Remembering Marvin Gaye

I still remember that day... it was a Sunday... on this day, 25 years ago. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the shocking news. I had just come back from New York City, where I had spent the weekend with my boy, E.J. We bought a couple of suits, hit a couple of clubs, told some New York girls some lies and tall tales about our lives in Philly, and just had a grand ol' time in the Big Apple.

On that Sunday, I was back and sitting in the Burger King on 8th & Market Streets, enjoying a double whopper with cheese, french fries from the McDonald's next door (I always hated Burger King's fries), and a strawberry milk shake. (Before anybody says anything, I was 25 years old and weighed about 125-130 lbs. soaking wet on a 6' 1+1/4" frame so, I could eat like that back then.) I was wearing one of the suits I purchased in New York.

One of my friends walked into the restaurant and said, "Why Keith, you're all gussied up and smellin' sweeter than a french whore." I smirked and replied, "Like you'd know about a french whore or any woman for that matter." Then, he said... "Man, did you hear the news? Marvin Gaye got shot and killed this morning by his father!" I looked at him in shock, pointed at the calendar, and said... "That's some sick April Fool's joke man and that ain't funny."

Then, I overheard some other people in the lobby talking about it... "Man, Marvin Gaye is dead!" "Whaaat?" "Yeah man, he and his Pop got to fightin' and his Pop shot him dead." "Lawddd, have mercy." (In every crowd of black people, there is always someone who will say... "Lawddd, have mercy." I don't care what happens, who did what, good news or bad news, they say... "Lawddd, have mercy.")

I was stunned. It was as if something in nature had failed... like somebody told me that the sun wasn't ever going to shine again. I just had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I ran outside to get a late edition of the paper and there it was... "Soul Singer Marvin Gaye Shot Dead!" in bold letters. When I got home, I turned on the television and there he was, accepting a Grammy just the year before for "Sexual Healing"... a song that became my mantra in the summer of 1983. I think I sung it or said it to every woman I met with limited success but, that's another story for another blog post.

I fancied myself as somewhat of a singer and if you asked anyone who knew me who my favorite singer was, they would have told you Stevie Wonder. He's the one that everyone from the choir director, to my frat brothers, to the young ladies, used to say that I sounded like the most. The truth is, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke were my idols and the ones who I modeled myself after. Maybe it was because Marvin was an Aries like me. I don't know but, from the time I heard "Ain't That Peculiar" when I was 8 years old, up through "What's Goin' On?", "Let's Get It On", "I Want You", and "Here My Dear", Marvin Gaye was my absolute favorite singer. I even grew a goatee at one time (my mother made me cut it off because she said it made me look too grown) and wore a red skull cap, just like the one he wore on the cover of "Let's Get it On"... just because he did.

I followed Marvin's romantic ups and downs with his wife Anna and his second wife, Janis, and all of the brilliant music that was created throughout. I also loved his duets with Tammi Terrell. I was too young to remember Mary Wells and Kim Weston but, I heard those duets were great too. I rejoiced when he finally won his Grammy for Sexual Healing in 1983. No disrespect to Lou Rawls but, I don't know how the album "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" beat out "What's Goin' On?" for a Grammy in 1971!

I was just devastated hearing the news of his death that day. I almost didn't finish eating my double whopper with cheese. I didn't watch the news that night or the next night either... it was just too painful. All week long, the tributes came in from Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Berry Gordy, Jr., James Brown, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, and all of the greats. I listened in stunned silence... you would have thought that I knew the man personally by the way I acted that week.

Anyway, that's all water under the bridge. Tonight, in honor of what would have been his 70th birthday, I've got "What's Goin' On?" and "Let's Get It On", his two greatest albums in my opinion, playing back to back. I feel like driving to Burger King and recreating that meal but, I've decided not to... I think I'll have a salad instead.

In Loving Memory of Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr.
April 2, 1939 - April 1, 1984