In late 1975 Anna Gordy Gaye filed for divorce from Marvin Gaye, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking child support for their adopted son. Gaye’s spending left him behind on payments, and by September 1976 a warrant was issued for his arrest over unpaid alimony, sending him into hiding. He then toured the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany, and returned to record Got to Give It Up, an international No. 1. In spring 1977 attorney Curtis Shaw brokered a settlement: half of the royalties from Gaye’s next Motown album would go to Anna.
Gaye first planned a quick, careless record, then decided to pour the divorce into it. Starting in March 1977 at his Los Angeles studio, Marvin’s Room, with engineer Art Stewart, he improvised wordless melodies over tracks until lyrics formed, and played the keyboard parts himself. One song was begun after a day in divorce court, and the closing track was dedicated to his girlfriend Janis. Released in late 1978, Here, My Dear became his lowest-charting studio album of the decade. Anna considered suing for invasion of privacy, and Gaye refused to promote it.
- A central song about the moment love ends abandons verse and chorus for a wandering, discursive structure.
- The front cover shows Gaye in a Roman toga, and the back shows a temple marked Matrimony crumbling.
- The foldout shows a man’s and a woman’s hands across a Monopoly board labeled Judgment, under the scales of justice.
- The man’s side holds tape recorders and a grand piano; the woman’s side holds a house, a car and a ring.
- Later critics reappraised the album, and Anna eventually said she had come to appreciate all of Marvin’s music, this one included.
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