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Last Updated: May 9th, 2008 - 01:44:39 |
Who really cares?
Who is willing to try?
To save a world that is destined to die?
--Marvin Gaye
Two giants of music, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, are
the subject of documentaries airing on PBS Wednesday, May 7, beginning at 9 p.m. The result is an immersion into two hours of unadulterated soul and into an era when soul music shaped American culture and society.
Premiering is “Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On,” an insightful, one-hour film that explores the passions, genius and demons of Gaye, the R&B superstar who, in a career that spanned two decades, elevated both the languages of social consciousness and lust in popular music.
Director-producer Sam Pollard successfully meshes the artistry and pathos of Gaye, who was born April 2, 1939 in Washington, D.C. His upbringing marked the start of his lifelong struggle to reconcile his connection to the spiritual and secular worlds. His father, the Rev. Marin Gay Sr., was a complex character who was a traveling preacher, a strict taskmaster at home and also a cross-dresser. Gaye was drawn first to music by singing in the choir as part of his father’s ministry, and then in high school he formed corner doo-wop groups with his friends. After a brief unsuccessful stint in the Air Force, the free-spirited and rebellious young man wound up in Detroit with Berry Gordy and the budding sensation of Motown Records.
At first, Gaye was trying to sing standards in the manner of Frank Sinatra but after seeing more successful acts like Martha Reeves get hit after hit, he wrote “Stubborn Kind of Fella” and got on the Motown sound bandwagon. Smokey Robinson says of those years that Gaye would “Marvinize” whatever song he sang. He was prolific and became a sex symbol after being paired in a series of romantic ballads, most especially with Tammy Terrell, a young, spunky singer, who died at the age of 24.
“You have this picture of him as this wonderful romantic figure but in reality Marvin was going though all kinds of hell,” says biographer David Ritz. “And he had a very complicated relationship to women, especially to his wife Anna.”
With footage of Gaye performing and speaking, and interviews with family members, biographers and dozens of fellow artists, Pollard weaves a narrative from these early years, though the success of Gaye’s masterpiece, What’s Goin On in 1972, to the final decade of his life, during which his two marriages failed, he became deeply addicted to drugs and he became a recluse, first in Hawaii and then in Belgium. When he made his comeback to the United States in 1982 with his hit “Sexual Healing,” it was like a star burning brightly before its death. “He knew he was loved by many people; he needed to love himself,” says Smokey Robinson of this period of Gaye’s life. The same conflicts Gaye had with his father as a child came full circle on the day before his 49th birthday on April 1, 1984 when, after a fight, his father shot him three times at the home Gaye had purchased for his parents in Los Angeles.
Airing immediately after “Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On” is a repeat of “The Queen of Soul,” which chronicles in a brief fashion the career of Aretha Franklin, who honed her regal soul sound in the Detroit church of her famous father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin. and then went on to sing jazz and then her signature soul hits during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Including interviews with Franklin, famliy members, fellow musicians and lots of vintage footage, this show offers a taste of the impact that Franklin has had on popular music in an era of advancement for African Americans and women. In contrast to the documentary on Gaye, “The Queen of Soul” is not as in-depth, probing or poking. As it details the life of a living artist, it leaves room for Franklin’s continued contribution.
“With respect to things that I’ve done, I’ve got a million songs to sing,” Franklin says in the documentary, “and a lot of things that I’d like to do.”
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>
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