The liberating reason why Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye left Motown
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The beauty and tragedy of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye melded their melodious performative perfection for ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ like a pair of songbirds delivering a twittering Sunday service. The cover of the classic Ashford & Simpson track launched them as the soul-extolling duo about to give loving joy to a generation.
However, behind the boon of the beautiful duets, a tragedy lay in waiting. While performing at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, the pair got off to a flyer with their usual scintillating songs before Terrell sadly collapsed into Gaye’s arms. What at first appeared as a loving embrace quickly revealed itself as something else entirely.
Terrell was rushed to a nearby hospital where the budding soul sensation was diagnosed with exhaustion. In an era whereby musicians were constantly on the road playing multiple shows a night, this was a common showbiz condition that befell many stars of the age. However, Terrell showed no signs of a quick recovery with rest and rehydration. Thus, it became apparent that something more serious was at play.
Not long after her 22nd birthday, the Philadelphia soul sensation who was shooting up the charts with Gaye and set to be Motown’s answer to Atco’s Sonny & Cher was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Terrell had to take some time out from performing to receive treatment. This step back was almost as crushing for a star who sought catharsis away from a tough time in America as the diagnosis was itself.
Thus, it is no surprise that despite the hardship that had befallen her, she was back performing once more by the end of 1967, teaming up with Gaye again for their classic single ‘Your Precious Love’. A further string of hits followed, and the songbirds of soul were kindred spirits who offered up loving escapism for a generation. They might not have tackled Civil Rights head-on at this stage, but Terrell’s own triumphs over dower circumstances showcased a fortitude that was relatable to the times all the same. The music reflected this balm.
However, treatment for brain tumours at the time was rudimentary and her ailments began to catch up with her. In 1969, she had to retire from performing. This came as a crushing blow to both Gaye and Terrell herself. Later that year, she would make one final appearance when Gaye spotted her in the audience at the Apollo Theater.
Upon seeing his soul sidekick he suddenly stopped performing, and emotionally rushed to her side, whisked her up onto the stage and the duo serenaded a wet-cheeked crowd with a stunning duet of ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. When they finished, the pair embraced and they were greeted with a rousing standing ovation.
This would be their final performance together and the next year, on March 16th, at the tender age of 24, Terrell passed away. At her eulogy, Gaye delivered one final performance of ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. He later would comment: “I had such emotional experiences with Tammi and her subsequent death that I don’t imagine I’ll ever work with a girl again.”
Sadly, the loss would have a profound effect on Gaye who increasingly turned to drugs and alcohol as a crux. He withdrew from performing live, however, he decided it was high tide to pour his hardships into a message of such meaning that it would almost reconcile the loss he felt as did many others in America and beyond at the time.
He may have shunned the spotlight and been plagued by his own troubles, but the album that followed in 1971, What’s Going On, will always be a sign of the coracle of hope that Terrell and her triumphant times represented.
With What’s Going On, Gaye does what a lot of great art does: it divulges hard truths and makes them bearable, illuminating, with beauty, that misery does not have to be tackled morbidly and that despair and deliverance coexist. And it does this in scintillating musical style. And it is riddled with the joyous echoes of his old songbird.
