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Time to Get It Together

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 217.44.231.169 (talk) at 11:16, 10 May 2020 (Marvin Gaye says "foolin' 'round with midnight hos", not "runnin' 'round with midnight hos"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"Time to Get It Together"
Song by Marvin Gaye
from the album Here, My Dear
Released1978
Recorded1976
GenreFunk/soul
Length3:55
LabelMotown
Songwriter(s)Marvin Gaye
Producer(s)Marvin Gaye
Here, My Dear track listing

"Time to Get It Together" is a 1978 song recorded by Marvin Gaye and issued on Marvin's 1978 album, Here, My Dear. Much like "Everybody Needs Love", "Anger" and "A Funky Space Reincarnation", among others, this song doesn't discuss the demise of Marvin's marriage to Anna Gordy Gaye. Instead the song is a biographical account of the singer's own personal demons as he battled drug abuse, paranoia and depression.

Background

The artist admits though he says he's trying to break his habits, he always find himself back in them. In the beginning of the song, Gaye shouts out in a preacher's tone, saying "Jesus said time will heal all wounds/but we have to live right to get the time". As with many of the songs on Here My Dear, "Time to Get It Together" lacks a chorus, but concludes with a vamp in which Gaye mixes his optimism with a depressive tone. He chants in one instance that his days of drug abuse and, as he puts it, "foolin' 'round with midnight hos" were over, and in another harmoniously states "my life's a clock and it's winding down/from the day you're born 'till the day you're in the ground". Gaye used the song's intro as the opening number for his late 1970s/early 1980s concerts, including his performance at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Personnel

  • All vocals, keyboards and synthesizers by Marvin Gaye
  • Drums by Bugsy Wilcox
  • Bass by Frank Blair
  • Guitars by Wali Ali and Gordon Banks
  • Alto saxophone by Ernie Fields Jr.
  • Percussion by Gary Jones