In Our Lifetime

In Our Lifetime
Studio album by Marvin Gaye
Released	January 15, 1981
Recorded	1979–1980 Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California Seawest Recording Studio, Honolulu, Hawaii Odyssey Studios, London, England
Genre	Soul, funk
Length	41:30 (original album) 40:07 (1994 re-release) 138:01 (2007 edition, two-disc)
Label	Tamla
Producer	Marvin Gaye
Professional reviews
Allmusic link BBC (favorable) link Robert Christgau (A-) link Stylus (C-) link
Marvin Gaye chronology
Here, My Dear (1978) In Our Lifetime (1981) Midnight Love (1982)

In Our Lifetime is a studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England throughout 1979 and 1980.^[1] The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of Here, My Dear, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from Anna Gordy.^[2] Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, In Our Lifetime was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.^[3]

Conception

By 1979, Marvin Gaye was at a professional ebb in his career with mounting personal problems. He was two years without a hit after the release of "Got to Give It Up". His 1978 album, Here, My Dear, which was an autobiographical look at the singer's damaging relationship with his former wife, Anna Gordy, had bombed due to problems between the artist and Motown and Marvin was determined to regain the audience he felt he had lost with the album. Recording initial demos to what was supposed to be a "party" record titled Love Man, Marvin fell into more problems after the IRS foreclosed on his properties after he failed to pay them back taxes.

Feeling unloved in his country, Marvin left Los Angeles first settling in Hawaii where he tried continuing work on Love Man, then after being brought to London by a British musical promoter for a European tour, he settled there to finish recording the album, which underwent a reinvention in the middle of sessions. Feeling that the original mix of Love Man was too limiting to his style, he redid the album where he talked about his personal problems and expose a religious and psychological view into his cathartic life while ironically keeping the funk atmosphere of the original album. In the fall of 1980, having cut records that were going to be In Our Lifetime?, Marvin had felt confident that eventually he would finally be done with the album. However, as it turned out, when Marvin's bassist Frank Blair presented the rough draft of the album, Motown decided to mix the album differently than Marvin initially intended, include an unreleased cut (the lyrically-conscious "Far Cry") - in which a jazz vocal was mostly edited out and deleted the question mark from the album, in which Marvin said he had included to ask if "Armageddon would come in our lifetime?".

Reception

When In Our Lifetime was finally issued in recording stores on January 15, 1981, Marvin was angry over its rush release. Upon hearing it, he said the label had reedited the album without his rightful permission in which Motown admitted to try to make the album commercially viable. However, sales for the album were low despite its critical success producing a sole R&B hit with the Stevie Wonder tribute/religious ode, "Praise" and peaking at number thirty-two on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. After its release, Marvin asked to be let go from his contract.

It was finally granted after CBS Records' urban division president Larkin Arnold bought Marvin out of his Motown contract, thus ending the singer's 21-year relationship with the company in 1982 (Gaye then eventually recorded his final album, Midnight Love, in Belgium).

Over the years, the album was forgotten until the album was re-released by Motown on compact disc in 1994 to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Marvin's death, including the song Love Man and "Ego Tripping Out" as part of the track listing.

On June 19, 2007, twenty-six years after the album's release, Hip-O Records re-released the album as an expanded edition which included not only the album as it was in its original release but also included alternate cuts from different studio recordings from London's Air and Odyssey Studios, featuring the original 1979 single of "Ego Tripping Out" including an alternate cut from the "In Our Lifetime" sessions.

The second disc released what was from the "Love Man" sessions with instrumental productions that were included in "Lifetime" under different lyrics and different titles. The reissue restored the question mark at the end of the title and was limited to 5,000 copies.^[4]

Track listings

All songs were written, arranged, composed and produced by Marvin Gaye.

Original 1981 release

1. "Praise" - 4:51
2. "Life Is For Learning" - 3:39
3. "Love Party" - 4:58
4. "Funk Me" - 5:34
5. "Far Cry" - 4:28
6. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" - 4:59
7. "Heavy Love Affair" - 3:45
8. "In Our Lifetime" - 6:57

1994 re-release

1. "Ego Tripping Out"¹ – 7:18
2. "Praise" – 4:54
3. "Life Is For Learning" – 3:41
4. "Love Party" – 5:01
5. "Funk Me" – 5:30
6. "Far Cry" – 4:34
7. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" – 5:00
8. "Heavy Love Affair" – 3:49
9. "In Our Lifetime" – 7:00

Expanded edition

Disc one

1. "Praise" (Air Studios Mix) - 4:51
2. "Life Is For Learning" (Air Studios Mix) - 3:39
3. "Love Party" (Air Studios Mix) - 4:58
4. "Funk Me" (Air Studios Mix) - 5:34
5. "Far Cry" (Air Studios Mix) - 4:28
6. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" (Air Studios Mix) - 4:59
7. "Heavy Love Affair" (Air Studios Mix) - 3:45
8. "In Our Lifetime" (Air Studios Mix) - 6:57
9. "Nuclear Juice" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) - 5:46
10. "Ego Tripping Out" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) - 4:55
11. "Far Cry" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) - 6:21
12. "Ego Tripping Out" (Love Man: The Single) - 5:13
13. "Ego Tripping Out - Instrumental" (Love Man: The Single) - 3:43

Disc two

1. "Praise" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 5:09
2. "Life Is For Learning" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 3:53
3. "Heavy Love Affair" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 4:40
4. "Love Me Now or Love Me Later" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 5:43
5. "Ego Tripping Out" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 4:37
6. "Funk Me" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 5:13
7. "In Our Lifetime" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 5:51
8. "Love Party" (Odyssey Studios Mix) - 5:18
9. "Life's a Game of Give and Take" (The Love Man Sessions) - 4:57
10. "Life Is Now in Session" (The Love Man Sessions) - 4:04
11. "I Offer You Nothing But Love" (The Love Man Sessions) - 6:03
12. "Just Because You're So Pretty" (The Love Man Sessions) - 5:06
13. "Dance 'N' Be Happy" (The Love Man Sessions) - 6:49
14. "Funk Me, Funk Me, Funk Me" (The Love Man Sessions) - 5:49
15. "A Lover's Plea" (The Love Man Sessions) - 6:10

Personnel

• Marvin Gaye - vocals, keyboards, drums
• Robert Ahwry - guitar
• Gordon Banks - guitar
• Frank Bates - bass, background vocals
• Frank Blair - bass, drums
• Candace Bond - Executive Producer
• Ray Brown - trumpet
• William Bryant - drums, keyboards
• Elmira Collins - vibraphone, background vocals
• Raymond Crossley - keyboards
• Fernando Harkness - saxophone
• Joe James - percussion
• Gary Jones - percussion, conga
• Lee Kentle - drums, background vocals
• Nigel Martinez - drums
• Kenny Mason - trumpet
• Joe Mayo - percussion
• Sidney Muldrew - French horn
• Curtis Anthony Nolen - guitar
• Raphael Ravenscroft - alto saxophone
• Dr. George Shaw - trumpet
• Nolan Andrew Smith - trumpet
• Bugsy Wilcox - drums
• David Ritz - liner notes
• Preston Wilcox - drums
• Ron Slenzak - photography

References