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Marvin, my sweet Marvin.  Second to Prince, Marvin Gaye is my favorite artist of all time and one of the few people that I can recall where I was and what I was doing on April 1, 1984, when it was announced that he’d been slain, by the hands of his father.  I was at a neighbor’s house, holding some random baby when the news announced his death and being that I was 8, soon to be 9, I had no idea how much his music and life story would eventually mean to me, but I knew his music.  I knew his music because my mama had been playing Marvin as long as I could remember.  Just yesterday, she and I were listening to his Trouble Man album and she reminisced about how she would bump this album in her first apartment, when I was just a baby, with the windows open, loud enough for all the neighbors to hear.  Imagine that close to 40 years later, she and I were sitting in my home, listening to the very album she used to play for me, when I was baby.

I could go on forever talking about Marvin, his music, his triumphs and his demons, but instead I will just post up one of my favorite songs, from my favorite album, Here, My Dear, the 1978 album he released with very little fanfare as part of a divorce settlement to his first wife, Anna Gordy.  Here, My Dear and I Want You are like bookends, odes to Anna and Janice and because I love a good story, I hold these albums in higher regards than most.  This song, When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You, one of my gatdamn jams, I could listen to this song forever.  Enjoy.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Steve Jobs

Womack & Womack - Baby, I’m Scared of You

One of my favorite jams from back in the day.  I had such an amazing music upbringing growing up in Chicago where we not only partied to Hip-Hop and R&B, but also House & Deep House jams like this.

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