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A trawl through some of his possessions, left in Belgium when "Sexual Healing" was released, has unearthed a case full of tapes of previously unknown recordings made over there by Marvin.
A local lawyer now has possession of them all & states that one of them is a truly great track [[though he won't let anyone hear it).
Seems he's trying to get a record label to license these tracks for release, with a hefty advance being needed first of course.
Take the chance from the BBC detailing Marvin's recordings. Part of it below.
For a time he lived in the home of a Belgian musician, Charles Dumolin. The collection of stage costumes, notebooks and tape cassettes is now in the hands of Charles' family.
But now the BBC can disclose the intriguing possibility that Marvin may have recorded previously unheard new music in the same period, which has lain hidden in Belgium for more than forty years.
Belgian lawyer Alex Trappeniers, who's a business partner of the family who lay claim to the material, is in no doubt that the fate of a hugely valuable collection of stage costumes, notebooks and never-before heard music is about to be decided
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68674814
Reading the article and the description of rehearsals and studio chatter on the tapes, I was very interested. And then I got to this part:
"If we put our hands together and find the right people in the world, the Mark Ronsons or the Bruno Mars....".
Somehow I feel less excited.
This excerpt from an article about the unreleased Marvin Gaye tapes from Soul Tracks.com adds this to the mix:
The family of Dumolin, who died in 2019, says that Gaye gave to him many of the clothes and knick-knacks he held while there. But included in that stash was a cassette tape with more than 60 song demos recorded in Belgium – of varying lengths and stages of completion – none of which have been publicly heard before.
Of course, the veracity of the “gift” story is in question, since both parties [Gaye and Dumolin] are gone. Just as importantly, the legal rights to the music are unclear, and Gaye’s descendents have shown their propensity to litigate [see Mark Ronson] when they feel that their father’s work is being used by others without just compensation.
The attorney for Dumolin’s family, who teases that he believes there are potential international hits among the songs on the tape, indicates that he would like to reach agreement with Gaye’s estate for the right to finish and release the music. But, given the history and the odd circumstances here, we expect that there could be a long, complicated battle before we hear one note of the lost music.
The haul is 30 cassette tapes, said to contain some 66 demos of new songs.
Most are in an 'unfinished' state, hence the mention of ace remixers such as Mark Ronson.
Your mileage may vary but I'd rather hear a single, unfinished or half finished untouched mumble from Marvin Gaye than 66 "contemporised' mixes of the material by Mark Ronson.
I do agree that some 'remixes' / remakes can be awful.
When Marvin Gaye's original 60's version of "Lucky Lucky Me" was given the remix treatment, most of the 'new' versions were far inferior to the old version. They made an even bigger mess of his "Lonely Lover" when they remixed that one in 86. But they were finished tracks, it seems most of these aren't.
...I remember seeing this documentary of Marvin's time in Ostend, Belgium...!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzA5p9QOjqE
Grape :)