Best ever description of "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye

The story goes that when someone asked Louis Armstrong to define jazz, he responded "Man, if you gotta ask, you'll never know." I've always felt that way about Marvin Gaye's song "Let's Get It On". Thankfully for those that don't know, gentle indifference breaks it down nicely.

gentle indifference is a blog that posts compact disc-length compilations of relevant music from each calendar year dating back to 1960 every Monday. This week is 1973, and the writer starts with a pretty damn accurate description of his top song for that year. If you find the first sentence too vulgar, I don't intend to offend, it's just a case of knowing what he's talking about or you don't:

"A lot of emotions are too powerful to get just right in art without making people feel uncomfortable, and wanting to f**k the sh*t out of someone just happens to be one of them. If 'Let's Get It On' has a flaw, it's that it's too good at what it does, and making the perfect song about sexual desire immediately renders it useless when related to sexual desire. So it's near impossible to put on 'Let's Get It On' and then proceed to do just that (unless, of course, you and your partner have a healthy sense of humor). But the song is so damn good, so damn sexy, that it becomes what it is talking about. Maybe people like crying to songs about crying and dancing to songs about dancing, but in this case, the two have to be separated. 'Let's Get It On' is getting it on."

gentle indifference's compilations are only available for a couple of days, but you can find the playlists archived on the site from 2005 back to 1973.

There’s nothin’ wrong with me lovin’ you, baby no no
And givin’ yourself to me can never be wrong
If the love is true, oh baby ooh