"Jan" - 1974 (Marvin Gaye Live!)

The Enduring Gifts of MARVIN GAYE Podcast

This episode recounts my first encounter with the live-song "Jan," first heard on the Marvin Gaye Collection; and later heard from the full concert captured on the "Marvin Gaye Live!" album recorded in 1974. As a young girl of 14, this song sparked so much curiosity in me as to who was this lucky girl Jan, to have Marvin Gaye singing this beautiful song that he'd written just for her? At that young age full of self-consciousness and self-doubt I immediately had this conceptualization that a girl who looked like myself would never have been the "intended" recipient of a song like this from Marvin. As a part of my black experience as a "light-skin" black woman, there's sometimes that thought in the back of my mind, "am I black enough?" Based on pictures in the Marvin Gaye Collection of Marvin with his first wife Anna, I thought I probably would not have ever have been the girl Marvin would seek out to sing directly to in concert (which he often did). I share how I was very personally affected when a couple of years later, I finally got my first glimpse of Jan from pictures in the biography on Marvin titled "Divided Soul." Not only did Jan not look like the mental picture I'd formed of her, but if anything, she looked more like me than anything else! It blew my mind, and as mentioned, was obviously just a very personal experience, that only deepened the connection I felt to Marvin's music and messages. This song, in my opinion, is the 2nd most delicately delivered song Marvin recorded, 2nd to "My Last Chance" explored in our Episode 4. This one is a definite must for pure, gentle, romantic musical needs.

Please visit our PInterest page which is full of some very hard and fun work I'm putting in to capture all of the beautiful and relevant imagery I can find, of our revered subject: Marvin. It really is my goal for you to be able to see (and hear, via many videos I'm finding) for yourself, relevant references I make in these episodes. I've got nearly 1000 pictures & videos of rare television and concert performances, documentaries, and even the one and only MOVIE that Marvin made!! You can find us at: https://www.pinterest.com/marvingaye_enduring_gifts/

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