While the prince of soul died on April 1, 1984, shot by his father on April 1, 1984, unpublished recordings have just resurfaced in Belgium where he resided for a time.
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Forty years ago, almost to the day, Marvin Gaye died. On April 1, 1984, the prince of soul was shot dead by his father with a revolver that the singer-songwriter had given him. Behind him, Marvin Gaye left 25 studio albums, including What’s Going On ranked by the magazine Rolling Stone ranked first in the 500 greatest albums of all time. We thought we knew everything about his work, but unpublished recordings by the soul icon have just surfaced in Belgium, where he resided in 1981.
38 unreleased cassettes and a legal problem
“Is this recording?”, we can hear him say to a melody that no one has heard for 43 years. In 1981, the prince of soul lived for six months in Ostend, on the Belgian coast. It was also in Belgium that he recorded one of his best-known songs, Sexual Healing. But apparently Marvin Gaye had made many other attempts at musical composition.
When leaving Belgium Marvin Gaye is said to have said to his hosts: “I leave all that to you, do with it what you want”. “All that”, these are various stage costumes, a few notebooks and dozens of audio cassettes, 38 of which contain recordings with his voice. And the lucky owners of these cassettes would now like these melodies to become new Marvin Gaye titles.
But a legal headache will arise. According to Belgian law, after thirty years, the person who owns an object becomes its owner. But this law does not apply to intellectual property. To hope to one day hear a little more than these few seconds of recording, those who hold them will have to find an agreement with the heirs of Marvin Gaye.
