Ego Tripping Out
"Ego Tripping Out" | ||||
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Single by Marvin Gaye | ||||
from the album Love Man (cancelled)/In Our Lifetime1 | ||||
B-side | 'Ego Tripping Out" (Instrumental) | |||
Released | September 17, 1979 | |||
Recorded | 1979, Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California | |||
Genre | Disco, Funk | |||
Length | (Original) 5:13 (Odyssey Version) 4:37 (AIR Version) 4:55 | |||
Label | Tamla | |||
Songwriter(s) | Marvin Gaye | |||
Producer(s) | Marvin Gaye | |||
Marvin Gaye singles chronology | ||||
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"Ego Tripping Out" is a 1979 funk-styled dance record released by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, released as a single on the Tamla (Motown) label. The record was originally meant to be the lead single for the singer's aborted Love Man album. However, as the album was scrapped and reworked into In Our Lifetime, the song received further work, before being omitted from the final album tracklist. The single was later included in a 1994 re-release of In Our Lifetime and a 2007 re-release deluxe edition featured two different alternate mixes for the sessions of In Our Lifetime as well as the original Love Man single of it.
Background
The song, written, composed, arranged and produced by Gaye himself, is a self-mockery of the singer's image and lifestyle. The songs is also a mockery at the image and lifestyle of several other entertainers, whose rising stardom rivaled Marvin's at the time. Certain lyrics (especially from the alternate sessions) could possibly indicate that Marvin is indirectly telling the listener to avoid falling into egotism and materialism, and embrace spirituality instead. Providing a semi-rap at the beginning of the song where he sang "I got the baddest cool/could never be the fool/the ladies wait to get down with me". These lyrics, along with others further expand the album's original theme of Marvin's love-related prowess: "Check out the love man standing tall and bold / Can fulfill your needs / Too cold, baby / Needless to say I'm your greatest play". The chorus of the song mentions the painful ego-ridden downside of being in the spotlight, and the final verse finds Marvin coming to grips with his crippling drug abuse: "Turn the fear to energy/cause the toot and the smoke won't fulfill the need".
Recorded first at Marvin's Room, and then Hawaii, this song was to be the lead the single of his next album Love Man. However, the album was withdrawn as Marvin felt it needed more work. After traveling to London, the song was remixed twice - once at Odyssey Studios, and also at AIR Studios with alternate lyrics, introduction, arrangement, and instrumentation (once by Marvin, next as an anonymous bonus track). The single version says "walking in my shoes/walking to the beat" while the remakes say "Walking in his shoes / Dancing to God's beat / Filled with this love inside / And this good old body heat / Baby you gotta spread the news / Oooh deep in my soul / I know it ain't about money". The alternate lyrics continue the religious and spiritual themes that Marvin carried in his music, which he further went into with the nearly-completed In Our Lifetime. However, neither of the two remakes made it directly to the released album but only appeared on the "Expanded Love Man Edition"; the song was ultimately replaced with "Far Cry."
In regards to the single and the overall album in general, Gaye stated in an 1980's interview:
"That was a single written about myself at a time when I was trying to get a handle on my ego, which was always at the forefront. I’m very self-centered and I feel like I’m it. When one is that ill, one has to deal with their ego. They ever really gave me a chance to complete it and when I did complete it, for some reason, they didn’t put it on the album. The album didn’t come out the way I had done it. It’s like taking a Leonardo da Vinci and submitting it to your agent and your agent has another artist paint a different smile or something on top of it. I view people tampering with my art in the same context.”[1]
Alternate versions
- "Ego Tripping Out" (Odyssey Studios Mix) – 4:37
- "Ego Tripping Out" (Air Studios Mix Outtakes) – 4:55
- "Ego Tripping Out" (extended) — 7:16 (from 1994 reissue In Our Lifetime: The Final Motown Sessions)
Reception
The song, while not making it to the Billboard Hot 100, still made the R&B charts, peaking at #17. It would be Marvin's last Top 40 Billboard single at least on the R&B singles chart until 1981's "Praise".
Record World said that "Gaye lays down a funky-soul rap that, with a concurrent chorus and repetitious rhythm track, becomes a totally enveloping hypnotic experience."[2]
Music video
Marvin danced to the song on the talk show Dinah & Friends, where he was interviewed about how far he had come on what he called 'unpleasantries' of 1978.
Samples
According to Genius, Bleu Collar sampled the song in "We Ain't Got Time".
Personnel
- All vocals by Marvin Gaye
- Instrumentation by assorted musicians:
- Guitars by Gordon Banks
- Drums, piano, keyboard and synthesizers by Marvin Gaye
- Saxophones by assorted musicians
- Bass by Frank Blair
References
Sources
- lyrics
- v
- t
- e
- The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye (1961)
- That Stubborn Kinda Fellow (1962)
- When I'm Alone I Cry (1964)
- Hello Broadway (1964)
- How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1965)
- A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole (1965)
- Moods of Marvin Gaye (1966)
- In the Groove (1968)
- M.P.G. (1969)
- That's the Way Love Is (1970)
- What's Going On (1971)
- Trouble Man (1972)
- Let's Get It On (1973)
- I Want You (1976)
- Here, My Dear (1978)
- In Our Lifetime (1981)
- Midnight Love (1982)
- Dream of a Lifetime (1985)
- Romantically Yours (1985)
- Vulnerable (1997)
- You're the Man (2019)
- Together (with Mary Wells, 1964)
- Take Two (with Kim Weston, 1966)
- United (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)
- You're All I Need (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
- Easy (with Tammi Terrell, 1969)
- Diana & Marvin (with Diana Ross, 1973)
- Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage (1963)
- Marvin Gaye Live! (1974)
- Live at the London Palladium (1977)
- Marvin Gaye at the Copa (2005)
- What's Going On Live (2019)
- Greatest Hits (1964)
- Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1967)
- Marvin Gaye and His Girls (1969)
- Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits (1970)
- Super Hits (1970)
- Anthology (1974)
- Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits (1976)
- Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye: Never Before Released Masters (1986)
- The Marvin Gaye Collection (1990)
- The Norman Whitfield Sessions (1994)
- Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased (1994)
- The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (1994)
- The Master (1961–1984) (1995)
- Marvin Gaye: The Love Songs (2000)
- The Complete Duets (2001)
- The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (2001)
- The Real Thing: In Performance (1964–1981) (2006)
- "Pride and Joy"
- "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"
- "I'll Be Doggone"
- "Ain't That Peculiar"
- "Your Precious Love"
- "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"
- "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
- "You're All I Need to Get By"
- "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
- "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
- "That's the Way Love Is"
- "Abraham, Martin and John"
- "The Onion Song"
- "What's Going On"
- "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
- "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
- "Trouble Man"
- "Let's Get It On"
- "You Are Everything"
- "Got to Give It Up"
- "Sexual Healing"
- Marvin Gay Sr. (father)
- Alberta Gay (mother)
- Anna Gordy Gaye (first wife)
- Denise Gordy (son's birth mother)
- Nona Gaye (daughter)
- Frankie Gaye (brother)
- Gordon Banks (brother-in-law)
- Discography
- Songs
- Albums
- Songs by Marvin Gaye
- Albums produced by Marvin Gaye
- Songs produced by Marvin Gaye
- Personal life
- Death
- Tributes
- Songs in memory
- The Marquees
- Harvey Fuqua
- Tammi Terrell
- Leon Ware
- Marvin's Room
- Marvin Is 60: A Tribute Album
- Divided Soul
- Sexual Healing Tour
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