In 1972, in the wake of his immensely successful album, What’s Going On, and its accompanying singles, Marvin Gaye released the topical 45, “You’re the Man,” which failed to crack the Top 40 of Billboard’s Pop chart. A disappointed Gaye retreated, electing to focus on projects unrelated to creating a follow-up LP. These endeavors included scoring the film Trouble Man and taping an album of duets with Diana Ross, though his inner artistry pushed him to keep creating and recording solo works. Two of the tracks Marvin came up with were Christmas songs that were slated for a holiday 45 in late ‘72, and while both tunes are really interesting in their own unique ways, the 7-inch never saw the light of day.

Marvin co-wrote and produced the two Christmas numbers, and he also played the Moog synthesizer, an instrument that had recently been gifted to him by Stevie Wonder. Marvin’s Moog takes the lead on “Christmas in the City,” a jazzy instrumental that conjures up images of city streets on Christmas Eve. It’s a very cool track.

“Christmas in the City” was slated to be the B-side of the scrapped single. The planned A-side, “I Want to Come Home for Christmas,” at first sounds like a traditional Christmas tune, in which the singer laments that he’ll be away from home on the holiday, before the song takes a surprisingly dark turn and it’s revealed the protagonist is a soldier—a prisoner of war (Vietnam was on Marvin’s mind). The logic behind the single’s cancellation is unknown, publicly, but one can imagine what Motown’s reasoning might have been. The songs would sit in the vault until the ‘90s, when they were finally released on separate compilations.
 

 
Both tracks have been included on You’re the Man, an album consisting of all of Marvin Gaye’s solo and non-soundtrack recordings from 1972, a representation of what a ’72 successor to What’s Going On might have resembled. Released earlier this year, the seventeen-track set includes a previously unreleased mix of “Christmas in the City,” and the long version of “I Want to Come Home for Christmas.”
 

 
Other standout cuts on You’re the Man include “The World is Rated X,” which covered similar lyrical ground as “What’s Going On”; “Piece of Clay,” a gospel-soul song with some searing lead guitar; and the closing funk jam, “Checking Out (Double Clutch),” which finds Marvin talking to the listener through the track.

You’re the Man is available in digital, CD, and vinyl formats. The two-LP gatefold edition features new liner notes by Marvin Gaye biographer David Ritz. Though the songs on You’re the Man have come out on various releases in years past, some of the mixes make their debut here, and nearly all of the tracks have never been pressed on vinyl before.
 

 
Get Marvin Gaye’s You’re the Man here.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Marvin Gaye’s triumphant return to the concert stage after a four-year layoff, 1972

 
On May 1st, 1972, Marvin Gaye returned to the concert stage after not performing live for four years. The previous year, his groundbreaking and commercially successful LP What’s Going On was released, though Marvin hadn’t toured behind it. This was largely due to a personal tragedy, but Gaye also struggled with intense stage fright. His spring ’72 show, held at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., not only marked his live resurgence, it’s also the only time What’s Going On was played live in its entirety—and it was recorded. 

The death of his beloved singing partner Tammi Terrell in 1970 was the beginning of a dark time for Marvin Gaye, but he emerged the following year with the classic “What’s Going On” single and album. In 1972, he would resume concert appearances, though there would be just be two dates; the one in Washington D.C., followed by a short set in Chicago on September 27th.
 

Marvin Gaye and guitarist Robert White, Kennedy Center show rehearsal.

The D.C. gig was a homecoming for Marvin, who was born in the nation’s capital, and on the day of the concert he and his parents were whisked from event to event. Stops included his former high school; the mayor’s office, where he was presented with a key to te city; and the House of Representatives’ Rayburn House Office Building. It was officially “Marvin Gaye Day” in Washington D.C.
 

 
That night, Marvin opened the show with a thirteen-plus minute medley, which included the only known performances of two songs, “That’s the Way Love Is” and “You.” He followed it up with two additional live rarities, “Right on” and “Wholy Holy,” and went on to play everything else off of What’s Going On. The evening ended with spirited reprises of “Inner City Blues” and “What’s Going On.” It was a great gig, with Marvin seemingly relaxed and in good spirits.

A professional recording of the legendary Kennedy Center concert (unfortunately sans “Mercy Mercy Me,” which wasn’t successfully taped) was first released in 2001 as part of the deluxe, two-CD reissue of What’s Going On. The show had never been released on vinyl or as a standalone disc, but that’s all changed with the new release, What’s Going On Live.
 

 
Newly remastered and available on CD and digital formats, as well as a two-LP gatefold set (black vinyl and limited edition turquoise vinyl), What’s Going On Live can be purchased here.
 

 
The 2019 music video for “What’s Going On” is the first video from Universal Music Group’s “Never Made” series, a project dedicated to creating absorbing new clips for tracks that never had accompanying music videos. Directed by Savanah Leaf, and shot in Flint and Detroit, Michigan, the video includes many members from those communities. The Flint water crisis, gun violence, and the failings of the U.S. healthcare system are among the topics addressed in the clip.
 

Marvin Gaye’s signature silver platform boots made by Gaye’s wife, Janis, 1970s
 
As I’m sure many of the more academic readers of DM are aware, the history of guys strutting around in big heels goes all the way back to the Baroque period when it was considered to the calling card of a truly “masculine” kind of man. Oh yes. Wearing heels made you taller and being taller made one appear more menacing. And for men in positions of power or prestige, being intimidating was helpful with ensuring that you maintained your position in society. Aristocrats and elites like Charles II of England were often depicted in paintings wearing high-heeled footwear. 
 

An early version of AC/DC with vocalist Dave Evans looking very glam (far left) with Angus (the only one not wearing heels) and Malcolm Young.
 

David Bowie, 1970s
 

Johnny Thunders and David Johansen of the New York Dolls, 1973
 
Plenty more platforms and manly man masculine high-heels after the jump…

 
I have extolled on DM before the virtues of remix/mashup genius Mark “Go Home Productions” Vidler. For over a decade, he’s been, to my reckoning, not just the most prolific mashup creator, but the absolute best at it. Vidler is possessed of an extraordinary gift for finding transcendence in what can too often be a very gimmicky, punchline-y form.

This month he’s released a new EP (free for download, as there’s really no way to sell stuff like this without a licensing nightmare) called “Sleazy Egyptian.” It’s a hodgepode that features collisions between the Bangles and the Stranglers, Basement Jaxx and the Beatles, and Daft Punk, Chic, and Mousse T. But the standout—and the track most likely of interest to DM readers—is this rather amazing union of Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar” and the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Mission: Impossible’ vs ‘Norwegian Wood:’ the world’s first mashup, 1968
Mashup: Velvet Underground / Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - “Venus in Furs” / “Ain’t No Mountain”
Bunnymen vs White Stripes, Bee Gees vs Killing Joke and more: New mashups from Go Home Productions

 
Does this mashup of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” meets SLAYER’s “South Of Heaven” work? Well, some parts do, IMO, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

More than anything, this video is an After Effects PhotoBucket-style work of art. I mean, Marvin Gaye is in flames. Marvin.Gaye.Is.In.Flames.
 

 
Via Cherrybombed

 
The Reverend Jesse Jackson and ‘Prince of Motown’ Marvin Gaye shootin’ hoops in 1976.
 

 
H/T Retronaut
 

 
A few months after the release of Midnight Love in 1982, Marvin Gaye told N.M.E.:

I don’t make records for pleasure. I did when I was a younger artist, but I don’t today. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time.

Midnight Love was to be Marvin’s last complete album, and was the biggest selling record of his career at that time, selling 6-million copies worldwide. Its release, coming after a self-imposed exile in Belgium, marked a major development in Marvin’s song-writing and performing talents, with its   eclectic mix of influences, Soul, Funk, Synth Pop, and Reggae, that the “Prince of Soul”  made unmistakably his own. 

Midnight Love was considered by many critics to be the album of the year, and in June 1983, Marvin showcased (lip-synched) a selection of songs from this classic album on a special edition of Soul Train.
 

 
Here’s one from the Dangerous Minds archives.

This wonderful mashup had languished in anonymity until we discovered it back in April of 2010. It has since gone viral.

As I said back then: “It takes a special kind of genius to put these artists together and make it work.” It’s the creation of Joey Propellor.
 

 
Motown bass deity James Jamerson had more talent and soul in one finger than in any of his peers’ standard ten. Literally. He was known amongst his colleagues as “the hook” for his single digit yet fluid as a river plucking. He also never changed his strings or messed with the controls on his instrument. Everything simply turned up to ten. I mean to feature a few isolated tracks from some of his best known sessions which are new to me and as delightful to listen to as you might imagine but I had to lead off with this already widely seen but marvelous clip of our man backing Marvin Gaye in 1973:

 
And the studio version, Jamerson’s
 

 
Dangerous Minds pal, Marc Campbell says, “It takes a certain kind of genius to put these artists together and make it work.”