12. Marvin GayeI Heard It Through The Grapevine
Who was it who did it before Marvin Gaye? They did it slower and more piano-driven. But I knew this version first and you could see the difference, how this version took the earlier version and streamlined it, sped it up, made it groovier, those kinds of things. When I first heard it, I had not heard anything quite as funky. The groove is just incredible, which has a lot do with the bass line. It’s fantastically cool and sexy.
A friend of mine from years ago was a barrister. He was trying to tell me The Beatles were fantastic. And I was trying to tell him the trouble with The Beatles was they don’t groove. And he said, "What is groove?", like a typical magistrate. I said, "Listen to ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine. That’s groove." It’s like trying to explain, without pointing, what the colour red is.
Did he learn?
I don’t think so. I think he’s still stuck with his Beatles.
