Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye

April 7, 2008

Marvin Gaye was an artist with a knack for putting his material together in ways that contributed to a larger structure. This is especially evident in his concept albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On.. but Live at the London Palladium (1977) is a similarly interesting album with its introduction of his popular 60s songs in medley form so that they acquire the seamless transitions of his early 70s work. Archetypal singles such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" or "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" get re-conceptualized into a fluidly moving whole.

On Live at the London Palladium the song "Let's Get It On" gets lengthened and made into a kind of sexy stage drama. Toward the end Gaye slows down and turns the volume down and acts as if he is getting ready to sweet talk some woman into bed. The crowd goes wild.. but it is an act.. and finally he snaps out of it and yells: "That's all!" You can hear him use almost exactly the same lines and act in the YouTube clip below, taken from a concert about four years later.. so this is obviously a well-honed stage act.

There is nothing surprising about deriving sex from "Let's Get It On".. which proclaims:

There's nothing wrong with me
Loving you, now
Giving yourself to me
Can never be wrong
If (your) love is true

The song is about cutting to the chase and telling some woman how he feels. In lines like these we notice a subtle polemic being employed: sex is good in and of itself if love is involved. The target of this submerged argument would seem to be religious constructions of relationships and sex that rely on rules (remember his conservative upbringing).

The version of the song on Live at the London Palladium adds more religious overtones. Gaye adds some phrases that go so far as to equate sex with spirituality. He sings: "If the spirit moves ya, let me groove ya".. and then "I've been sanctified." These phrases go beyond a defensive approach to sex, but represent a positive view that equates "sanctification" (the work of the Holy Spirit after conversion according to many) with sex.

Gaye repeats again his contention "nothing wrong with love!".. but in this live version the added phrases and the theatrical come-on at the end have transformed the song into not just a song about pursuit of a woman, but a theological statement about the positive value of sexual experience.