50 reasons why 1973 music rocks, Part 8: from Marvin to Marley
#46–50: 5 fabulous records from Marvin Gaye, Sly & The Family Stone, The Isley Brothers, The O’Jays & The Wailers.
46. Marvin Gaye — Let’s Get It On
The Motown sensation overcame writer’s block and unresolved childhood trauma with a collection of sensuous songs to salve his guilty conscience.
Gaye’s epiphany, to treat sex and religion as two sides of the same coin, resulted in a landmark funk album that would inspire Prince and D’Angelo.
As his biographer David Ritz would explain:
“The paradox is this: the sexiest of Marvin Gaye’s work is also his most spiritual. That’s the paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers — the hunger for God.”
Despite a new Motown Records contract and greater creative freedom, Gaye found the expectations of his follow-up to What’s Going On daunting.
But his separation from wife Anna, sister of Motown label boss Berry Gordy, inspired him to explore sexual themes with a deeper meaning.
So with songwriting partner Ed Townsend, and the stellar Funk Brothers backing band, he crafted a suite of dreamy funk soundscapes.
From the mischievous wah-wah opening of title track Let’s Get It On to the eyebrow-raising moans featured on You Sure Love To Ball.
Such risqué themes and lush production locked people into its sensuous rhythms, making it the year’s best-selling soul album.
Gaye’s repressed childhood guilt had spilled over into a soul-bearing record that would shape contemporary R&B and countless sultry slow jams.
47. Sly & The Family Stone — Fresh
After the turbulent, corroded funk of There’s A Riot Goin’ On, Sly Stone kept his infamous caprices at bay for one last great album.
Where his 1971 album crawled out of a murk of hazy overdubs amid coke and PCP-fuelled paranoia, Fresh appeared as a bright funk reset.
Despite all the strife that had led to the departure of two founding members, drummer Greg Errico and slap-bass pioneer Larry Graham.
Now Andy Newmark occupied the drum stool, while Rustee Allen and Sly Stone himself took on bass duties, maintaining that seamless funk vibe.
And the album’s contrapuntal grooves thrust both bass and drums to the fore, as on the tightly wound opener In Time.
Meanwhile, lead single If You Want Me To Stay features Sly Stone’s bluesy ultimatums over pushy yet frazzled funk rhythms.
Both tracks establish the album’s tempo and feel: insistent grooves that coil around Sly Stone’s melismatic invitations and admonitions.
But it’s almost as though the last pips of genius were squeezed out on Fresh, because the juices of inspiration had run bone dry on subsequent records.
48. The Isley Brothers — 3 + 3
The debut of the two youngest Isley brothers and their brother-in-law made the group a sextet, or 3 + 3, the title of the album that made them stars.
Or should I say officially recognised debut, because the youthful trio had played on the band’s previous records since 1969’s The Brothers: Isley.
And their 11th album became their first platinum-selling success, thanks to a funk makeover of their 1964 R&B hit Who’s That Lady.
What had coasted along on a bossa nova beat with sparse production now strutted with kaleidoscopic confidence via eruptions of ecstatic guitar.
Recording the album at the same time and in the same studios as Stevie Wonder’s superlative Innervisions must have rubbed off on the brothers.
For they sprinkled the soulful stardust on a number of folk-rock originals.
James Taylor’s lilting 4/4 ballad Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight became a heart-wrenching plea in a bluesy 12/8 rhythm.
The Doobie Brothers’ banjo-embellished rock shuffle Listen To The Music was transformed into earthy funk via organ, clavinet and wah-wah effects.
Jonathan Edwards’ folk song Sunshine (Go Away Today) sounds quite perky next to the Isley Brothers’ ominous, glowering funk treatment.
And Seal & Crofts’ wistful Summer Breeze, as light as dandelion heads blowing through the air, is wedded to a propulsive beat and delirious guitar.
But they also wrought distinguished original compositions such as You Walk Your Way and The Highways Of My Life.
It all set up a hugely successful period spanning the rest of the decade for the sextet, who eventually split after 1983’s Between The Sheets.
49. The O’Jays — Ship Ahoy
This Ohio soul group spent most of the 1960s chasing success. Then a blockbusting partnership with Gamble & Huff transformed their fortunes.
Back Stabbers became their first breakthrough, as summer turned to autumn in 1972, which they followed up with Love Train at the turn of 1973.
And Ship Ahoy, their second album for Philadelphia International records, achieved the holy grail of commercial clout and critical acclaim.
Thanks to three era-defining songs with very different messages.
The charitable prayers espoused in lead single Put Your Hands Together.
The evils that cold, hard cash can foment in For The Love Of Money, with those anguished vocals and that iconic bassline’s syncopated ghost notes.
And the transformative power of Now That We’ve Found Love, a hopeful ballad that Heavy D & The Boyz turned into a hectic hip-pop hit in 1991.
Yet the title track forms the album’s heart: a bleak 9-minute lament about the hopelessness and hardships the victims of the slave trade endured.
Ship Ahoy marked the creative zenith of The O’Jays output, although the trio went on to enjoy considerable success throughout the 1970s.
50. The Wailers — Catch A Fire
This trio formed in 1963 and broke through in 1973 with two acclaimed albums and a mesmerising performance on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer started as a ska group and only found their identity and sound after teaming up with Lee “Scratch” Perry.
The maverick producer cooked up a spare, evocative sound on 1970 album Soul Rebels and a more refined essence on 1971’s Soul Revolution.
Those albums introduced The Upsetters rhythm section, brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett, who would become mainstays of Bob Marley’s band.
By 1972 record label tensions and lack of funds had marooned the band in the UK, where Island Records boss Chris Blackwell came to the rescue.
The Wailers used his advance for an album to fly home to Jamaica, where they recorded the songs that would become Catch A Fire.
Blackwell thought he needed to make the tracks more accessible to mainstream audiences, so he arranged a number of overdubs.
Muscle Shoals session guitarist Wayne Perkins added touches on three tracks: Concrete Jungle, Baby We’ve Got A Date and Stir It Up.
But the most powerful messages needed no embellishments, burning with righteous authenticity and indignation on Slave Driver and 400 Years.
The Jamaican sessions, which sound tougher and more bass-heavy, contain all 11 recorded tracks, while the original album release features 9 cuts.
Just 6 months later The Wailers had released follow-up Burnin’, another strong record that maintained the momentum for this exciting group.
Yet Catch A Fire ignited Bob Marley’s worldwide fame, despite the departure of founding members Tosh and Wailer the following year.
But with the addition of the I Threes backing singers and guitarist Al Anderson in 1974, Marley was well on his way to superstardom.
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