Post by timmy84 on Aug 11, 2007 12:14:29 GMT -5
Whoever said that Marvin's Trouble Man[/i] don't get talked as much, I agree!
I've been listening to the album since Friday and the album is STUNNING! Marvin mixed funk, jazz, blues, soul and classical themes to create a wall-of-sound as powerful as anything the pre-gun-wielding Phil Spector ever did.
Trouble Man captures the moment in time but instead of a storytelling journey as was the case with What's Going On, the album was a musical travelogue to the ghetto.
From its assuredness to its despair, this 1972 soundtrack to the ill-fated "blaxplotation" flick of the same name is probably one of Marvin's most overlooked productions of work and probably rivals What's Going On, Let's Get It On, I Want You and Here, My Dear as one of the greatest works the man from the Chocolate City ever produced and composed.
Mostly an instrumental album, it did add doo-wop styled vocal arrangements when Marvin vocalized (like on "Cleo's Apartment", "Don't Mess with Mister 'T'" and "There Goes Mister 'T'") and interesting short keys of what the story was all about ("Poor Abbey Walsh") while others like "Life is a Gamble" and "Trouble Man" were perfect painstakingly autobiographical songs that hinted at Marvin's own blues, how ironic that these songs had a blues flavor to them, especially "Trouble Man".
Needless to say "'T' Plays It Cool" is one of the best funk instrumentals I've heard, so is "'T' Stands for Trouble". The album overall is a grade-A stunner! Like his 1960s work, Marvin couldn't disappoint in the 1970s.
Few of his soul contemporaries matched or even topped what he did but Marvin was indeed the man in the '70s and Trouble Man is a good reason why.
Track listing[/u]
1.) Main Theme from Trouble Man (2)
2.) 'T' Plays It Cool
3.) Poor Abbey Walsh
4.) The Break In (Police Shoot Big)
5.) Cleo's Apartment
6.) Trouble Man
7.) Main Theme from Trouble Man
8.) 'T' Stands for Trouble
9.) Main Theme from Trouble Man (1)
10.) Life is a Gamble
11.) Deep In It
12.) Don't Mess With Mister 'T'
13.) There Goes Mister 'T'
*All songs composed, arranged, written and produced by Marvin Gaye (drums, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, vocals)
*Saxophone play from Trevor Lawrence
*Other arrangements by James Anthony Carmichael and Gene Page
*Released on December 8, 1972 on Tamla (Motown) Records
*Title track hit #7 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #4 on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart in 1973
I've been listening to the album since Friday and the album is STUNNING! Marvin mixed funk, jazz, blues, soul and classical themes to create a wall-of-sound as powerful as anything the pre-gun-wielding Phil Spector ever did.
Trouble Man captures the moment in time but instead of a storytelling journey as was the case with What's Going On, the album was a musical travelogue to the ghetto.
From its assuredness to its despair, this 1972 soundtrack to the ill-fated "blaxplotation" flick of the same name is probably one of Marvin's most overlooked productions of work and probably rivals What's Going On, Let's Get It On, I Want You and Here, My Dear as one of the greatest works the man from the Chocolate City ever produced and composed.
Mostly an instrumental album, it did add doo-wop styled vocal arrangements when Marvin vocalized (like on "Cleo's Apartment", "Don't Mess with Mister 'T'" and "There Goes Mister 'T'") and interesting short keys of what the story was all about ("Poor Abbey Walsh") while others like "Life is a Gamble" and "Trouble Man" were perfect painstakingly autobiographical songs that hinted at Marvin's own blues, how ironic that these songs had a blues flavor to them, especially "Trouble Man".
Needless to say "'T' Plays It Cool" is one of the best funk instrumentals I've heard, so is "'T' Stands for Trouble". The album overall is a grade-A stunner! Like his 1960s work, Marvin couldn't disappoint in the 1970s.
Few of his soul contemporaries matched or even topped what he did but Marvin was indeed the man in the '70s and Trouble Man is a good reason why.
Track listing[/u]
1.) Main Theme from Trouble Man (2)
2.) 'T' Plays It Cool
3.) Poor Abbey Walsh
4.) The Break In (Police Shoot Big)
5.) Cleo's Apartment
6.) Trouble Man
7.) Main Theme from Trouble Man
8.) 'T' Stands for Trouble
9.) Main Theme from Trouble Man (1)
10.) Life is a Gamble
11.) Deep In It
12.) Don't Mess With Mister 'T'
13.) There Goes Mister 'T'
*All songs composed, arranged, written and produced by Marvin Gaye (drums, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, vocals)
*Saxophone play from Trevor Lawrence
*Other arrangements by James Anthony Carmichael and Gene Page
*Released on December 8, 1972 on Tamla (Motown) Records
*Title track hit #7 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #4 on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart in 1973
