After the dance : my life with Marvin Gaye

Title:

Author:

Gaye, Jan, 1956-

ISBN:

9780062135513

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

viii, 290 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : portraits (some color) ; 24 cm

Contents:

Distant lover -- Sensitive people -- Mushrooms in the desert -- Come get to this -- 8850 Cattaraugus -- In love with the night -- Impatient for your love -- Topanga -- "Jan" -- Mother, mother -- The beast -- The beauty -- Raw soul -- Blessings and burdens -- A deepening maze -- Wanting -- Return to the maze -- Family love -- Faith -- Finally free -- Hawaii is heaven/Hawaii is hell -- Mind games -- Betrayal -- The dance -- War -- Escalation -- The pipe -- Reunited -- The commotion -- "Isn't it funny how things turn around?" -- The beginning of the end -- The end -- The beginning.

Personal Subject:

Gaye, Marvin.

Gaye, Jan, 1956-

Gaye, Marvin-Family.

Subject Term:

Singers -- United States -- Biography.

Musicians' spouses -- United States -- Biography.

Soul musicians -- United States -- Biography.

African American singers -- Biography.

Genre:

Autobiographies

Added Author:

Ritz, David,

Summary:

In the 1970s, Marvin Gaye was the soulful prince of Motown with the seductive liquid voice; his chart-topping, socially conscious album What's Going On made him a superstar. Primarily silent since Marvin's tragic death in 1984, Jan Gaye gives a riveting cautionary tale about the ecstasy and dangers of loving him-- and a searing memoir of drugs, sex, and old school R & B. She reveals what it's like to be in love with a creative genius who transformed popular culture and whose artistry continues to be celebrated today.

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	921 GAYE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	921 GAYE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A riveting cautionary tale about the ecstasy and dangers of loving Marvin Gaye, a performer passionately pursued by all--and a searing memoir of drugs, sex, and old school R&B from the wife of legendary soul icon Marvin Gaye.

After her seventeenth birthday in 1973, Janis Hunter met Marvin Gaye--the soulful prince of Motown with the seductive liquid voice whose chart-topping, socially conscious album What's Going On made him a superstar two years earlier. Despite a seventeen-year-age difference and Marvin's marriage to the sister of Berry Gordy, Motown's founder, the enchanted teenager and the emotionally volatile singer began a scorching relationship.

One moment Jan was a high school student; the next she was accompanying Marvin to parties, navigating the intriguing world of 1970s-'80s celebrity; hanging with Don Cornelius on the set of Soul Train, and helping to discover new talent like Frankie Beverly. But the burdens of fame, the chaos of dysfunctional families, and the irresistible temptations of drugs complicated their love.

Primarily silent since Marvin's tragic death in 1984, Jan at last opens up, sharing the moving, fervently charged story of one of music history's most fabled marriages. Unsparing in its honesty and insight, illustrated with sixteen pages of black-and-white photos, After the Dance reveals what it's like to be in love with a creative genius who transformed popular culture and whose artistry continues to be celebrated today.

Author Notes

David Ritz has collaborated with Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, B. B. King, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Smokey Robinson, and Don Rickles. He co-wrote the song Sexual Healing with Marvin Gaye. He received the Gleason Music Book Award four times.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

The long-suffering wife of Marvin Gaye (1939-1984) tells the story of her turbulent relationship with the legendary soul singer. Gaye's debut memoir, a faithful recollection of life with a difficult superstar, is as frustrating as it is compulsively readable. On one level, it's yet another tell-all confessional from someone who fell into the trap of loving an artist primarily through the idealized image his work publicly projected. But what separates this memoir from so many other cookie-cutter memoirs about celebrity romances gone wrong is that the author is so deeply in touch with her own flaws and vulnerabilities. A girlhood crush on budding superstar Marvin quickly expanded into something more when she met the soft-spoken musician through a friend of her mother's, who was Marvin's producer at the time. Besides the initial offbeat love triangle that the teenage Jan found herself inMarvin was 33 years old and married to a 51-year-old at the timeshe was getting involved with someone who had been the product of a profoundly warped household. After a torrid initial romance with her musical hero, the author found herself in the throes of marriage and motherhood, desperate to keep Marvin's increasingly flagging attention away from other women. As their relationship progressed to rockier, more adult stagesalways accompanied by copious amounts of marijuana and cocaineher psychological dependence on Marvin only grew, while Marvin's drug-crazed behavior became increasingly unhinged and unpredictable, right up until he was tragically shot dead in an argument with his father. Gaye's explicitly confessional account of her doomed uphill struggle to stay with Marvin is a prime example of how obsessive celebrity worship can so easily (and dangerously) masquerade as enduring love. A fascinating, unsentimental account of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for romance. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

She had just turned 17 when she met singer Marvin Gaye in 1973, but she'd had a crush on him since the mid-1960s, when she used to watch him performing on American Bandstand. Even though he was twice as old as she was, and married, the author began a relationship with Gaye that led to marriage and that lasted until Gaye's murder in 1984. This is the first time Jan Gaye has spoken at any real length about her life with Marvin; she tells a story of love, fame, addiction, triumph, and tragedy in other words, she tells the story of being a music star's wife in the 1970s. Although the book doesn't break any new ground (this kind of story has been told so many times there might not be any new ground left to break), it is a story told honestly and directly, with real passion and plenty of behind-the-scenes insight. Fans of soul music in the sixties and seventies will be curious to read this one.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Gaye's tell-all about her decadelong relationship with legendary R&B musician Marvin Gaye (1939-84) is a tragic story about an illicit romance that burned bright but flamed out in a tangled web of abuse. Her account begins with a tortured upbringing as one of bebop singer Slim Gaillard's neglected 17 children, raised in foster care until she was returned to her drug-addicted mother at 14. Jan's relationship with Marvin began shortly after her 17th birthday, and she became a mother to two children with the singer while still a teenager. The narrative gets darker as Jan describes her and Marvin's addiction to freebase cocaine, his bouts of violence, his declining career fortunes, and their subsequent divorce. The author is an astute and generous critic of Marvin's music, despite the tumultuous nature of their relationship, providing insightful commentary on Gaye's most cherished recordings. The book is at its most powerful, though, when it describes a woman's attempts to escape from a sexually, physically, and psychologically abusive relationship. VERDICT This title will surely interest and disturb fans of -Marvin Gaye. Jan's writing, with help from Ritz (Divided Soul), is engaging, steamy, harrowing, and insightful. [See Prepub Alert, 11/10/14.]-Brian Flota, James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Distant Lover	p. 1
Sensitive People	p. 10
Mushrooms in the Desert	p. 21
Come Get to this	p. 33
8850 Cattaraugus	p. 45
In Love With the Night	p. 58
Impatient For Your Love	p. 65
Topanga	p. 71
"Jan"	p. 81
Mother, Mother	p. 89
The Beast	p. 100
The Beauty	p. 108
Raw Soul	p. 115
Blessings and Burdens	p. 123
A Deepening Maze	p. 135
Wanting	p. 142
Return to the Maze	p. 148
Family Love	p. 159
Faith	p. 170
Finally Free	p. 180
Hawaii Is Heaven/Hawall Is Hell	p. 190
Mind Games	p. 199
Betrayal	p. 206
The Dance	p. 212
War	p. 221
Escalation	p. 228
The Pipe	p. 233
Reunited	p. 240
The Commotion	p. 252
"Isn't It Funny How Things Turn Around?"	p. 262
The Beginning of the End	p. 268
The End	p. 275
The Beginning	p. 284
Gratitude	p. 287
Acknowledgments	p. 291

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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