Trouble Man – Marvin Gaye

A slinky groove from another lifetime. Marvin hits that sweet spot early on with his exploitation cinema theme tune and keeps it right there in a worthy companion piece to Isaac Hayes Theme From Shaft, Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly or James Brown’s Black Caesar.

Trouble Man the Movie is a piece of cinematic trash painted gold. One which tried to establish a new hip Blacksploitation James Bond type superhero named T who was ‘Comin’ to get yo’ honkey ass’.

There’s a wonderful two and a bit minutes trailer for the film which is like watching the movie in fast forward in the first part and kinda works as a music video for Marvin’s track in the second half. Marvin clearly ‘wanted in’ with the growing genre which at the time looked like it would grow and grow.

The slow groove bobs along while Marvin scat sings the lyrics like he’s doing the washing up and focusing on everything else but the music.

It’s just flowing out of him almost subconsciously. This is not a criticism, It’s an attempt at describing of how natural the flow sounds coming from Marvin’s mouth. He’s almost not singing actual words, just letting the right noises out.

It’s worthy of note that this song is featured heavily in Marvel’s Captain America : The Winter Soldier. When Falcon and Cap meet early on in that movie the track is recommended as all you need to know about what’s gone on in US society since the second world war.

It’s clear the big money felt Marvin’s soundtrack efforts deserved a bigger stage than originally intended. That or they were borrowing some retro cool to lend their huge epics some soul. Literally.

On that note I’m going to stop blabbing and let The Avengers write the rest of this review.