Marvin Gaye's "You're the Man"

In 1972, Marvin Gaye appears to have been at a crossroads, not sure what direction to take next. He’d followed up his hugely successful What’s Going On? album with a soundtrack to Trouble Man.

At first, his focus was an album of socio-political songs, kicked off with the title track “You’re the Man.” However, when the title song didn’t become a crossover hit when released as a single, enthusiasm for a full album appears to have waned. Plus, Gaye seems to have been brimming with lots of different ideas.

In the book “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye,” author Michael Eric Dyson writes, “As [Harry] Weinger sorted through the tapes vault, he was bewildered by the huge amount of material. It became clear that Marvin had many false starts and pursued a number of directions – and even another album – before settling on the songs that became Let’s Get It On.”

Indeed, besides tracks for the You’re the Man album, Gaye also recorded instrumentals, and songs written by Willie Hutch, and even began a Christmas album that Motown put on its schedule (only one holiday single was produced). There were also plans for a duet album with Diana Ross. 1972 was a busy year.

The result is that there are basically three partially created albums between Trouble Man and Let’s Get It On. My first attempt was to create You’re the Man with the six tracks that were known to have originally been planned for it and fill in the blanks with three instrumentals. But the more I looked into what had been recorded, I thought maybe there was something bigger and better possible. You can arrive at a surprisingly good double album if all the tracks are gathered and carefully assembled.

SIDE A

1. Running from Love, Part 1
2. I’m Going Home (Move)

3. You’re the Man (Parts 1 & 2)

4. I’m Gonna Give You Respect

SIDE B

1. This World is Rated X

2. Sad Tomorrows

3. Try It, You’ll Like It

4. Checking Out (Double Clutch)

5. We Can Make It Baby

SIDE C

1. Woman of the World

2. My Love is Growing

3. Cakes

4. You are That Special One

5. Mandota

SIDE D

1. Where are We Going?

2. Symphony

3. Running from Love, Part 2

4. Piece of Clay

I book-ended the album with the two parts of "Running from Love." The angrier-sounding version kicks off the album, and the moodier version ends it, with "Piece of Clay" as an epilogue. The social and political songs remain, along with more personal songs and one instrumental punctuating each of the four sides.

Gaye’s popularity was certainly strong enough to support a double album, and “Woman of the World” "Where Are We Going?" and “Piece of Clay” could have been strong contenders for singles. It seems to me to be a missed opportunity. One final thing – the inclusion of “Sad Tomorrows” is kind of a cheat. It was a non-album B-side to “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” from 1971. However, I needed one more song and it fit well, I think.

Most tracks are available on the extended versions of What's Going On? and Let's Get It On.

I can’t take any credit for the cool cover shown at the top – I found that on a blog and was impressed with how great it looks. I also made an attempt at a cover, using a similar photo from the "You're the Man" single sleeve, but as you can see below it didn't come out anywhere near as nice.

Here's the album via a YouTube playlist.

The Beatles - "Back in Your Safely Beds"

Here's an album you can't have—at least not yet, as of this writing. In the past couple of weeks, I've posted two versions of albums in which I used most of the tracks of The Beatles' "White Album." But I deliberately left off "Wild Honey Pie" and "Revolution 9." I just don't think they fit well with the other tracks.

The Beatles—specifically Paul, John and George—experimented extensively with music and wrote pop songs. George released Electronic Sound, and John and Yoko released Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and the Wedding Album. Paul also created experimental music but didn't release it commercially.

Back in Your Safely Beds is what might have happened if The Beatles released their more experimental songs together on one album.

However, one of the tracks I propose for this album, "Carnival of Light," a nearly 14-minute sound collage, has yet to be released. It was originally recorded by the band in 1967 for the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave event. It has never appeared on any Beatles release and has only been heard by a select few since the rave event. Paul wanted to put it on The Beatles' Anthology 2 album, but George vetoed the idea. Paul occasionally teases the possibility of releasing it someday in the future. The rest of the tracks on this proposed album are all commercially available.

"What's the New Mary Jane?" was completed during production of the White Album, but was not officially released until 1996 on Anthology 3. "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" was released as the B-side to the "Let It Be" single. The final recording work on this song was in April 1969 (the last of these five tracks to be completed), and so I see Back in Your Safely Beds as a summer of '69 release that wasn't.

SIDE A
1. You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
2. Carnival of Light

SIDE B
1. What's the New Mary Jane?
2. Wild Honey Pie
3. Revolution 9

My simple album cover is stark white, with the title in big, fat letters and the logo of Zapple Records—the avant-garde and spoken-word subsidiary of Apple Corps. The title comes from one of Ringo's malapropisms (aka Ringoisms), like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Tomorrow Never Knows," which the band has previously used for titles. Maybe the band wouldn't even include their name on this record. Maybe they'd make up a fake name. Who knows?

With this blog entry, I'll move on to other proposed albums that don't involve The Beatles. Stay tuned.

"The Beatles" by The Beatles

In my last post, I created a single-disc concept album using 14 tracks from The Beatles' "White Album." In this post, I'm using most of the leftover tracks to create a good, standard rock album.

While A Doll's House could have created a good bridge from the Sgt. Pepper's/Magical Mystery Tour era, this album would have been mostly a return to basics. The Summer of Love was so last year; the Vietnam War and Civil Rights protests were everywhere, and music was changing. Using the official title of the White Album, I call this one simply The Beatles. 

SIDE A

1. Back in the U.S.S.R.

2. Sexy Sadie

3. Not Guilty

4. Julia

5. Honey Pie

6. Don't Pass Me By

7. I'm So Tired

SIDE B

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

2. I Will

3. Yer Blues

4. Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

5. Happiness is a Warm Gun

6. Long Long Long

7. Revolution 1

8. Helter Skelter

Again, like A Doll's House, there is a balance of vocals: six by John, five by Paul, three by George, and one by Ringo. All of these tracks are from the original "White Album," except "Not Guilty." A short version of the song is on Anthology 3, but I used a longer 4:17 version. For an album cover, I used one-half of the proposed artwork for the inner gatefold of the "White Album" that wasn't used.

NOTE: You may have noticed certain songs from the White Album that I've left off from both this and A Doll's House: "Wild Honey Pie" and "Revolution 9." I consider "Wild Honey Pie" to be akin to nails on a chalkboard. I really hate it. Maybe the worst Beatles song I can think of. As far as "Revolution 9" is concerned, I was fascinated with it when I was a teenager, but these days, it just seems like one long noise track. I think maybe these two tracks as well as a few other odds and ends could appear on yet another Beatles album, which maybe I'll get to in the future.

The Beatles' "A Doll's House"

A lot has been written about creating a single album from The Beatles' "White Album." Online, you'll find numerous attempts, public polls, arguments, etc.

My personal feeling is that there is a great concept album lurking in the "White Album" begging to come out. It's fairly common knowledge that The Beatles originally planned to call the album A Doll's House after playwright Henrik Ibsen's play. However, when the group Family used the title Music from a Doll's House for its debut album, The Beatles' title was scrapped.

To me, A Doll's House conjures up the idea of childhood, and there are plenty of songs on the "White Album" that connect with childhood themes. With that in mind, I put together a single disc concept album that I think really works.

SIDE A

1. Glass Onion

2. Dear Prudence

3. Birthday

4. Savoy Truffle

5. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

6. Mother Nature's Son

7. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

SIDE B

1. Martha My Dear

2. Piggies

3. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey

4. Blackbird

5. Rocky Raccoon

6. Cry Baby Cry

7. Good Night

Kicking off Side A is "Glass Onion." It's the perfect song to link previous Beatles songs with what is to come and serves as an introduction to this album. "Dear Prudence," an invitation to come out and play, follows. Then the party starts with "Birthday" and everyone can indulge in sweets with "Savoy Truffle." Then there follows storytime and singalongs -- "...Bungalow Bill," "Mother Nature's Son" and "Ob-La-Di...."

The second side of the album begins with an "Animals Suite," which harks back to the album cover: "Martha My Dear" (about Paul's sheepdog), "Piggies," "...Me and My Monkey," "Blackbird" and "Rocky Raccoon." "Cry Baby Cry"—it's nap time, and you sing the lullaby "Good Night."

Not only do all of these songs fit in well thematically, but there is also a good balance of contributions: five vocals by John, six by Paul, two by George and one by Ringo.

All of these tracks are available on the "White Album." Slight trimming is needed on "Dear Prudence" at the beginning to remove the jet sounds that bleed in from "Back in the U.S.S.R."

Here's a YouTube playlist to listen to this "lost" concept album.