In Our Lifetime is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England, throughout 1979 and 1980 (and abruptly remixed in 1981 by Motown).[1] The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of Here, My Dear, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from 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]
In 1979, Marvin Gaye found himself at a professional and personal low ebb. Two years without a hit since "Got to Give It Up", he had released the commercially unsuccessful Here, My Dear, which then alienated critics and fans alike for the musician's take on his personal life including his troubling marriage to Anna Gordy, which had ended in divorce a couple years before. Following that divorce, Gaye married his longtime girlfriend Janis in October 1977. Janis Gaye later filed for legal separation citing mental abuse throughout their marriage. Janis had been the inspiration behind Gaye's 1976 album, I Want You. That year, Gaye decided to reestablish his pop audience, first releasing a slightly autobiographical disco song he titled "Ego Tripping Out", in which he lyrically explained his larger-than-life ego and masked it with personal doubt ("turn the fear into energy/'cause the toot and the smoke won't fulfill the need"). Gaye debuted the song while appearing on Dinah Shore's 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 recording studio complex. However, the album was put on hold as Gaye, now facing a $4.5 million debt with the IRS, went out on a half-hearted world tour to alleviate his debts. Gaye's heart, however, wasn't in the tour, and midway through after a mildly receptive show in Japan and performances in Hawaii, he abandoned the tour, which led to musicians in his band as well as concert promoters suing Gaye for thousands of dollars on reneging on the contract. For weeks, Gaye secluded himself in a bread van on the beach in Maui while still struggling from his now-crippling cocaine addiction.[4] However, desperate for a fix, he called his mother Alberta and asked her to give away earrings he had bought her in exchange for money to buy cocaine. He had also gone so far to ask friends such as Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder for money, but neither complied.[4] Around this time, Gaye's lawyer advised him to file for 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.[5] Around this time, Gaye tried finishing his Love Man album but instead of presenting the album with upbeat lyrics, some of the songs dealt with his own life. In the song, "Dance 'N Be Happy", for example, while the chorus repeated "let's dance and be happy", the lyrics, which Marvin sung off the top of his head in falsetto, revealed his anguish at the fallout of his marriage to Janis, even accusing her of making him "uptight". After hearing a mix in Honolulu, a disillusioned Gaye shelved the album, fearing his music career was over. One day, severely depressed, Gaye ingested a full ounce of cocaine, in his first suicide attempt since the late 1960s, thinking he would die. He later told David Ritz, "I'd given up. The problems were too big for me. I just wanted to be left alone and blow my brains on high-octane toot. It would be a slow but relatively pleasant death, certainly less messy than a gun."[4] During this time, British concert promoter Jeffrey Krueger got contact with Gaye through drug dealers.[6] Krueger, with help from Gaye's friend Jewel Price, convinced Gaye to sober up and start a European tour, Gaye's first since 1976. The tour, which took place in 1980, featured performances in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands and England. The tour ended on a bad note after Gaye failed to show up on time for a command performance for 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 George Martin's 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 concept album format adding in synthesizer sounds to segue each song into the next, a style he had originally done with albums such as 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]
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.
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and musician. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by the American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers.
Easy is an album recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and released by Motown Records on September 16, 1969 under the Tamla Records label. One song on the album, "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By", was a hit single and remains popular to this day.
Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by the American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
Here, My Dear is the fifteenth studio album by American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye's personal studios, Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye's acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye.
"I Want You" is a song written by Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name (1976) on his Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. "I Want You", among other similar songs, gave him a disco audience. Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye, also was attributed with the single's success.
I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.
"Distant Lover" is the sixth song issued on singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 album, Let's Get It On and the B-side of the second single from that album, "Come Get to This". A live recording was issued as a single in 1974. The live version of the song was Gaye's most successful single during the three-year gap between Let's Get It On and his following 1976 album, I Want You.
Midnight Love is the seventeenth studio album by Marvin Gaye and the final album to be released during his lifetime. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
"After the Dance" is a slow jam recorded by singer Marvin Gaye and released as the second single off Gaye's 1976 hit album I Want You. Though it received modest success, the song was widely considered to be one of Gaye's best ballads and served as part of the template for quiet storm and urban contemporary ballads that came afterwards.
Dream of a Lifetime is the eighteenth and first posthumously released studio album by the American recording artist Marvin Gaye. It included the top five R&B single "Sanctified Lady".
"Ego Tripping Out" is a 1979 funk-styled dance record released by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, released as a single on the Tamla (Motown) label. The record was originally meant to be the lead single for the singer's aborted Love Man album. However, as the album was scrapped and reworked into In Our Lifetime, the song received further work, before being omitted from the final album tracklist. The single was later included in a 1994 re-release of In Our Lifetime and a 2007 re-release deluxe edition featured two different alternate mixes for the sessions of In Our Lifetime as well as the original Love Man single of it.
Vulnerable is the third posthumous album by Marvin Gaye. Recorded in sessions throughout 1977, the album was a decade in the making, first being worked on in 1968 during sessions in New York with Bobby Scott. Reworked by Gaye a decade later, the album was originally going to be released in 1979 under the title, The Ballads, but was shelved. Two decades later, Motown released it under the title Vulnerable, including seven songs from the sessions and three alternate cuts.
"Far Cry" is the infamous unfinished recording that was included on singer Marvin Gaye's 1981 final Motown album, In Our Lifetime. The song, essentially a funk-styled instrumental, featured a vocally conscious Gaye mouthing words while playing multiple instruments, including the drums and keyboards, on the first part of the song. The brief second half features a jazz instrumental with Gaye playing piano and drums and singing in falsetto, while his fellow instrumentalists, bassist Frank Blair and guitarist Gordon Banks, accompany him. The song's release among the eight original recordings on In Our Lifetime angered Marvin to the point where he severed ties with Motown, his home for twenty years, leaving the label for Columbia. As he told his biographer David Ritz,
"I hadn't completed it....The song was in its most primitive stage. All I had was this jive vocal track, and they put it out as a finished fact. How could they embarrass me like that? I was humiliated. They also added guitar licks and bass lines. 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 your unfinished canvas and add a leg here, an arm there. You might be the artist, but you're behind schedule, so we'll finish up this painting for you. If you don't like the results, Pablo, baby, that's touch!'"
Gordon Banks was an American guitarist, producer, writer and musical director. He was voted one of the top 100 guitarists in America by Rolling Stone magazine in 1985.
Marvin's Room is a recording studio founded by American recording artist Marvin Gaye in Los Angeles.
"Pops, We Love You " is a 1978 single recorded and released by Motown stars Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, as a tribute to Berry "Pops" Gordy Sr., who had died that year from cancer.
Art Stewart is an American record producer, audio engineer, and composer who has worked on many Motown recordings. He worked on the Blue album by Diana Ross, and recordings by Teena Marie, including her Wild and Peaceful album, released in 1979. With Marvin Gaye, he has worked on the Let's Get It On album and Gaye's single "Got to Give It Up". He has also worked with Rick James on his Motown debut album Come Get It!, and his second Motown album, Bustin' Out of L Seven.
"Come Live with Me Angel" is a smooth soul song by soul singer Marvin Gaye. The song was co-written by singer-songwriter Leon Ware and lyricist Jacqueline Dalya-Hilliard for the former's album Musical Massage. However, Ware gave it to Gaye as he showed interest in it, as well as the other songs Ware had written with Arthur Ross. The song first appeared on Gaye's album I Want You as the second track.
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