Musing by blogger Craig Lyndall about bad behavior and contemporary rock stars has me thinking about some of the singers and musicians from the 60s, 70s and 80s, I have beecome interested in lately. I am currently focusing my listening and reading on Marvin Gaye. One would be hard put to find a towering personality in music who was more screwed up. Gaye, a self-taught virtuoso on several instuments, including piano and drums, a composer who did not read music, and a songwriter, in addition to his reknowned ability as a singer, came about his possible psychoses honestly. His father, a cross-dressing fundamentalist preacher, beat him at the drop of a hat from the time he was a toddler until he fled their Washington, D.C., home when he was 17. They would continue to do battle until their conflicts reached an eerie climax.

In the intervening years, the name Marvin Gaye, which he shared with his father, became a household word. The singer first gained notoriety as the male half of early Motown duos. He performed duets that charted with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and most famously, Tammi Terrell. The persona projected on the records was of young, sophisticated lovers who had discovered the formula for compatibility after their share of ups and downs. However, during that period, Gaye's real love life consisted of mental and physical battles with Anna Gordy, his older and jealous wife. The line between home and work was blurred by the fact that Mrs. Gaye was the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy. Infidelity was the norm for Marvin and Anna, serving as constant fuel for their fights. It is now believed Gaye fathered the son they would rear with Anna's 15-year-old niece. It was about that time that Gaye began to abuse drugs, starting with alcohol and marijuana.

His second coming was as the socially conscious voice of the seminal album, What's Going On? in 1971. The album, which examined controversial aspects of society from the Vietnam War to the environment, is considered once of the most important recordings ever by Rollingstone and other arbiters of American culture. Gaye entered serious meltdown after finishing What's Going On?. He separated from Anna and began an affair with a seventeen-year-old high school student, Janis Hunter, at 33. The relationship would include ontinual drug use by both and ongoing mutual infidelity. Marvin would beat Janis whenever they were together, behavior that much resembled his father's treatment of him. He encouraged Janis to seduce his friends and associates and regale him with descriptions of her exploits. He had become a consumer of pornography and prostitutes. He also participated in sado-masochism, said to be the holder of the whip. Though Gaye's inability to perform because of the ravages of cocaine and heroin would impact him most, his unreliability also effected fans, who could not rely on him singing capably or even showing up for concerts. Eventually, Gaye would exile himself to Hawaii, London and Belgium, not performing live for five years.