Customer Reviews

I Want You

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would actually give this album four-and-a-half stars. Another succulent suite from Marvin Gaye, I WANT YOU features some of his smoothest production work and some very moving vocals. Considering the obvious emphasis on romanticism and sex, it would be easy to view I WANT YOU as a rewrite of LET'S GET IT ON. While both albums are sensual and multilayered, the two discs actually have a completely different feel. LET'S GET IT ON was a sheer erotic jolt, while I WANT YOU is more of a psychological probing of the complications of love and sex.

The big hit is the majestic title song (#15 Pop, #1 R&B) and it perfectly encapsulates the theme and mood of the entire album. Given the sensual nature of the material, it's surprising that I WANT YOU is such a leisured and melancholy album. In spite of some suggestive lyrics, "Come Live With Me Angel" and "Since I Had You" are filled more with anguish than lust. The closing "After The Dance" is the disc's most reflective number, though Marvin even performs the songs he didn't write ("All The Way Around," the title song) with an uncommon emotional intensity.

As we had come to expect from Marvin, the album's tracks are expertly sequenced and form a lovely progression to the disc's close, even if reprising the title song three times is a bit redundant. Another huge Top Ten success on the Hot 200, I WANT YOU may not be able to top WHAT'S GOING ON or LET'S GET IT ON (but what could?), but it is a highly impressive recording in it's own right.

This is hands down the best Marvin Gaye album ever. And that's saying something. Soooo good it hurts, physically. Because this is true soul. What Marvin vocally does to a melody defies comprehension. He is the undisputed master.
Marvin said that "life as seen through my eyes can only be recalled sadly" and this album is a reflection of that statement. The title track is hauntingly beautiful (and has been the target of many a remake; sacrilegious fools), all the other tracks are similarly fantastic, with seriously laid back funky grooves throughout. I only wish He'd made a whole song out of "I Wanna Be Where You Are," but who am I to question the master.
So many "singers" cite Marvin as their musical influence, but to me that's crazy talk. If it were the case there would exist truly soulful Artists creating great music inspired by the spirit of Marvins' work. As it is there are only a handful of wanna-be's producing souless immitations.
Buy this CD, and see what the hype's all about.

I'm telling you...

If Marvin Gaye ever topped himself in his album work during the '70s, then somehow he did with his collaborative effort with another legendary soul man Leon Ware in this fabulous lover's concerto, part II, otherwise known as the "I Want You" album.

Mainly this collection deserves its stars for these reasons:

1.) It's Marvin Gaye
2.) Leon Ware is providing most of the tracks
3.) Live instrumentation and musician worship
4.) It's Marvin's diary to his young woman, Janis
5.) CD 2 shows more of Marvin's vocals and is more lengthy than the original LP when it was released in 1976 (almost 30 years ago)
6.) It's Marvin Gaye (LOL)

If that ain't enough, then the different cuts of "I Want You" should be enough. In the vocal and rhythm acapella of the song, there's like two Marvins fighting vocally over each other while three or four other Marvins are singing like they're a group with a bass Marvin, several Marvin tenors and a Marvin falsetto that comes out of nowhere.

If that's STILL not enough, then maybe the instrumentals to "After the Dance", the different vocal cuts of that record, and of course the album cuts like:

"Soon I'll Be Loving You"
"Feel All My Love Inside"
"All The Way Round"
"I Wanna Be Where You Are" (the second side show a more funkier and longer cut that will have u dancing and of course his own vocal rap in the alternate cut)
"Come Live With Me Angel"

Matter of fact, IWY, ATD and CLWMA have been sampled by rap artists over and over with the last of the three recently was sampled for 50 Cent/G-Unit's "Wanna Get 2 Know U". "I Want You" and "After the Dance" has been sampled and covered over and over again over the years.

This wonderful album helped set a precedent for the artists who came after Marvin:

Prince
R. Kelly
D'Angelo
Maxwell
The DeBarge family
Avant
Montell Jordan
Joe
...(AND LOTS MORE)

This album is particularly the bomb!

And of course the unheard-of last two instrumentals are beautiful!

Now bring on the deluxe editions of Trouble Man, Marvin Gaye Live, Here, My Dear, In Our Lifetime and even Midnight Love RIGHT NOW! LOL

I bought "I Want You" on vinyl when it first came out in 1976. It quickly became one of my favorites--and the favorite of many others as well. I found a site on the web that said "I Want You" has been covered by 33 artists. My favorite is Gato Barbieri's burning sax version, also from 1976.

In the transition to CD, Motown released their back catalog in a bunch of cheesy two-fers, with "I Want You" backed with "I Heard it Through the Grapevine". Fearing that "I Want You" might disappear from sight, I bought it. So I was more than pleased to get a first rate version of one of my favorite albums with a very cool bonus in this package. The bonus album is kind of a "shadow" version of "I Want You" with alternate extended takes of every song on the album in the original order. Honestly, I haven't taken it off my CD changer since I bought it and haven't listened to the original album either. It's pretty amazing--like discovering you have a non-identical twin brother after 28 years.

Frankly, the alternate take on the "I Want You" vocal is not my favorite, but all the other shadow versions are improvemements in the sense that they're looser and jazzier than the originals. Highly recommended for "I Want You" addicts.

As a huge Marvin Gaye fan, I have virtually everything he released. And although I have the original versions of "I Want You" and "What's Going On", I didn't have the deluxe editions. After reading Michael Eric Dyson's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Art and Demons of Marvin Gaye)", (in part of which he gives an in depth look at how these deluxe editions came about), I decided that I needed to have them. After learning the history behind the releases of these editions, I am awestruck. Both are truly timeless classics, works of art that cannot be dismissed. Now that these have been published, I hope that a whole new generation of folks are enlightened to Mr. Gaye's genius.

`I want you' is my all time favourite Marvin Gaye song and one listen is enough to tell you why; atmospheric with lilting percussion, pulsing but hesitant sounding bassline, and a soothing multi-layered wall of backing vocals, this song is a masterpiece! Covered by artists like Massive Attack featuring Madonna, and Robert Palmer, the song gets reprised twice, especially as a horn laden instrumental near the end of the album.

This #15 US pop hit (#1 R&B) sets the tone for the rest of this album; soothing sensual music with lush orchestration and jazz leanings with lyrics about yearning and desire. The cover art is a painting depicting people dancing at a club to a live band, and this was stunningly recreated at the Motown 25th show in 1983.

All the tracks flow into one another with ease, from the soothing horn drenched `Come live with me angel', the downtempo haunting instrumental piece `After the dance' (reprised in a percussion filled vocal version at the end which has an entirely different feel), the ethereal sound of `Feel all my love inside', the too brief `I wanna be where you are', the silky smooth `All the way round', the ballad `Since I had you', and `Soon I'll be loving you again', a lush ballad introduced by delicate rolling percussion and filled with awesome backing vocals, awesome!

The album made #4 pop US and #1 R&B.

There's nothing more I can say about this work of art. Marvin was on an artistic roll in the 70s (that's not to say his other work wasn't great, mind you) and set the pace for today's R&B and Neo Soul crooners.

It's already been said....nothing else to say. This is HANDS DOWN the best Marvin CD. I'm in love with a dead man. #2 on my list is actually the sound track to Trouble Man. I'm not too enthralled with his duets...the obsession only works when he's singing alone. Genius, pure genius.

There really isn't much to be said that the previous reviewers haven't said already. This is Marvin Gaye at his best. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Marvin Gaye. I even share the same last name as Marvin Gaye. But until about 2 years ago, I had never heard this album. I have ALL of Marvin Gaye's other albums, but I never got this one until 2 years ago. And even after I got it, it sat on my bookcase for another 8 months. Why? Simple, there was no rush to get to it. I believed that "Let's Get It On" was Marvin's best work at the time, so I figured this LP wouldn't be as good. Boy was I wrong. I almost feel cheated. This is easily Marvin's bets work, and that's saying a lot. I believe all of his albums are classics in their own right, but he outdid himself in a way that goes beyond explanation. This is one of those albums that stains your brain so that you never forget it. I encourage all, young or old, to go out and get this album if you haven't heard it already. Don't cheat yourself like I did. This album is a masterpiece.

Standout Tracks: The Entire Album

Although I have had to defend my opinion about this on numerous occasions, 'I Want You' is Marvin's best album. Don't get me wrong, I think that "What's Going On" is a masterpiece, and I loved "Let's Get It On", but there's something about this particular album (CD), that I can't take it out of the CD player. The melodies are almost angelic, and he sings the lyrics to songs like "Since I Had You", and "Come Live With Me Angel" with such passion and emotion. You can feel what he's saying, and the music is timeless. He mixes fantasy with love, even suggests to his lover that he wants to try something he's never tried before; as he puts it, 'head'.

The cover may remind you of the TV show, "Good Times", but the CD inside will make you want to have nothing but a "good time". This CD plays like a verbal orgasm between Marvin and the music. Guaranteed eargasm.......

It is the soundtrack for lovers.

While recording Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye met a young woman who would occupy his thoughts for the rest of his life. Jan Hunter was only sixteen when Mr. Gaye met her, but he feel deeply and madly in love with her. He had already separated from his wife Anna Gaye and he entered into a relationship with Ms. Hunter that would produce two children. Due to Mr. Gaye's drug abuse and infidelities, Jan left him in 1975. I Want You is his open plea for her to come back. The title track appears in three forms, the vocal, instrumental and intro jam, and with its pulsating, thumping track perfectly conveys the obsession Mr. Gaye has for his lover. "After The Dance" appears in a vocal and instrumental version and is a plea for his lover to come home with him after a night of bumping and grinding on the dance floor. "Since I Had You" speaks of his desperation and emptiness in life. "I Wanna Be Where You Are" moves away from his longing for Jan and is a message to his two children that their daddy loves them and wants to be with them.