Marvin Gaye & Pink Floyd - Requiem For A Dream (1981)

American soul star Marvin Gaye lived in Ostend in Belgium during 1981/1982, spending 18 months there during one of the lowest points in his life, trying to overcome his drugs and alcohol addiction, and attempting to regain his inspiration. This was partially successful, as he penned one of his biggest hits 'Sexual Healing' during this period, but generally it wasn't a great time for him. During his stay he would frequently hop across the pond to the UK, and on one of these jaunts in London, he attended a Pink Floyd concert at Earl's Court, and was invited to join them on stage for a rendition of 'Let’s Get It On', sung over Floyd's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', and a rare piece of audio footage of this performance has recently been located. After the chemistry of this impromptu performance, Waters and Gaye discussed the possibility of recording these collaborations for a possible release, in what would be considered an early version of what people now refer to as a mash-up record. In late 1981, before returning back to the States, Gaye recorded eight renditions of his songs alongside Waters' and Pink Floyd's released material. Coming off a recent departure from Motown, and upset with the rush-job of the Motown-released 'In Our Lifetime' album, Gaye felt the need to move on to other label prospects, and to encourage his creative urge to push into new musical directions. As he was now a free agent, Harvest Heritage was interested in putting out this collaborative effort with Gaye and Pink Floyd, following their release of Floyd's 'A Collection Of Great Dance Songs', but they couldn't clear the rights with Motown to use Gaye's likeness or vocals from his Motown recordings. Reworking an unused Roger Waters album title, the record was named 'Requiem For A Dream', and a limited number of copies were pressed using existing pictures, in the hope that it would see a release date at some point in the future, but it all came to nothing and so the album was shelved. However, one of those limited pressings of the album has recently been unearthed, and so we can now hear this collaboration of musical giants, with Gaye performing some of his best-loved songs, backed by the music of Pink Floyd. The live audio footage of 'Let's Get It On' is believed to have either come from the original Floyd bootleg entitled 'The Wall Came Tumbling Down' or from Waters' unreleased The Wall Tour footage, but this is currently unconfirmed.

Track listing

01 If This World Were Mine 
02 Ain't No Mountain High Enough
03 Stubborn Kinda Fellow 
04 What's Going On? 
05 Ain't That Peculiar 
06 If I Could Build The Whole World 
07 A Wonderful One  
08 Let's Get It On 
09 Let's Get it On (Live from Earl's Court)