Marvin Gaye's "In Our Lifetime?"

[Motown Eddie]

Since we're talking about Marvin Gaye's albums, let's look at his final Motown LP, In Our Lifetime?. Like his preceding album, Here My Dear [[and the single "Ego Tripping Out"), the record was only a moderate seller when it came out in early 1981. And the release of In Our Lifetime? ended Marvin's tenure with Motown [[when the company released the album without his final approval).

My take on Lifetime is that the songs do not have the 'hooks' that would've made it a classic album. However, I do like some of the tracks and my favorites on it are 'Love Party', 'Funk Me' & 'Love Me Now Or Love Me Later'. Now what do you think?

[RichyP]

"Heavy Love Affair" "Praise" for me

[marv2]

I bought and played this album a lot when it was first released.

[RanRan79]

I really like this album, but agree that it isn't as much of a classic as his previous albums. I do think it was consistent with what was happening in R&B at the time. "Praise" is one of my absolute favorites of Marvin, period. There's a video of him rehearsing the song and I can watch it several times in a row.

[marv2]

Marvin got the shaft when Motown released this album behind his back. I remember when I bought it while in college that it did not feel like it was finished. It did not have the "Marvin Gaye deluxe" treatment about it. Still I played it, Smokey's "Being With You" among others back at that time. I did not care for "Ego Tripping Out" because it just sounded it awkward and was thrown on the album to complete it. I don't remember Marvin doing much television work in support of it either.

[Motown Eddie]

Marvin got the shaft when Motown released this album behind his back. I remember when I bought it while in college that it did not feel like it was finished. It did not have the "Marvin Gaye deluxe" treatment about it. Still I played it, Smokey's "Being With You" among others back at that time. I did not care for "Ego Tripping Out" because it just sounded it awkward and was thrown on the album to complete it. I don't remember Marvin doing much television work in support of it either.

And Motown made a Huge mistake in releasing this album since it caused Marvin Gaye to leave the company. Also, Marvin was in no mood to promote In Our Lifetime given the circumstance of it's release. "Ego Tripping Out" may have been an accurate reflection of Marvin's 'dual personalities' but it sure wasn't "hit material" [[and it was added to CD editions of Lifetime as a bonus track).