WHAT’S GOING ON?
An Erie all-star tribute to Marvin Gaye at Docksider, that’s what.

by Dave Richards
Staff writer

One World Tribe singer Preach Freedom thought he knew every Marvin Gaye song by heart. When it comes to Marvin, he marvels at the Motown legend’s talent and reach. During a Tribe road trip, however, band mate Kennedy Thompson played him “Ain’t That Funny,” a previously unreleased song from the posthumous collection “Dream of a Lifetime.”

“Man, we got to cover this!” Freedom exclaimed.

Then, he came up with a bigger, better, bolder idea, his own dream of a lifetime.
“I launched into, ‘You know what? Let’s do a tribute!’” Freedom said.

Said Thompson: “It was one of those things where the minute he said it, I knew we had to attempt it. It’s something that’s never been done. Plus, the artist is unique. If you can pull it off, it’ll definitely be a musical highlight.”

Friday, after rigorous rehearsals, they’ll try pulling it off in style at Docksider. A dozen musicians culled from assorted Erie bands — including two horn players from Buffalo — will gather as Midnite Love for a tribute to Gaye.

The all-star band — with members of the Tribe, Familiar Spirit, and Gem City All-Stars will play not only such classics as “I Hear It Through the Grapevine,” “Inner City Blues,” “Sexual Healing,” and “What’s Going On” but some album tracks that reveal the extent of Gaye’s musical genius. In his early Motown days, he wrote soul gems, but they adhered to formula. After earning creative control, Gaye began expanding his sound, taking it into a more sophisticated, adventurous realm.

“His music is hard to pull off,” Thompson said. “You get into the Marvin Gaye of the mid and late 70s and early 80s, and it has a lot of changes. A lot of the chord changes, they are very deep, like jazz chords — just crazy.” At the first of five Midnite Love rehearsals, Thompson could only grin when the musicians first looked at the material.

“Seeing the look on their faces when they realized what’s involved in doing this, it was like the lights are going on,” Thompson said. “It was like, ‘There’s some stuff going on here!’”
GAYE’S BEST STUFF WAS RELENTLESSLY honest. Whether he was getting personal as on “Here My Dear,” about his divorce, political — as on “What’s Going On” — or carnal (”Let’s Get It On”), he laid it on the line. Like, say, John Lennon, Gaye was a flawed but fundamentally truthful artist.

“He was such a troubled man — pun intended,” Preach said. “But I guess [I admire him] because he’s so blunt. That’s who I am, too. I preach freedom; I’m to the point, no holds barred, no faking the funk here. You accept it for what it is, like it or leave it, but honest. He was very honest about it and not afraid to expose himself. He was a messenger, if you will. And it wasn’t all about sex. He was very aware politically, and with the environment. He was very conscious.”

He was also a stubborn kind of fellow. Like Stevie Wonder, he insisted on the right to produce his own material — a move that not only allowed his genius to flower but paved the way for latter-day artists such as Prince and R. Kelly.
“Stevie and him were the first to produce their own material,” Thompson said. “If you have a genius, you’ve got to give the ropes, to let him go. If you shackle a creative person like that, you are just losing money.”

DESPITE HIS MUSICAL GIFTS FOR composing and arranging, Gaye was tortured in his private life, caught in an internal war between his religious upbringing and lust for women and drugs. Not long after he moved back home from Europe — where he’d moved for tax reasons — he and his father launched into a fight. His father pulled a gun and shot Marvin to death, one day before Gaye would have turned 45. The news shocked the pop world on April 1, 1984.

“I remember that day,” Thompson said. “It was like, man, we lost a giant.”
Some 20 years later, Thompson wonders if Gaye gets enough credit for pushing music forward.

“He’s definitely overlooked,” he said. “I think he’s overlooked by the people that really shape public opinion. But I don’t think he’s overlooked by the real old-school R&B people. If you go underground in the culture, you touch a nerve when you mention Marvin. At the same time, you don’t see the word genius next to his name, which is unfortunate.”

For Friday’s tribute show, Preach will handle most lead vocals, though Rusty Jackson of Familiar Spirit will also sing a few. Toya Hollingsworth will step in for a few duets made famous by Gaye and Tammi Terrill, such as “You’re All I Need to Get By” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.”

There still ain’t nothin’ like the real thing. But look for Midnite Love to show you a thing or two Friday.

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Midnite Love will perform Friday at 10 p.m. at Docksider Tavern, 1015 State St. Admission is $5. Band members include Preach Freedom, vocals; Toya Hollingsworth, vocals; Rusty Jackson, vocals, guitar; Kennedy Thompson, keyboards, vocals; Kenny Hollis, bass; Frank Singer, keyboards; G.G. Tomporowski, percussion, vocals; Scotty Cravener, guitar; Randy Hetherington, drums; Jim Bohm, trumpet; Kenny Smith, saxophone, Chris Dempsey, trombone. For more information, call 454-9700.