Marvin Gaye, My Brother

Author: Frankie Gaye, Fred E. Basten
Title: Marvin Gaye, My Brother
Publisher: Backbeat books
Released: 2003

This was a nice book for me to read. Loving Marvin solely through his soul had become something I had gotten used to. Sure, I liked the liner notes in his albums by David Ritz because they gave me something of an insight to this mans style, a style I would later on incorporate into my own creative process... however it was his music, that first CD that my kind Japanese student lent me at that early age, it was the first CD I had ever listened to (along with the other one she lent my brother and I, Digable Planets 'Reachin') and the year, if I'm not mistaken, was 1993. From that moment under my mother's desk with that personal CD player, hearing the spiralling beauty of Marvin on 'Pretty Little Baby' this man and his voice became a fixture in my life.

Biographies written by reputable sources and even more so autobiographies are such a treasure to me, but it wasn't until now that I ever attempted to find out about his life, rationalize Marvin; explain why his soul spoke to me through music. To be honest, I didn't need to read this book, because after having read it I can still say that every piece of pain and love was audible in this mans live and studio albums. It was all in the music. Also it so perfectly shows how even from an early age, we have our personality set in place.

Marvin's younger brother Frankie Gaye speaks to Fred Basten the co-author, and the words read smoothly, if a little simplistic-sounding at times. It is however worth reminding yourself that this isn't 'dumbed down' speech by Fred Basten, Marvin and his younger brother Frankie actually did speak very properly. They hardly ever used bad language, they called their dad 'father', and despite all the problems Marvin had, his manners remained amazingly intact until the end. It is a beautiful and kind story, made all the more innocent and real by the docile, gentle spirit of Frankie Gaye who manages to somehow speak with such experience and calm. He just was that kind of person, and in his stories of their childhood, it becomes obvious that this is no act- Marvin was forever pushing the limits, treading dangerous new ground, getting into trouble, whilst his calmer younger brother silently watched, forever loyal and by Marvin's side, but somehow never managing to get into the same trouble.

That's it though, the beauty of these kinds of real-life stories mean you don't get the generalisations. Marvin may have been the rebellious one of the two brothers, but that doesn't mean he didn't love God throughout his life with an intense passion and deep spirituality. His father may have shot and killed him, but Frankie, being both son and brother, gives the real view, and tells us how much the two loved each other, admitting that it was mainly stubbornness and pride that didn't allow the two of them to get along better. These are gems which you will only find from a genuine person, and Frankie Gaye comes across as a kind and caring brother throughout this book. To illustrate this all perfectly, he quotes Marvin saying something round about the time of the Vietnam war, and needless to say it's something I had never heard from any of the more well-known Marvin Gaye writings or anecdotes, "People see the world in black and white, I see the whole world as different shades of grey".

It is priceless to me to actually know that Marvin was a real man, to know how he was a real man, and to know all that he saw, all the wild adventures he had with English noblewomen, escaping reality living in a caravan on the shores of Hawaii, travelling to Belgium in a ferry and not liking the cold breeze, getting around the streets of London. It's important too for us to see the darker side of his life, and what caused it, and his brother is more than candid about his brother's faults and misgivings, in that way that only a brother can be. Similarly it is important to know about the misconceptions, and Frankie does that admirably, upholding his family honour and at the same time being as fair and open as possible (he held off release of this book until after his fathers death.) I respect this man, and its clear throughout that it couldn't have been easy to be Marvins brother, but at the same time it seems almost too perfect how God gives certain personalities to some people in order to make everything relative, whilst you or I may have been suffocated having such a famous brother (and looking almost exactly like him!) Frankie coped with it fine because he just had that kind of personality. Frankie Gaye just handled things. Returning to the misconceptions however, it's tragic and sad how Marvin opened up at one point in his later career when he spoke privately of how he never wanted to be a sex symbol, but the image took over after 'Let's get it on' and he was too weak in his later career to fight it anymore (resulting in the disappointing 'Sexual Healing' which seems to be celebrated by everyone except myself as a 'comeback'.) The point in the book is made clearly though when Frankie talks of how Marvin wanted to be commercial because he wanted to please his fans and people, but 'he didn't think like a commercial artist'. He was an innovator who found himself in the end, trapped by an industry that was always too narrow minded for him, and a life of weakness and addiction that was always going to lead to self-injury.

Yes it's a tragic story, a very tragic one that I know I can learn a lot from, and that's where the silver lining comes in. For Frankie Gaye's sad sad story, it all comes together at the tragic end when he holds Marvin in his arms in their home after he has just been shot, and flashes back to those times when they were children running around their Washington D.C. neighbourhood. It's beautiful, sad, and real. The most potent image in the book for me, which sums up the compassion in Marvin, is when Frankie returned from Vietnam and stayed up all night with Marvin for a week (this is the adult Marvin, recording artist in the middle of all of his fame) telling the curious elder sibling about his horrible experiences in the jungles of Vietnam. These two grown men in the same bedroom, sitting up in their beds, still living with their parents, talked as brother's talk. That's family. From those conversations 'What's Going on' the album was born.

Marvin was most content with his family. He rung home every night no matter how famous, how bad of a situation he was in. He loved his parents and he loved his brother. Life is beautiful, despite every gritty detail, every weakness and every betrayal; a life will always be beautiful.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 22nd & 27th Mar 2004

Amazon let you read the first few pages of the book here.