Trouble Man [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

Marvin Gaye | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 7, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Label: Motown
• ASIN: B0000060NH
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,473 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #37 in Music > R&B > Classic R&B
  • #75 in Music > R&B > Motown
  • #89 in Music > R&B > Quiet Storm

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Two phenomenons of early-'70s soul--Marvin Gaye and the soundtracks of blaxploitation flicks--met on this 1972 souvenir of the violent Robert Hooks vehicle. Unlike Curtis Mayfield's concurrent Superfly, however, Gaye's record mostly fails to rise above the clichés of film music. Save for the pained, dramatic title single and a few moments of sax-and-wah-wah strutting, much of what's here fails to touch Mayfield's song suite. That's ironic, given that Gaye bookended Trouble Man with two conceptual triumphs, What's Going On and Let's Get It On. His fans, and students of the genre, won't find this a total disappointment, but with "Trouble Man" itself available on a number of best-of CDs, it's inessential. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and atmospheric score., August 2, 2004

By 

Robert Johnson (Richmond, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trouble Man (Audio CD)

Marvin long considered his score to the forgotten film TROUBLE MAN to be his best work. While I would not call it his best (could anything really top WHAT'S GOING ON, LET'S GET IT ON, or HERE, MY DEAR?), it is a fantastic album in it's own right. Textured and atmospheric, this lovely, complex score deserved to be featured in a much better movie. It's often compared with the ground-breaking soundtracks SHAFT and SUPERFLY, however TROUBLE MAN is much more poised and intricate than those funk classics. It sounds more like a bittersweet separation, rather than a head-on collision. Though largely instrumental, TROUBLE MAN does contain the hit title song (#7 Pop, #2 R&B), which is justifiably considered one of Gaye's classic singles.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvin's soundtrack is a sweeping urban soundscape., August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Trouble Man (Audio CD)

Marvin Gaye's body of work never ceases to amaze me. While it is true that "Trouble Man", the soundtrack, has been actually produced by the 5 or 6 arrangers listed in the jacket credits, Marvin lent his name to the final product, and if you listen to his output from the "What's Going On"- "Let's Get It On"-"I Want You"-"Here My Dear" era there are some awe inspiring, but lesser commercial ventures. "Marvin and Diana" and this are prime examples of what I'm saying. Listen to the butterscotch and blues multi-vocal tracking on "Cleo's Apartment" and listen to how it segues into the "Trouble Man" single--sublime! The bluesy Marvin Gaye vocals and the Trevor Lawrence (he sounds as if he were playing on a late night street corner, doesn't he?) saxophone work makes this an excellent CD. It was remastered using 20-bit technology in 1998 and it will hold it's own against any pure jazz album. Get it from Amazon.com, now.

34 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars that amazon reviewer cat has his head up his arse, April 29, 2004

By 

Campbell Roark "tri-zeta" (from under the floorboards and through the woods...) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble Man (Audio CD)

I don't care for What's Goin On, or most of Marvin gaye's material for that mattter- heresy! I know, I know... Just never cared for him so much. But I love this strange, pained, noirish jewel of a soundtrack. Probably because it's mostly instrumental. Gaye's voice an lyrics always struck me as s bit overwrought, bordering on affectatious- make of that what you will... I go more for funk and jazz than R&B; the urban yodeling school of vocal delivery.

I've never seen Trouble Man, but I listen to this all the time! In terms of the mood- it veers from sounding like a 40's Bogart detective film to (how apropos) 70's blaxploitation (with the tinsel horns)to damn near something that could have been released a week ago... Some of the tracks (T plays is cool, for example, with those thick, bone-breaking drum beats and the slick synth mixing tight with the sax- sounds like a band boxing it out- I LOVE how you expect a cymbal at the end of the stuttered tom-tom beat fill but the drummer must have left them in the van, no cymbals! It's unexpected and sweet as hell!!!!) sound so modern- they sound like they could have been put down by a R&B genius yesterday.

The jazzy interludes are deft and restrained with lush strings and evoactive sax. The bluesier momenst work well too- My only minor beef with this is that it clocks in at a little under 40 minutes... wish there were more.

Cleo's Apt with the cooing 'wooo-wooh-wooos' is seductively gorgeous, a fave. This is one of those albums you can write to or read to or kick back to, wash dishes, go running, lift, clean your car- it's infectious and immediate and dark as pitch.

Recommended for all who love marvin, funky jazz, laid-back R&B, or bleak, anguish-laden groovy music!