire record called You're the Man.

24:26

And they both refused to put it out.

24:29

And they did offer him the soundtrack to a

24:31

Bloxploitation film called Trouble Man. You have to remember

24:33

this is the era. Great album. I'm

24:36

so excited to play. This

24:38

is not my... I'm not going to use up my one

24:40

more song. This is just a song I'm going to play.

24:42

One of my favorite songs from this record. So this comes

24:44

out in 1972, which is right... Isaac

24:46

Hayes' Shaft comes out in 1971. Curtis

24:48

Mayfield's Superfly comes out a few months earlier in

24:50

1972. It's in the air,

24:52

these incredible composers, Blox musicians that

24:54

are making these Bloxploitation soundtracks. And

24:58

one of my favorite songs I'm going to play for

25:00

you now. This is Marvin Gaye. By the way, he

25:02

composed and did the entire score himself.

25:04

He's playing a lot of the instruments. This

25:07

song is called Tea Plays It Cool. And

25:09

it's such a funky jam. And you're hearing

25:11

Marvin play everything on this except for sax.

25:14

Here we go. It's

25:26

such a great song. It's

25:29

such a great jam. And this is... We

25:32

have to re-establish the fact,

25:34

by the way, that going backwards for

25:36

just a minute, don't forget that Marvin

25:38

Gaye was a multi-instrumentalist. And when he

25:40

was at Motown, Marvin actually

25:42

is the drummer on the Marve Let's

25:44

Please Mr. Postman. No way.

25:47

He's the drummer on Stevie Wonder's Fingertips.

25:49

Nice. And he's a co-writer and the

25:51

drummer on Martha and the Vandalas Dancing in the

25:53

Street. No way. So

26:03

Marvin, multi-talented. Those men and B.S.E.

26:05

is a street to amazing classic

26:07

tracks. That's Marvin on the drums.

26:09

You got Marvin on the drums. And

26:11

yeah, that's the thing. So here, can I tell you one

26:14

thing that you don't know about the Troubleman soundtrack? Okay, tell

26:16

me about it. I'm taking it back to me and Bashir's

26:18

earliest for Raised

26:20

Into Comedy. We wanted to find a

26:22

name for our sketch group. And

26:26

we were sitting there with our original sketch

26:28

group members. Nobody was famous. Not anything, yet

26:30

really, in the business. It was me, Bashir,

26:33

Wyatt Sinek, who a lot of our listeners will know,

26:35

Robin Peedy. I know them all. We

26:37

got to get them all on the show. You

26:39

guys are welcome to come on the show. Nevertari

26:42

Spencer, Nika King, who is on Euphoria, Angela

26:45

Yarbrough and Thomas

26:48

Rager. And the name that we decided for

26:50

our group was Cleo's Apartment. Oh, that's the

26:52

song on the soundtrack. We got

26:54

that name from the Troubleman soundtrack. Is it a good

26:56

movie? Should we watch this movie? We're going to do

26:58

some one-song movie nights. We should.

27:01

We should one movie. We

27:03

should, like all Black Exploitation films,

27:05

there's some stuff in there that is

27:07

extremely ridiculous and goofy. But there's

27:10

some that's like, you're kind of amazed at the

27:12

filmmaking that goes involved. And they're all different. Some

27:14

I love, some I'm just like, oof. And the

27:16

music is great. This record, it sounds like, you

27:18

can imagine Portishead going crazy with samples on it.

27:21

It's like it's very Beth Gibbons, but it's Marvin

27:23

Gaye. It's a really great underrated

27:25

record. So this is what he does after that

27:27

record is shelved. Let's talk about the song,

27:29

Let's Get It On. It's released in June 15th, 1973. And

27:34

this is two years again after what's going on. Lots

27:36

has happened in between. The song ends up going

27:38

to number one for two weeks. It's his

27:40

second number one hit after I heard it through the grapevine.

27:43

And it's inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004. So

27:45

how did the song get made? Marvin

27:47

hooks up with a producer named Ed

27:49

Townsend, who was formerly a doo-wop singer.

27:52

He had a number 13 hit in the 50s

27:55

called For Your Love. Basically, Gaye

27:57

is wanting to be the Black Frank Sinatra.

28:00

from Smokey Robinson who says this. And part

28:02

of this is hooking up with this particular

28:04

singer who has experience working with strings and

28:07

he was- Sounds like the secret sauce, for sure.

28:09

Townsend is the secret sauce. He's the co-writer of this

28:11

song. He's the producer of the record. And

28:13

it sounds like he is sort of a dream collaborator for

28:15

gay in this moment. Importantly,

28:18

Mr. Townsend has just come out of rehab for

28:20

alcoholism. And when he started, he starts the song.

28:23

He actually writes the first draft of Let's Get

28:25

It On. And his lyrics

28:27

are more religiously focused, I would

28:29

say. It's more of a religious

28:31

song. It's about overcoming addiction. And

28:34

it is the line, Let's Get It On is

28:36

in there. But as hard as it is to

28:38

imagine it being separated from its sexual meaning, at

28:40

the time, Let's Get It On for Ed Townsend,

28:42

the original writer of that lyric was, Let's Get

28:45

It On life. Let's Get On with life. Let's

28:47

get past addiction. So it's really

28:49

interesting to think of it that way. There's

28:51

also though a middle step before we get

28:53

to the sex version, where it's rewritten once

28:56

as a political song. Right, that's what I was

28:58

talking about. Clearly, gay is getting a little bit

29:00

of heat for moving too far away from the,

29:02

don't stray too far from this what's going on

29:04

thing. So the second version,

29:06

he co-writes with Kenneth Stover, who's a co-writer,

29:09

one of his collaborators. It's more political. I'll

29:11

play a little bit of the demo for you now. And

29:14

you'll hear the exact same music. You'll hear

29:16

a lot of similar melodic and lyrical stuff

29:18

happening. But the focus is

29:20

more about understanding and brotherhood, and

29:22

not sex. I

29:27

know there should be peace, love.

29:35

Right, so peace and love. I love that. It should

29:37

be, it's like the Ringo star, isn't

29:39

that his catchphrase? Ringo star is always like, peace

29:41

and love. So this is the Ringo,

29:43

maybe that's where we got it from. The word politics. Maybe that's

29:46

where Ringo got that from. I mean, peace and love's a pretty,

29:48

that's been out there as a line. That second version,

29:51

which was more political, co-writer Ed

29:53

Townsend wasn't really crazy about it. And he

29:55

just really pushed Marvin to go, go down

29:57

this path of love and sexuality.

30:00

That's what this should be about for you. So they got

30:02

together, they wrote the lyrics, and

30:04

that's what the song is about. And

30:06

I found this really cool quote. Marvin

30:08

Gaye said, and again, going back

30:10

to his personal journey and story,

30:13

he was clearly making

30:15

a very conscious choice to be vulnerable and to

30:17

sort of take on this topic which had been

30:19

difficult for him, a difficult part of his life

30:22

and upbringing. And he wants to embrace

30:24

and, in a way, preach to

30:26

the rest of the world that sex is okay.

30:28

So what he says here is, I can't

30:30

see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybody's

30:32

– I don't

30:35

want anybody's – I think we make far too

30:37

much of it. After all, one's genitals are

30:39

just one part of the magnificent human body. I

30:42

contend that sex is sex and love is love. When combined,

30:44

they work well together. If two people are

30:46

about the same mind, have your sex. It

30:48

can be very exciting if you're lucky. I

30:51

mean, I actually kind of agree. I

30:55

feel like his whole thesis with

30:57

this album was like, we've made too

30:59

much of sex in a bad way and

31:01

we've sort of forgotten that sex is absolutely

31:03

part of our programming. He's sex positive in

31:05

1973. That's a big deal. He

31:07

puts the T.S. Eliot quote into the album

31:10

liner notes. The life is,

31:12

I believe, birth, compilation, and death,

31:14

which, depending on your mood,

31:16

can be really depressing. That's nasty. Really depressing

31:18

or also really life-affirming. Yeah, it is life-affirming.

31:20

I think sex positivity is

31:22

about taking what's been in the shadows because

31:25

we're a Puritan nation in our history. It's

31:27

like all this stuff about the most fundamental

31:29

fact of existence is the

31:31

copulation part. It's wild. I

31:34

feel like with this song, Marvin makes

31:36

R&B the music of making love. I

31:38

mean, nowadays, if someone says, oh, I

31:40

have a make-out tape, as we said

31:42

earlier, you don't immediately think, oh, I'm

31:44

going to put on a rock song.

31:48

No, it really did plant a

31:50

flag for R&B as the music

31:52

of making. To the extent that even that

31:54

wah-wah pedal, I'm just thinking right now, became

31:56

sort of the soundtrack for like, it reminds

31:58

me of the song. me of a

32:00

classic stand-up routine by a comedian. I looked it

32:03

up. I think his name is Jordan Brady, but

32:05

he was on a show called The A-List and

32:07

all of us kids saw this routine, but it

32:09

was in the early 90s and he said, any

32:12

time you hear a Wawa pedal you think of

32:14

sex, you know, you think of

32:16

Baunch. Pavlovian. Pavlovian. Like he coined that phrase.

32:18

Pavlovian Trigger. Baunch of a Wawa, which was

32:20

like... Oh, is that where that comes from?

32:23

That's where that comes from, apparently. And I

32:25

think it, you know, between Barry White and

32:27

before Barry White, let's get it on, the

32:30

Wawa pedal just became synonymous with making love.

32:32

It's a trigger, yeah. It instantly excites the

32:34

senses. I want to apologize

32:36

to my wife. We think that

32:38

there's no less sexy phrase, ironically, than making

32:40

love, but you're going to hear it a

32:42

lot on this episode. So speaking of Wawa

32:45

pedal, we're about to get into the stems. We will, we

32:47

have to start with the guitar. The song starts with the

32:49

Wawa guitar. So we're going to start with, we'll start with

32:51

that in just a moment. First, let me back up and

32:53

set the scene. It's March 13th, 1973. And one thing

32:55

I do

32:57

need to point out as we get into this

32:59

is because there was the 50th anniversary, there was

33:02

a lot of archival research that was done to

33:04

sort of dig into who the performers were, because

33:06

the notes taken on the day and literally the

33:08

album liner notes are terrible. They just list the

33:10

songs. And then there's a list of everybody who

33:12

played on all the songs, but you don't know

33:15

who played on what. And part of why that's

33:17

an issue is that half this record was made

33:19

in Detroit with tapes that started years ago. And

33:23

the other half was made in Motown West

33:25

in Los Angeles. And so along the

33:28

way, a lot of records were lost and there is

33:30

some speculation required to match who played what in one

33:32

on what day. So I did a lot of homework

33:34

and I did a lot of research and I think

33:36

I got a pretty good job, but it

33:39

may not be perfect. Let's start with the guitar.

33:42

So here's how let's get it on begins. I

33:50

almost have to apologize for laughing, but it has

33:52

gotten to the point where because of the Tik

33:55

Tok or because of just 50 years of being

33:57

in the culture that wa wa wa wa it

33:59

is almost a comical sexuality to it.

34:01

It's fantastic. It's fantastic. So what you're hearing,

34:03

that is a wah pedal. And one is

34:05

a wah pedal. We all know what it

34:07

is, but what is it, right?

34:09

It's one of those things. Well, it's

34:11

a pedal that was invented in the

34:14

mid-60s by the Thomas Organ Company. What

34:17

you're literally technically hearing is the sound

34:19

of an envelope that's opening and closing.

34:21

So you're sort of sweeping through the

34:23

EQ. You're hearing the highs, not the

34:25

lows with your foot. So somebody is,

34:27

as they're performing on guitar, they're playing

34:29

the part, the notes. They're moving their

34:31

foot up and down and it goes

34:33

wah. It's like opening and closing your

34:35

mouth essentially is the closest analogy. I

34:37

could think, wow, wow. That's why wah,

34:39

wah is what it's called. And

34:41

the origin of the wah, this

34:44

is really interesting, comes from a white trumpeter in

34:46

the 30s named Clyde McCoy,

34:49

literally a McCoy from the Hatfield

34:51

McCoy. And in the 30s, he

34:53

was famous for having a sound

34:55

where he used his trumpet with

34:57

a wah or a mute. Yeah.

34:59

And it sounded like this. I'm

35:01

just going to put

35:13

this out there. I think he might

35:15

be the guy credited. Oh, no doubt. No doubt.

35:17

Because of this jazz,

35:19

he definitely stole it from a black man. He

35:21

did it first. And there's probably a black guy

35:23

out there. 100% true. Lamont Hatfield, who might've beat

35:26

us too. Maybe that's the origin of the dispute.

35:28

Yeah, but you know, we may never find out.

35:30

That is an important distinction to make. He is

35:32

the one credited. He's the one credited. I don't

35:34

think we are confident enough to say he invented

35:37

it. We don't know. He popularized it, made

35:39

it famous. And when the first wah pedal

35:41

came out, they called it the

35:43

Clyde McCoy. Cool. It is a tribute

35:45

to him. So long story

35:47

short, this becomes the sound of

35:50

late 60s rock and roll, heavy

35:52

rock. This is Hendrix. This is

35:54

Clapton and Cream. I mean,

35:57

I typically hear that Hendrix is, you know, usually

35:59

a clapton. credited with popularizing the use of the

36:01

wah-wah guitar. I think so too, and I think

36:03

it's because of this song. This

36:05

is Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix. Voodoo

36:08

Child by Jimi Hendrix. Voodoo Child

36:10

by Jimi Hendrix. That

36:21

is such an iconic sound and intro. And

36:23

what's innovative and new, it's like a new

36:25

tool for a guitarist in the 60s. Because

36:27

you have to remember that if you're playing

36:30

your palette is relatively limited. You don't have all the

36:33

effects that we've come to be accustomed

36:35

to to this day. And when the wah

36:37

pedal came out, suddenly you could make it

36:39

sound literally more human. It doesn't sound like

36:41

the human voice. It does have that wah-wah

36:43

thing happening. So it becomes this new way

36:45

of expressing your sound, new way of expressing

36:47

your guitar. So I think that

36:49

the Jimi Hendrix example is probably is

36:52

among the first and definitely one of the blew

36:54

up as a result of that

36:56

is everyone wanted to emulate and be like Jimi Hendrix.

36:58

No doubt. All the guitar players that followed in his wake.

37:01

Who's the guitarist who plays this on? Let's get it

37:03

on. You have to guess which of these three names

37:05

played the wah. Because I did two hours of research

37:07

to get to this. There are three

37:10

guitars named. There's Don Peek, Arthur

37:12

Wright, and Melvin Wah-wah Reagan.

37:15

Who do you think plays this? Don Peek. All

37:18

the money. It was Don Peek. Oh, wasn't it

37:20

really? Yes. Oh, nice. OK. Don Peek. Poor guy.

37:22

He's like, it was me. The guy's name was

37:24

Wah-wah, but he didn't play it. So

37:27

he's out there on the internet trying to make a noise for himself.

37:30

Reasonably, reasonably so. Because it was him. So this

37:32

is Don Peek playing that. And I'm going to

37:34

play it for you now. I

37:36

played it from the stems, isolated in the mix. Don

37:39

Peek with that iconic intro. And

37:50

one thing I want to say is that for the first, it's kind

37:52

of fun isolating the stems on this

37:54

for the guitar. Because for the first minute

37:56

and a half, he's doing that. He's kind

37:58

of playing around, noodling. There's not a lot

38:01

of things that he repeats. There's not like a riff that he kind

38:03

of like finds and then a minute

38:05

and a half In he kind of locks into this

38:07

kind of chuck whom I'll play that for you in

38:09

a second. Mm-hmm, which sounds like this And

38:13

I'll give you some drums so, you know how that fits On

38:19

the two and four Just

38:21

keep in the tempo and that's really

38:23

all he plays for the rest of the song

38:25

aside from in the sort of B section But

38:28

the first minute and a half he's moving around

38:30

there's some mistakes that are really kind of funny

38:32

There's one in the interview to this day.

38:34

He still cringes because it's you hear it

38:37

in the background Um, and I

38:39

had never noticed it until I heard it and

38:41

here it is. This is his clam at second 15 Okay,

38:47

here it is I

38:50

mean doesn't sound like a mistake to me. Yeah, it's it's a

38:53

little bit sharp. What up? It's

38:55

just a tiny bit of it's a tiny little

38:57

thing but i'm gonna say let that one slide

38:59

man because Here's

39:03

one more clam and they call me at towns when i'm

39:05

like it stays in the mix You

39:10

hear that one this little bonk Yeah, yeah,

39:12

I guess. Yeah, but that You're

39:15

like that one's very much in the mix. You hear that

39:17

one. I gotta say right off the bat I

39:19

didn't realize until just now how much I

39:21

like the drums Yeah, the song like the

39:23

drums bring so much the way that they

39:26

Come in strong the way that they keep the tempo

39:28

like the drums are really really good. Should we hear

39:30

some drums? I'd love to hear some drums. This

39:33

is paul humphrey on drums. Uh,

39:35

who also famously is the drummer

39:37

on steely dan's black cow Wow,

39:40

okay. Let's hear some let's hear some paul

39:42

humphries Simple groove

39:44

interesting about this is listen to that kick drum It's

39:49

on the four Now

39:53

as a drummer like

39:55

if we both as drummers if we were playing boons I probably wouldn't Play

40:00

that four I just got boom cab

40:02

boom boom cab, but he's going boom

40:04

cab boom boom boom Which

40:06

is it's really I mean like there's also like a little bit

40:08

of a Like there's

40:10

a little bit on that snare that I had not

40:13

noticed But now a ghost I'm aware that I feel

40:15

it you feel it even though I

40:17

wasn't paying attention to it He's the man

40:19

and play a few of his interesting fills

40:21

I Kind

40:29

of throws in that little buzzer. Yeah, you're having more

40:31

fun with us near than I would have thought That's

40:38

a fun fill to play that yeah couple of

40:40

open hat chokes there and then

40:42

one more fill Oh He's

40:50

moving into the B section there Just

40:52

something interesting about the structure of the song by the way is

40:54

that it has just two

40:57

musical sections It's really just kind

40:59

of a groove the whole time Yeah, and that B section

41:01

which we just went into and I'll play for you what

41:03

that means. It's this part of the song Oh

41:11

Yeah, yeah those bongos are a little boosted so a

41:14

little louder than they are in the real mix

41:16

other than that We've got like kind of this

41:18

really long intro. It's 45 seconds of intro and

41:20

then we have I would

41:22

border on saying a Almost

41:25

chorus free song like this isn't something where there's

41:27

this big build and then the course it's a

41:29

B section It's that part I just played for

41:31

you, but it feels more like a bridge It's

41:33

just like I feel like it feels like verse

41:36

Bridge and then its chorus just from

41:38

the lyrics, but the chorus sounds like

41:41

the verse, but it is the verse

41:43

Yeah, yeah to your point get it

41:45

on musically. It's kind of like two

41:47

parts right you know very very simple

41:50

group Yeah, so that's the drums and

41:53

Even that bridge what we're calling the bridge

41:55

is more of a build to the

41:57

chorus which musically is just the verse again

42:00

I mean if anything it feels like we need

42:02

to change this actually to that point on

42:04

the album There is a second version of let's

42:06

get it on right is called keep getting on

42:09

yeah, and they don't have the B section Absolutely

42:11

straight three minutes of Justin way on on I

42:13

want you. There's the song I want you then

42:15

like that halfway, and there's the I want you

42:17

instrumental Yeah, which as a DJ you would often

42:19

play that like when you were like yeah You

42:21

know trying to sit the mood it feels very

42:23

much constructed There was an awareness like look we

42:25

need for there to be a change for it

42:27

to be radio friendly Yeah, but like on the

42:29

dance floor like you know even but you know

42:31

to that point James Brown records famously have let's

42:34

take it To the bridge that's it's just so

42:36

you have a break from the 10-minute groove you

42:38

just started it Yeah, and you're about to go

42:40

into again So that's kind of what that feels

42:42

like that's more of a funk inspired break from

42:44

from the action So let's keep it moving with

42:46

the bass. This is Wilton Felder from the band

42:48

the Crusaders Second

42:51

half of this record I mentioned has

42:53

the Detroit players the Detroit

42:55

performers from Motown and the funk brothers So James

42:58

Jamerson is not on this track the internet is

43:00

wrong It's Wilton Felder and here he is playing

43:02

a little foreshadowing of what we'll be talking about

43:04

later on the episode a baseline

43:07

that a certain I

43:10

had a head of a plan. I think is iconic that

43:12

we all think is iconic. Okay. I'm glad you said the

43:14

word not me Here

43:27

it is with some drums He's

43:34

mostly just playing For

43:36

a chord cycle for a note cycle throughout

43:38

the track I will play this one

43:41

moment where he gets a little bit fancy a little

43:43

teensy bit fancy with a filler, too I Try

43:52

to keep them keep them self-interested for the five minutes

43:54

erasure no playing for notes. Yeah, my name is the

43:57

B section I should say so that's a well

44:00

Wilton Felder on bass. Thank

44:02

you Wilton Felder for all of the

44:04

people walking around on planet Earth that

44:07

you helped facilitate with that super sexy

44:09

bass line. Super sexy. Let's

44:11

not forget there's a second guitar by the way. This

44:14

one's a little bit more on the comping

44:16

kind of chords tip. I

44:20

don't know who this is, but I did mention

44:22

those three players before. It's

44:24

one of the other two. It's either Arthur

44:26

Wright or Melvin Wawa. Might be Melvin Wawa.

44:30

Not playing the non-Wawa part and here

44:32

it is. And

44:36

here's how it sounds with the other guitar actually. Crazy

44:44

when you just have that one in there. The

44:48

one that we've noticed probably the least. It

44:51

sounds a lot more like an Al Green song.

44:53

That's a great point. It sounds

44:55

like Al Green who is another one who

44:58

I think had some great slow

45:00

jams around the

45:02

same time. Yeah. I

45:04

think also there was some heavy competition between

45:06

Gay and Green. I read some interview where

45:09

the interviewer mentions Al Green almost in passing

45:11

and then Gay's tone

45:13

immediately gets a little more aggro.

45:16

I wondered if Al eventually becomes a Reverend.

45:18

Maybe Al reminded him too much of his

45:20

dad or something. By

45:23

the way, that guitar part just playing chords really

45:25

keeping it simple which is very similar to what

45:27

the piano is doing. Not a lot of fancy

45:29

stuff. In fact, when I heard the

45:32

guitar part I almost wasn't sure if it was

45:34

a piano. I'll play you the piano and then

45:36

I'll mix the two and tell me if you

45:38

can tell them apart. This is Joe Sample also

45:40

from the Crusaders playing the piano and also playing

45:42

on slow jams. like

46:00

nice and nice and meaty. That's a

46:03

chunky piano going on there. Baby!

46:08

Very church too. Very church. I

46:15

feel like if

46:17

we had Duran Bernar on the show

46:19

he would be freaking out because he

46:22

loves that churchy piano. Yeah he does.

46:24

It sounds great. It sounds so good.

46:26

It sounds so good. This whole entire

46:28

song is produced so beautifully and recorded

46:30

so beautifully. So on saxophone, so this

46:32

is another situation where we've got three

46:34

different names in the credits. I'm pretty

46:36

sure this is Ernie Watts. Ernie Watts.

46:38

It might however be Piaas Johnson. It

46:42

could be Buddy Collette. Different sources have different

46:44

names. Just DM us the real answer. Just

46:46

DM us the real answer if you're one of

46:48

these guys. We'll try to spread the word. Or their estates.

46:50

And here's the saxophone. So

47:05

that's happening in the horn section. We've got

47:07

props, those three names and some mix. But

47:10

here's the thing. If that's Ernie Watts, that would be

47:12

great because he is the guy who did this. That's

47:25

right. Ernie Watts. Did

47:27

the Nightcore theme song. However, if it

47:29

wasn't Ernie Watts and it was instead Piaas Johnson,

47:31

he's the guy who has

47:33

the sax solo on this. So

47:43

we're not sure which horn player who

47:46

did which theme song. Could have also been the third guy. It could

47:48

have been the third guy. Poor Buddy Collette. I don't have any theme

47:50

songs for him. Poor guy. Y'all I'm

47:52

sure you're as excited as our audience is to hear. I am.

47:54

Marvin's isolated vocals. We're going to get to that. We're going to

47:56

get to that. But first, when we

47:58

were talking about this. episode planning what to

48:00

do the idea of a make-out tape kept on coming up so

48:03

I think we kind of need to pause for a second so

48:05

I've got to ask you Diallo what is on your ultimate

48:08

ultimate what would be the ultimate make-out tape for

48:10

you? Well I you know

48:12

I haven't made a make-out tape since

48:15

my cassette deck broke but I will

48:18

say that this does come back to

48:20

my relationship with the song I'd probably heard this

48:22

song in various ways you know

48:25

growing up it was actually not until college

48:27

in the mid 90s when I was like trying

48:29

to make a make-out tape and a buddy

48:32

of mine was like he's like oh man I got

48:34

the ultimate chicken this out and I remember this song

48:36

came on and I was just like about the time

48:38

the drums came on I was like whoa

48:41

that sounds like audible sex like it

48:43

was a different relationship with it something

48:45

about the music that really just crossed

48:47

the line it's about let's get it

48:50

on the way that those drums came

48:52

in like it just didn't matter

48:54

that it was already a song over 25

48:56

years old or something like that like I was

48:58

like I was like oh yeah that's gotta

49:00

go on there and I think just because of

49:03

when I was around like I think about

49:05

the other songs on there there was um you

49:08

know Die Without You by

49:10

PM Don made the cut there

49:12

was there was actually

49:14

a Nusher song off his first album

49:17

that made the cut there was the House of

49:19

Music album by Tony

49:21

Tony Tony that I kind of like sampled

49:25

liberally from just because so

49:27

many good you know for like

49:30

a better term make out songs and then of course

49:32

the waiting to excel soundtrack was was was really big

49:34

hey and you know what y'all let's let's just hear

49:36

one and let's hear like a pick your number one

49:39

I know this is like a Sophie's Choice but like

49:41

what is the number one Jan out of all I

49:43

think one of the ones I have to mention is

49:46

Lay Your Head on My Pillow by Tony Tony

49:48

Tony Yeah,

50:02

I mean like the song was produced by Tony, Tony, Tony,

50:04

which tells me that it was the Wiggins brothers, Raphael,

50:08

Sadiq and Dwayne and

50:10

I believe the drummer of the guitarist

50:12

is Timothy Riley. No

50:14

relation as far as I know to Teddy. Sexy

50:17

slow jam. That's your number one. Is that

50:19

still your go to? Not

50:21

anymore. I mean like, you know what's

50:23

interesting about make out songs, we share a special

50:25

relationship with them in that if

50:28

you're in a relationship and

50:30

like that's your make out song with one person,

50:32

like it feels wrong to, so I retired that

50:34

one before even the end of the 90s and

50:36

long before my current wife and we have our

50:39

own, you know. So she's never experienced that particular

50:41

song? No, she's not going to know that. That's

50:43

the all I was young. I was like, you

50:45

know, she's better off for not having that. You

50:47

know, I will say that my

50:49

song with my wife is

50:51

Sure Thing by Miguel. It's

50:54

not even just a make out song.

50:56

It's like, you know, a song that I associate with

50:58

us dating and falling in love and even when we

51:00

got married. So I think our current song. Can we

51:02

hear that one? I'd love to hear it. Sure. It's

51:05

Sure Thing by Miguel. You could break that

51:08

and put on a sweet butt. I

51:10

should be a lover. You should

51:13

be a man. I will be

51:15

a dude. Everybody needs to

51:17

be a dude. I know a part of

51:19

me. We have pulled

51:22

the curtain back on my sexy times. Now

51:24

we know. I feel like I

51:26

feel a lot in a vulnerable way. I appreciate

51:28

it. That's the theme of the show. Very vulnerable.

51:30

Luxury. What went on your make

51:32

out? I'm so curious. When I wanted to

51:34

get down in my earlier years, I

51:37

would just put this on and you know, ladies with

51:39

me. I'm sorry. That's the wrong

51:41

way. I believe the wrong way. Not

51:44

true. That's the wrong way. Oh,

52:05

yeah, we get freaky to Vivaldi, you know

52:07

it big cat no big cat

52:09

there's no way No, it's true.

52:11

I was I was lying. That's

52:13

not but you Part

52:16

of you is part of you was like now

52:18

this camp you thought that it was more of

52:20

a it's not that you thought I was joking

52:22

and said you thought this can't possibly be true.

52:24

I hope it's not true. No, it's almost too

52:26

cool for school I want to I want the

52:29

vulnerable you expose as I've exposed myself not

52:31

in that way HR. What is your make

52:33

out music? I think you cannot beat this.

52:35

I mean to this day. Okay. Oh Okay

52:41

Yeah, I already knew from the first

52:43

note That

52:47

beat I've wanted to This

52:50

is one of those songs or everything

52:52

about him that beat I've wanted that

52:54

is a Prince erotic city Yeah, and

52:56

this is a B side B

52:59

side to what? Let's get crazy. Let's

53:01

go crazy. It's let's go crazy. It's the B side

53:04

to let's go crazy It's

53:06

the B side to let's go crazy Which means the

53:08

B side which means that I am first hearing it

53:10

literally at age 12 when I bought that record and

53:13

on the flip Side I'm hearing this song It's

53:26

one of the most egregious uses of

53:28

funk I was gonna say How

53:32

many years did it take me personally? Yeah to kind of

53:34

really pick up on the fact that she ain't saying what

53:36

you think she's a me like I Do

53:39

we have the stems to that because there's no way

53:41

she says funk I think this

53:43

is masterful because I think you're

53:45

right, but it's somehow massaged into

53:47

you Simultaneously thinking that it's

53:49

wait. She can't have said that but she

53:52

did say it but no it's definitely funk

53:54

brilliant song All right. All right. Well, we

53:56

we have exposed ourselves yet again, but let's

53:58

expose some vocals that tech I'm sorry,

54:00

I'm sorry. Male vulnerability, you know that we love

54:02

to get it. We love to do male vulnerability.

54:04

What a better episode than this one. Marvin's vulnerability

54:06

is seeping into our beings right now. You guys

54:08

talking about love. What do they say? Fearlessly.

54:11

Fearlessly. Fearlessly. Here

54:13

we have from Let's Get It On. We got a few more left. We're going to

54:15

hear some strings, we're going to hear some vibes, and then we're going to hear some

54:18

vocals. Let's start with the strings. This

54:20

is a string section of indeterminate number because Rutgers

54:23

weren't kept, but I do know that the name

54:25

of the- I very liked it that way. The

54:27

arranger and conductor is Renee Hall. This is all

54:29

recorded live. Let's hear some

54:31

of those gorgeous strings. There's

54:42

some counterpoint going on there. The lower strings are

54:45

kind of mirroring the chords and the bass line.

54:47

I'm going to try one more part.

54:59

It's interesting. It's kind of

55:01

funky, I would say. Bordering on funky. Just a

55:03

little bit of that- You don't have a great

55:05

complicated relationship with the word funky. Maybe

55:08

it's because of my age, anytime I hear the word

55:10

funky, I hear like- It's white

55:12

person saying funky funky. It's like somebody

55:14

unironically saying, it's jazzy. When you've got

55:16

classical players and strings on Motown on

55:18

Marvin Gaye track, it is the equivalent

55:20

of me saying the word funky. But

55:22

you know, I will say I love

55:25

Gaye's use of violins in general.

55:28

Those violins are part of what really get me there

55:30

emotionally when I'm listening to what's going

55:32

on. It sounds

55:35

great playing too. It's also like a Motown thing. That's true.

55:37

It's definitely a Motown thing. It's definitely that thing like, you

55:39

need to feel like a class act, which is why they

55:42

had names like, you know, the Parliament,

55:45

the Supreme. It was aspirational.

55:47

It was like the cleanest of the clean. They

55:52

don't have the same effect on this album or

55:54

on I Want You, which are just coming along

55:56

at a different time in the culture. But

55:59

they're still- their presence is felt, especially that

56:01

first violin part you played. I love

56:03

that sound. Yeah. So beautiful, so

56:05

lush, so simple. And just adds another

56:07

dimension to the entire song. Absolutely. Yeah.

56:09

Let's go to the vibes. Are

56:12

these like a vibraphone? This is vibraphone

56:14

by pretty sure it's by Victor Feldman.

56:19

You hear the bleed again.

56:21

This is the band is

56:24

putting together. It's really playing the

56:26

chords there. Again, it's like that

56:28

Motown thing where it's like I want it

56:30

to sound elevated and super clean.

56:32

It's the opposite of

56:35

what the Stones and other

56:37

British bands, they wanted muddy water. They wanted

56:39

that down, get it out of the mud

56:41

type sound. Right. And this is very like,

56:43

no, you know, black people have

56:46

been through a lot. We want it to sound clean. And

56:48

to a certain extent, it doesn't

56:50

surprise me that these musicians goes

56:52

on and plays in Steely Dan because

56:55

I feel like Steely Dan has a

56:57

very clean sound, which is one

56:59

of the reasons why hip hop artists love to

57:01

sample Steely Dan. Yeah. Very clean and you can

57:04

hear all the precise. And also the

57:06

choice of the vibes as an instrument is

57:09

interesting because it's at the intersection of being

57:11

a classical instrument, being a jazz instrument, Lionel

57:13

Hampton, et cetera. And this

57:15

is a song that's R&B and soul

57:17

and pop. There's so many different genre

57:20

kind of characteristics floating around to make

57:22

what let's get it on is ultimately

57:24

in the vibes out another element

57:26

of jazz. I would, I would argue classically

57:28

classical jazz. All right. Now

57:31

with no further delay, we are going to talk about

57:33

one of the greatest voices in not

57:35

just R&B history, but one of the greatest voices of

57:37

the 20th century, Marvin Gaye, a

57:40

voice so silky and perfect

57:43

that he could take other people's songs and have

57:45

bigger hits. It's important to note, he wasn't the

57:47

first singer on I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

57:49

It was a Gladys Knight and the Pips song,

57:51

but it is the Marvin Gaye version that we

57:53

all know and love. It's just a phenomenal voice

57:55

and we have it for you now. I'm

58:02

trying to hold back this

58:05

feeling for so long. Let's

58:07

just keep listening. I mean, I don't want to

58:09

stop. I do want to say, everybody, this is

58:11

the voice of a 34-year-old person, by the way.

58:14

Let's keep hearing. And if you feel like

58:17

I feel, baby, then

58:19

come on. Oh,

58:21

come on. Whoo!

58:24

Let's get it on. This is one of

58:26

the songs under pressure. I feel offended

58:28

by myself stopping the game. We just have to

58:30

pause and talk. But one thing that jumps out

58:32

to me immediately is you can hear him

58:36

on the louder parts coming back off the mic, and

58:38

then getting in close for the voice of this

58:41

beautiful. But then he backs it.

58:43

I love this. I love that you can figure out

58:45

where he is in the room when he's singing different

58:47

parts. Oh, and by the way, so what we

58:49

just heard, it's 45 seconds till we get

58:51

to... that's the intro, right? Like, that's kind of the

58:53

chorus as an intro. That's as much of a chorus

58:56

as we get. The Beatles did a lot of that.

58:58

Jumping around. Let's get on. And then here's

59:01

verse one. We're all

59:03

sensitive people with

59:06

so much to give. Understanding

59:10

sugar. And

59:13

this is also the part of the song where the

59:15

backing vocals come in. So let's hear what that sounds

59:17

like. It's super beautiful. That's

59:23

all Marvin on backing vocals. So

59:30

beautiful. Let's keep

59:32

going. There's nothing wrong. That

59:48

part is so impressive. Yeah. Let

59:51

it go. Let

1:00:00

me love you. Let me love you. Wonderful.

1:00:02

Like a beast. Let me love you. Let

1:00:04

me love you. Just encounter for

1:00:07

me. I'm asking you, baby,

1:00:09

to get it on with

1:00:11

me. Let

1:00:13

me love you. Let

1:00:17

me love you. Now's

1:00:20

probably a good time as any to bring

1:00:22

up the fact that according to the book

1:00:24

by Ben Edmonds, Marvin Gaye, The

1:00:26

Last Days of Motown Sound, there

1:00:29

is a woman in the room and she's quite

1:00:31

young. And it's not his wife. It's not his

1:00:33

wife. It's not Anna. But it is soon to

1:00:35

be his next wife and the mother of his

1:00:37

two children. And I found this

1:00:39

great quote that kind of explains what Marvin's headspace

1:00:41

is as he's singing these lyrics, as he's singing

1:00:44

these vocals we've just been hearing. This

1:00:46

is Janice Hunter. This is Janice Hunter, soon to be

1:00:48

his wife. The presence of this young girl compelled him

1:00:50

to perform the song to her and

1:00:52

in doing so it was transformed into

1:00:54

the masterpiece of raw emotion we know

1:00:56

so well. That's right. So

1:00:59

there's one more part of the song I'd love to hear.

1:01:01

It's that part at the very end when Marvin really just

1:01:03

lets his voice go crazy. Can you play

1:01:05

it for us? Sure, sure. Let's hear some of that stuff towards the

1:01:07

end. You don't have to worry that it's wrong. If the spirit moves

1:01:09

you, let me groove. Good, let your love come down. oh,

1:01:13

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh

1:01:15

oh go. Oh,

1:01:26

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, oh,

1:01:28

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

1:01:30

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

1:01:32

oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh Oh, oh,

1:01:34

oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh,

1:01:36

oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh,

1:01:38

oh, oh, oh, oh In the spirit moves you, let me

1:01:40

groove Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Good. There's

1:01:43

so many good thoughts in there. I

1:01:45

mean, the man has so many hooks

1:01:48

in his head. There's so much sweetness

1:01:50

on the sort of background oohing and

1:01:52

cooing, and then they'll just sort of

1:01:55

sanctify. Speaking of which, there's a

1:01:57

funny section I'm going to play for you now because Marvin's

1:01:59

doing all that. Adlips kind of in this

1:02:01

section and he starts to run out of ideas.

1:02:03

So he asks Ed towns and his co-writers producer

1:02:05

He goes what should I do here? So

1:02:08

Ed goes, you know, how about something

1:02:10

like sanctify? So

1:02:12

Marvin Marvin literally so Marvin

1:02:15

literally sings something like sanctify here

1:02:17

that is Good

1:02:24

night, Alice Yeah,

1:02:28

exactly That's great.

1:02:30

I didn't know that's why he even said that but the big

1:02:32

always like the That

1:02:45

is a human in the studio It's not

1:02:47

and that goes back to the church thing too, right and

1:02:49

it just we go out It's only the last 15 20

1:02:52

seconds that those claps are in there. There's something

1:02:54

so cool and mature

1:02:57

and human about Marvin Gaye

1:03:00

in ways that like, you know, sometimes gets lost

1:03:03

in the sauce Yeah in some of today's music

1:03:05

and it's just like it's so human you you

1:03:07

feel like there's a human thing in there I

1:03:09

still say that at some point there's gonna be

1:03:11

an AI Function where they're gonna

1:03:13

have Marvin Gaye AI Marvin Gaye singing over I

1:03:16

don't know how you would even do that. I

1:03:18

mean you could train not gonna be good How

1:03:20

would you even do that that there's so much

1:03:22

raw human emotion? All uncanny Valley stuff what

1:03:25

we already have mostly I know But we did

1:03:27

that one episode though. Remember the Madonna we did

1:03:29

the math attack episode So we showed

1:03:31

what would it have been like if Madonna

1:03:33

had done a teardrop by massive attack and

1:03:35

that didn't sound right But the Ariana Grande

1:03:37

version that kind of sounded Sounded

1:03:40

plausible. Yeah, a little bit like it could have

1:03:42

been the real shade on Ariana. Not at all.

1:03:45

Please come on the show Okay,

1:03:48

so before we go we're going to

1:03:50

do one more song This is the part of the show

1:03:52

where we share a new song with you the

1:03:55

one song nation and with each other Doesn't

1:03:57

have to be a new song doesn't have

1:03:59

to be an old song. It's just one

1:04:01

song that we will probably never get to

1:04:03

do its own episode on but it's one

1:04:05

more song luxury you go first what you

1:04:07

got for me well over the break I

1:04:09

made a discovery an old discovery like a

1:04:11

band that's been around for 40 years but

1:04:13

I just discovered them one of those and

1:04:15

perfect fit for the episode because

1:04:17

the song is a love song

1:04:19

but the band is New Age Steppers it

1:04:21

was more of a project in post-punk dub

1:04:25

combination in 1981 this

1:04:28

gentleman named Adrian Sherwood who you may

1:04:30

recognize as a very famous remixer Deepesh

1:04:32

Mode onwards he's been doing it for

1:04:34

40 plus years yeah but in 81

1:04:36

he brought together Ari up from the

1:04:38

slits with this group of Jamaican

1:04:41

musicians this is all happening in London so

1:04:43

they're all London England based and put together

1:04:45

this beautiful blend of a dub song a

1:04:47

cover of a dub song by Bim Sherman

1:04:50

with some Jamaican musicians and

1:04:52

some members of the slits just in

1:04:54

this wonderful post-punk combination and the song

1:04:56

is called love forever by New

1:04:59

Age Steppers 1981 love it this

1:05:17

goes on it's a seven and a half minute

1:05:19

dub journey and it's it's Aries vocals by the

1:05:21

end she's going crazy and wailing and screaming and

1:05:23

by the way she's only I think 18 or

1:05:26

19 when she records this so

1:05:28

that's that's my one more song love

1:05:31

forever by New Age Steppers what you got

1:05:33

from me deal all right for my one

1:05:35

more song we've talked a lot about it

1:05:37

Townsend's work with Marvin Gaye

1:05:40

this is a song by Bill Wolfer

1:05:42

a lot of work with Stevie Wonder very

1:05:46

similar to how it Townsend works with Marvin Gaye

1:05:48

and when you listen to this it

1:05:51

might sound like a Stevie Wonder song you can

1:05:53

imagine Stevie singing this but I

1:05:55

thought it was a really good song it seems like Bill might

1:05:57

have kept the song for himself Wake

1:06:00

up and it's a really groovy song. I'm gonna try

1:06:02

and find you a good little snippet to enjoy. Check

1:06:04

this out As

1:06:18

always if you have an idea for one more song

1:06:21

you can find us on Twitter or X if you

1:06:23

must but really really Find us

1:06:25

on Instagram find us on

1:06:27

tiktok. I'm at Diallo at DIA L

1:06:30

LO on Instagram and at Diallo riddle

1:06:32

on tiktok and I'm luxury that's at

1:06:34

L U XX you are why on

1:06:36

Instagram and on tiktok I'm at luxury

1:06:38

XX and by the way, we're on

1:06:40

one song this podcast We love it

1:06:42

when you go rank us rate us

1:06:44

give us reviews five stars on

1:06:47

the podcast platforms It really helps So now is

1:06:49

the time that I'm gonna remind you if you haven't

1:06:51

done it yet Go give us those five stars write

1:06:53

us that review and share with your friends spread the

1:06:55

word one song nation. Let's expand Let's take over the

1:06:57

planet Luxury help me in this thing. I

1:07:01

Been and continue to be producer DJ

1:07:03

songwriter and musicologist luxury and I'm actor

1:07:05

writer Director and sometimes DJ Diallo wrote

1:07:08

and this has been one song we

1:07:10

will see you next week This

1:07:14

episode was produced by Matthew Nelson with

1:07:16

engineering from Marcus on additional production support

1:07:18

from Casey Simon The

1:07:21

show is executive produced by Kevin Hart

1:07:23

Mike Stein Brian Smiley Eric Edding Eric

1:07:25

while and Leslie I

1:07:59

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