On this edition of
In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with author Michael Eric Dyson regarding his book on Marvin Gaye. The best-selling Motown artist of all time, Marvin Gaye defined the hopes and shattered dreams of an entire generation. Twenty-six years after his murder at the hands of his own father, Gaye continues to define the hopes and shattered dreams of the Motown generation. A performer whose career spanned the history of R&B, from doo-wop to the sultriest of soul music, Gaye's artistry magnified the contradictions that defined America's coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s. Acclaimed critic Michael Eric Dyson illuminates both Gaye's stellar achievements and stunning personal decline and offers an unparalleled assessment of the cultural and political legacy of R&B on American culture. Through interviews with those close to Gaye from his musical beginnings in a African American church in Washington, D.C., to his days as a "ladies' man" in Motown's stable of young singers, from the artistic heights of the landmark album What's Going On? to his struggles with addiction, domestic violence and suicidal bouts of depression, Dyson draws an indelible portrait of the tensions that shaped contemporary urban America: economic adversity, the drug industry, racism, and the long legacy of hardship. Published in 2004 to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of Gaye's death, and infused with the soulful prose that has become Michael Eric Dyson's trademark, Mercy, Mercy Me is at once a celebration of an American icon whose work continues to inspire, and a revelatory and incisive look at how a lost generation's moods, music, and moral vision continue to resonate today.
On April 1, 1984, a Sunday morning, and the day before his forty-fifth birthday - his father shot Marvin Gaye to death at point-blank range after a violent argument. Following a star-studded funeral, his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
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Posted By: John L. Hanson Jr.
Wednesday, March 24th 2010 at 9:23PM
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