When you're having a bad day, who can you turn to? Who can you go to for some cheering up? Your folks? Your spouse? Your kids? Your dog? Maybe those work, but for me there's nothing like Marvin Gaye.
I'm a teacher. A lot of my young students always want to talk to me about music. We share cd's. I try to get them into things I like that they've most likely never heard. They try to expose me to newer artists that might have eluded my musical tastes. A few years back, everything they tried to get me to listen to sounded like Nirvana, Linkin Park, Korn, Staind, etc. It was all doom and gloom, negative and depressing. Nirvana is certainly light years beyond the other groups, but even they have songs like "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die." When exactly would I be in the mood for such a song? And oh yeah... Kurt Cobain killed himself. Nuff said?
When you listen to the old songs from Motown, they're all so positive. Most of them are about love. Most of them are happy. For me, Marvin Gaye is the epitome of this. Sure, he's got his sad tunes and the occasional angry one, but a lot of his most popular hits were love songs, and most of the best ones he ever did were with Tammi Terrell. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love" were great. My favorite is "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing." Listen to the words! It's just a happy song about how there's nothing as good as being with the person you love. Marvin says, "Nothing can take the place of you being there." Tammi says, "It's just a picture in a frame... I need the shelter of your arms to comfort me." Together they croon, "No other sound is quite the same as your name... no touch can do half as much." How can you not enjoy the sentiment! It practically sounds like they're smiling when they're singing it. I'm certainly smiling when I listen to it. And in an age where all we hear about are celebrity break-ups and bitter divorces, lines as simple "Let's stay together" always serve to remind me of what's best in life: Love.
"Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing" can be found on the album "20th Century Masters" or "The Complete Duets." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.
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