New Marvin Gaye music unearthed in Belgium
New Marvin Gaye music unearthed in Belgium
With a voice like silk and a social conscience to match, Marvin Gaye remains one of pop’s great icons, his music as much in demand today as when he was gunned down by his own father forty years ago.
Decades on fans of the soul legend may be in for an unexpected encore.
Thirty cassettes featuring previously unheard recordings of new tracks by Gaye have been discovered in the Belgium fishing port of Ostend, where the singer spent 18 months in the early 1980s.
The family of Gaye’s friend and landlord at the time came across the cassettes along with racks of his clothes and stage costumes, including the unmistakable red suit which he wore on tour.
They hope to strike a deal with Gaye’s family, allowing the recordings to be released for the first time.
A lawyer representing Charles Dumolin’s family says some of the tracks are as good as anything produced while he was alive, rivalling even classics such as I Heard It Through the Grapevine, What’s Going On? and Sexual Healing.
Alex Trappeniers, the Dumolin’s lawyer, said: “There was one song that when I listened to it for ten seconds I found the music was in my head all day, the words were in my head all day, like a moment of planetary alignment.
“A few of them are complete and a few of them are as good as Sexual Healing, because it was made at the same time.”
Mr Trappeniers told the BBC: “We can open a time capsule here and share the music of Marvin with the world. It’s very clear. He’s very present.”
Time in Belgium
Gaye moved to Belgium after a spell living the high life in London, where he developed a heavy cocaine habit.
After meeting a Belgian concert promoter in a nightclub he took his business card and a week later arranged to move to the coastal city of Ostend.
Here, while living in the home of Dumolin, who was also a musician, he rediscovered himself. After getting fit by jogging and cycling he went back to the studio to record Sexual Healing, which would become one of his greatest hits.
When he returned to the US Gaye left the material with Dumolin, who died in 2019.
As well as recordings, the treasure trove of Gaye’s memorabilia includes typed running orders for concert performances, angry letters to his record company, lyrics for new songs and notebooks filled with his musings.
“They belong to [the Dumolin family] because they were left in Belgium 42 years ago,” said Mr Trappeniers. “Marvin gave it to them and said, ‘Do whatever you want with it’ and he never came back. That’s important.”
Negotiations with Gaye’s estate
But before the recordings can be released in any form permission has to be obtained from Gaye’s estate.
While the Dumolin family has the right under Belgian law to keep the cassettes and other items left behind by Gaye, the property rights needed to publish the songs remain with the singer’s children, Marvin III, Nona and Frankie, and the administrators of his estate.
Mr Trappeniers is looking to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Lawyers for two of Marvin Gaye’s children are understood to have been made aware of the existence of the Belgian collection, but negotiations over its future have yet to begin.
“I think we both benefit, the family of Marvin and the collection in the hands of [Dumolin’s heirs],” he said. “If we put our hands together and find the right people in the world, the Mark Ronsons or the Bruno Mars.... I’m not here to make suggestions but to say OK, let’s listen to this and let’s make the next album.”
In one of the most tragic codas in pop music Gaye was shot twice by his father when he tried to intervene in an argument between his parents.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at the California Hospital Medical Center on 1 April 1984, the day before his 45th birthday.
