“Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
The record that gave us the greatest bedroom anthem ever turns 50 today!
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Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick marks the 50th anniversary of the sexiest soul record in history, anchored by an R&B crooner at his peak.
Genre: R&B, Soul
Label: Motown
Release Date: August 28, 1973
Vibe: 💦
If we go with the near-universal notion that Marvin Gaye is the sexiest R&B star we’ve had (his name is literally synonymous with getting lucky), then Let’s Get It On is unquestionably the sexiest record the genre’s biggest sex symbol ever made. He sets the tone brilliantly off the top with the title track, oozing carnal charisma with every utterance. That said, what I think is lost on most modern accounts of this record is how much yearning there is for an authentic expression of romance, physical or otherwise. A line like “giving yourself to me can never be wrong/If the love is true” always struck me as far more complex than it seems on first listen. Is it a total rejection of one-off, less involved encounters? If those are less true an expression of love, can they feel right?
The masked insecurities pop up throughout the album. On “Please Stay (Once You Go Away),” Gaye’s world teeters on the brink once his love interest heads for the door: “In bed without you beside me darling, darling anymore/No sugar, no I won't be warm and secure.” “If I Should Die Tonight” is as tender a proclamation of love as you’ll find in Gaye’s larger oeuvre, while “Distant Lover” harps on the sexual frustration he feels being separated from the woman he cares for (”Now I gaze out my window/Sugar, down a lonesome road”). Taken as a complete statement, Let’s Get It On is a more multifaceted depiction of love and longing than it gets credit for. His later work, culminating in the mainstream success of “Sexual Healing” would streamline this patented approach to bedroom anthems, but he’s never more believable as a vocalist or lothario as he is here.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈