How making Marvin Gaye’s ‘Here My Dear’ became a living nightmare
Marvin Gaye was one of the artists who put Motown on the musical map, his soulful voice not only establishing the distinctive sound of Berry Gordy’s label but also earning it some of its all-time biggest hits. Despite all of that, though, Gaye’s time at Motown was rarely harmonious.
By now, it is no secret that Berry Gordy ran Motown with an iron fist, prioritising commercial success and hit records over everything else – after all, hit records kept the lights on at Hitsville USA. With that ruthless outlook, though, the label’s head was often accused of treating his ever-expanding roster of artists pretty poorly, particularly when it came to their recording contracts, and even though Gaye had been on board since the early days in 1960, he was certainly not immune from this harsh treatment.
During those early years, the singer’s failure to garner any number one hits on the pop charts caused him to fall out of favour with Gordy to an extent, with the boss spending more of his time focusing on the likes of The Supremes, who were rapidly becoming Motown’s flagship act. When Gaye finally struck pop-soul gold with ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, though, it took many months of arguments and pleading for the single to even be released.
Bizarrely, in the wake of the unparalleled success of that single, Gordy’s trust in Gaye failed to increase. When the vocalist landed upon his magnum opus, and one of the greatest records of the century, What’s Going On, the Motown boss was famously sceptical, not wanting his label to become involved with the world of politics.
You might think that, after the colossal success of Gaye’s late 1960s and early 1970s period, the rest of his career at Motown would have been smooth sailing, but that wasn’t the case. A particular low point for the soul star came in 1977, during the production of his 14th studio album, Here, My Dear.
With the benefit of hindsight, Here, My Dear is one of Gaye’s greatest efforts; a gut-wrenchingly beautiful break-up concept album charting how that first spark of excitement can fall to agonising despair. Of course, his vocals are on top form, but it is the overarching and incredibly ambitious narrative of the album that makes it such an enduring masterpiece, even if it wasn’t viewed as such upon its initial release in 1978.
Its modest success in the charts, however, was of little concern to Gaye himself. You see, the singer was going through some particularly nasty divorce proceedings at the time, after separating from his wife, Anna, who also happened to be the sister of Motown boss Berry Gordy. In fact, the split became so ugly that a warrant was issued for the arrest of Marvin Gaye after he failed to make his alimony payments.
Here, My Dear, was seen as a solution to those legal troubles. During the divorce proceedings, Gaye had to forgo the earnings of his next Motown album to his now ex-wife, so the singer entered into Here, My Dear, knowing that it was essentially an album to appease Anna Gordy. In fact, during the early stages of the recording, his mindset could be summed up in the quote, “Why should I break my neck when Anna was going to wind up with the money anyway?”
Inevitably, then, the Motown star didn’t much enjoy the production process, as it could only be seen in the shadow of his now shattered marriage. On the other hand, though, its rather depressing backdrop culminated in the instantly emotive, heartbreaking atmosphere contained on the record. Either way, it was not one of Gaye’s favourites.
