Disconsolate over duet partner Tammi Terrell’s death, disturbed by his brother’s letters from Vietnam, depressed by Detroit’s urban blight, chafing against Motown’s factory system, Marvin Gaye was at a crossroads in 1970. After receiving an unfinished protest song by Four Tops member Renaldo “Obie” Benson and in-house songwriter Al Cleveland, Gaye and the Funk Brothers went into the studio and created the innovative title track, a crossover smash. Then came the album, an indelible quiet-storm jeremiad. This two-CD edition adds single mixes, demos, instrumentals for future songs, and the original “Detroit Mix.”
