Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear

"It's thrilling to be re-introducing Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear, a work of haunting beauty and fascinating complexity. For years this singular suite of songs has been out of print. And for years a number of us rabid Gaye fans have pressed for its re-release, arguing for its place among the major works of a major artist. That argument has been won. Glory hallelujah! ... I first heard the album, which was recorded in 1977, in the winter of 1978. I was stunned. I must have listened to it thirty times, driving my family a little crazy. I became obsessed, just as Gaye himself had been obsessed with his subject matter -- his first wife Anna, their tumultuous marriage and acrimonious divorce. The fact that a soul singer had fashioned this theme into a dramatic narrative -- a cohesive if somewhat abstract story -- struck me as both strange and wonderful. Mostly, though, it was the power of Marvin's singing that helf me spellbound, the way he employed his several voices -- natural tenor, piercing falsetto, anguished growl -- conveying and contrasting his mercurial states of mind. It was all Marvin, more Marvin than I ever had heard before -- Marvin's melodies, Marvin's lyrics, Marvin's harmonies, Marvin's narcissism, spirituality, sarcasm, gratitude, resentments and, above all, Marvin's inner turmoil ..." (CD notes by David Ritz).

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