1) Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By; 2) California Soul; 3) Love Woke Me Up This Morning; 4) This Poor Heart Of Mine; 5) I'm Your Puppet; 6) The Onion Song; 7) What You Gave Me; 8) Baby I Need Your Loving; 9) I Can't Believe You Love Me; 10) How You Gonna Keep It; 11) More, More, More; 12) Satisfied Feelin'.
General verdict: Fake, but effortlessly enjoyable, songs of fake, but perversely believable, happiness.
There is only one point that ever gets discussed
about Easy, the third and last of
Marvin's duet albums with Tammi Terrell — namely, whether Tammi Terrell is even
present on the album herself. According to Marvin himself, and this opinion is
taken to be the default one, she is not, except for two tracks (ʽI Can't
Believe You Love Meʼ and ʽMore, More, Moreʼ) that were originally recorded by
Tammi solo and later got Marvin overdubbed on them. Everything else, he claims,
was really performed by Valerie Simpson, then released by Motown as part of a
typically seedy cash-raising scheme. Surprisingly, Simpson herself has refuted
that claim, saying that she did indeed sing with Marvin in the studio as a
fill-in, but that later the parts were redone with the real Tammi at the helm.
It is more likely, of course, that Simpson was
simply trying to cover up traces of the «crime» (who on Earth would willingly
admit to having been an accomplice in a cheap fraud?), but it is also
interesting that the crime was at all made possible — because, although I am no
voice expert, I frankly cannot tell the difference between Tammi and Valerie,
if that is indeed Valerie on 10 out of 12 tracks: if that is her, she is doing
one hell of an impersonation. I would guess, perhaps, that by late 1969 the
real Tammi would be too worn out to sound that ecstatic and passionate on
tracks like ʽGood Lovin' Ain't Easyʼ, but it's not as if everybody in the
vicinity were perfectly informed of her condition at the time.
Other than this odd ethical conflict, the main
problem of Easy is that, once again,
this is really a case of a couple solid singles surrounded by needlessly
recycled material. ʽGood Lovin' Ain't Easyʼ is clearly a highlight, though its build-up
of lover passion is nowhere near the epic quality of ʽAin't No Mountain High
Enoughʼ: the song merely turns into another competition — which of the two
lovers can get more excited in spilling out his/her passion — and by now, such
competitions had become routine for Marvin and Tammi anyway. The second
single, ʽWhat You Gave Meʼ, is more vaudevillian in nature, with Marvin and
Tammi-Valerie's vocals smoothly blending in with the upbeat keyboards and
brass, and without a clear hook in sight. Nevertheless, it is still much better
than the silly ʽOnion Songʼ — a possibly sincere, but misguided attempt by
Ashford & Simpson to introduce a bit of «social value» to the proceedings
and saddle the duo with a Sesame Street-level ditty about righting wrongs and
informing everybody that love is the answer. It's not a worthless mission, but
there is something not right about choosing the exact same stylistics for it as
one would choose for a quirky love duet.
The rest is largely expendable: ʽBaby I Need
Your Lovingʼ is a remake of the old Four Tops hit, for instance, and
ʽCalifornia Soulʼ had already been recorded thrice, with the most notable and
the most natural version belonging to The 5th Dimension, a band that pretty
much symbolized «California soul» with everything it did anyway. So you will
probably spend most of your time wondering if that is Tammi or Valerie, and
whether you should feel guilty or not if it is
Valerie. One thing is clear enough: Marvin felt seriously guilty, and no matter how exalted he tries to sound on
all these songs, recording of the album significantly contributed to his depression.
As must have, probably, seeing the shiny happy faces on the album cover and the title — Easy was quite a cruelly ironic word in light of the overall
situation. If anything, it should make one feel fairly un-easy, being able to carelessly enjoy these happy songs of
passion and devotion while knowing the grim reality behind them.
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