Saturday, November 10, 2007

Contact, Pt. 2: In Which Marvin Gaye Funks Up Space

      Two of my recent themes dovetail rather nicely in this one:  The singer as statuary (see "Buckeye Funk") and wacky space songs (see "Contact").  Granted, it's over eight minutes of space funk, so you may not have the stamina.  It's got some priceless lines, though, and a nice groove.
     What was it that made people want to sing about outer space in the Seventies?  Was it Skylab?  Star Wars?  Mork & Mindy?  Who knows?  David Bowie was the artist most likely to sing about/look like/ be an alien back then, but to me it's more interesting that acts like the Carpenters and Marvin Gaye tackled the subject.  This album was supposed to be a kiss-off/alimony payment to Marvin's ex-wife (Berry Gordy's daughter), but I doubt she reaped much from it other than confusion. 

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