ABCs of My Vinyl Collection (Letter G, Part 4)

From Gang of Four to Marvin Gaye. Anyone need a neck brace? I was half tempted to play smash hit "Sexual Healing", a song I dearly love, but was afraid of being pelted with rotting vegetables. Surely, you can give the '80s a rest this one time, I can hear you saying. You may have a point. After all, Gaye had nearly 70 singles on the Billboard charts before that one. Before we get to today's selection, how about a poll question? Of all the Motown ladies he sang duets with, who was Gaye's best partner? Lots of choices there. Mary? Tammi? Kim? Diana?

Here's the third single from landmark 1971 album 'What's Going On'. Like so many of the best songs on Motown, Gaye is backed by the Funk Brothers. Like the first two singles, this one also cracked the top 10, but it seems like with the passage of time "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" isn't played quite as much as the title track and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)". The social and economic plight of those left behind in inner cities like Detroit is the subject, and I have always been taken by the unusual line "make me wanna holler" sung with such a smooth silky voice, giving the song a melancholy mood rather than an angry one. In hindsight, I have always found Gaye's complaints about inner-city residents paying high taxes an interesting view since Gaye would spend much of the rest of his days fighting the Internal Revenue Service.

This version of album closer "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" is taken from my very scratchy LP and includes an extra minute with a brooding reprise of "What's Going On" at the end that was not part of the 7" single.

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Sorry, but I can't resist. After all those years on Motown, here is Gaye's first single for CBS. It peaked at No. 3 in America and No. 4 in the UK. I'm not sure I'll go so far as to vouch for the rest of 'Midnight Love', but I never tire of this one. There are some nice covers out there too.

Sexual Healing