http://www.youtube.com/wa...Hyl5YTh9W0

i always laugh when he sings, "if you really loved me, how could you turn me into the police?" that is a ghetto ass love song lyric! i love it. but really, marvin, she turned you into the police cuz you were beating her ass!

but i do love this track. "if you really loved me with all of your heart, you wouldn't take a million dollars to part" is some truth. though, again, if he wasn't beating on her she probably wouldn't have taken his money over his love.
[Edited 8/27/07 20:15pm]

"Do you remember all of the BULLSHIT, BABY!?!"

I always loved that part.

But yeah that was foul of what he said, lol. Of course, she's turning you in...

Hope my boy is resting in peace though.

Timmy84 said:

That is my favorite part too! This is definitely a classic. Never before had I heard something from Marvin that was so realistic and bitter in a no-holds-barred fashion.

Some of the accusations he makes in the song are nasty and cruel because I know he did some messed up things to nearly every woman he had an affair with (including Anna), but I think it was his way of turning personal tragedy into beautiful art.

I think that was what the Here My Dear album was all about. And you know what, that's what makes that album so brilliant now.

Funny, sad, funky, jazzy... that song has it all!

29 years later and people are still using those same old wedding vows. I think Marvin's idea is great.

My heart almost breaks every time it gets to "I really tried."
[Edited 8/28/07 3:48am]

silverchild said:

Exactly!

One of the greatest albums ever recorded, sometimes go to show you, some of the best albums is produced from pain and this one had PLENTY of it!

Marvin was one whose damaged spirit was great for creating beautiful music because his life was so fucked up but he was able to mix pain with beauty. Few artists got away with that too.

Here, My Dear in totality is an excellent and brilliant album.

Some people write books about divorce and realtionship breakups, but Marvin Gaye manages to fit the whole subject into one song. What a genius! (The only bits that most people possibly couldn't relate to are the lines about the police and million dollars).

The best bit for me is when he says "It don't matter baby, take a lesson from it all", then when you think he might be about cheer up, he dips back down to "When did you stop loving me, when did I stop loving you". This song is so real.

You guys are tripping. Some people get such a kick out of hearing an artist "bear their soul", especialy when that artist is a tragic romantic figure like Marvin, that they think songs like this are great because they're "true". Sorry to pull the rug out from under your dreamy asses, but this album bombed for a reason. It just wasn't that good. Yes, the arrangements are great. Yes, Marvin's vocals are great, but where are the tunes? Answer? Nowhere. Marvin was so preoccupied with spewing his venom that he forgot to pack them. Also, these lyrics are pretty artless and on the nose, don't you think? Some of you may think that's the whole point but you're wrong. A great artist transmutes his experiences into something greater. Lyrically I'm afraid these songs don't do that. You all are nothing more than a bunch of morbid voyeurs, getting your rocks off over a dead man's dirty laundry and kidding yourselves that you're "admiring the genius". If Marvin had any "genius" (which is debatable considering so much of his work was started and developed by others, including What's Going On) it was buried under a million dollars worth of coke when he made this album.

Mmkay...

Different strokes for different folks.

It is all good!

midnightmover said:

no, but really, tell us how you feel.

midnightmover said:

It bombed for two reasons:

1. It was released right at the height of disco.
2. Marvin and Motown stopped promoting the album in early 1979, by which point Gaye had gone in to self-imposed exile. Only becase of the lack of success.

But I do agree with one thing I think you were trying to state which is the fact that the album didn't really have any potential of garnering any hit singles or be a blockbuster because it was more of rich, vulnerable, demanding statement. It was something personal and at that time disco folks didn't really bother it. That still irks me because a year before HMD was released, he struck gold with the mega-selling success of his live outing, Live At The London Palladium and most importantly, the funk-disco classic, Got To Give It Up.