My Morning Jacket

today marks the 25th anniversary of marvin's passing. i still remember my mom weeping in the kitchen.

The word passing seems so... polite?

He beat up his dad, and then got shot down. Nothing polite in there.

QuoteThe word passing seems so... polite?

He beat up his dad, and then got shot down. Nothing polite in there.

Is that how it went?   I remember that they found a brain tumor in his dad shortly afterwords and that marvin was trying to break up a fight his dad was having with his mother.   Most believe the brain tumor was affecting his fathers judgement.

You must be perfect.  Somebody is honoring the death of someone they respect and that's your response?  Sheesh.

smooth as silk....

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KC7uhMY9s[/media]

Gaye was strung out on coke and other drugs. He kicked his father out of his room and then followed him into his. At that point Gaye started kicking the crap out of him. Gay sr. got up went a got a weapon and shot MArvin in the chest. Yhen he shot him in point blank range.

Sorry if I don't feel so sympathetic to a drug addict who beat up their father.

I love his music. It doesn't mean I have to respect his actions.

QuoteGaye was strung out on coke and other drugs. He kicked his father out of his room and then followed him into his. At that point Gaye started kicking the crap out of him. Gay sr. got up went a got a weapon and shot MArvin in the chest. Yhen he shot him in point blank range.

Sorry if I don't feel so sympathetic to a drug addict who beat up their father.

My bad, I didn't realize you were there.

Sorry I offended you and your lord and savior.

Quote

QuoteGaye was strung out on coke and other drugs. He kicked his father out of his room and then followed him into his. At that point Gaye started kicking the crap out of him. Gay sr. got up went a got a weapon and shot MArvin in the chest. Yhen he shot him in point blank range.

Sorry if I don't feel so sympathetic to a drug addict who beat up their father.

My bad, I didn't realize you were there.

And this was documented by his mother

[/color]

 It stopped 10 years ago. As with all wars, however; the end didn't come easily. Not without bloodshed and violence and death. It ended with a father killing his son, his namesake, as the son's mother looked on.

The war inside Marvin Gaye's soul, a war he had fought since he was a child growing up in Washington, D.C., ended on April Fools, Day 10 years ago. That was the day his father took a .38 caliber revolver and pumped two bullets--one at point-blank range--into Marvin Gaye's chest after they quarrelled at the Los Angeles house he had bought for his parents 11 years earlier.

 
"I pulled the trigger," admitted Marvin Gay Sr., then a 69-year old retired Pentecostal minister, in a jail cell interview shortly after his son's death. "The first one didn't seem to bother him. He put his hand up to his face like he'd been hit with a BB. And then I fired again....Ma comes in, she says, |Marvin's bleeding.' I went down the hall and looked. |Babe,' I said, |call the paramedics.'"

"For some reason, [Marvin's father] didn't love Marvin and, what's worse, he didn't want me to love Marvin either;" Alberta Gay, Marvin's mother, told Ritz. "Marvin wasn't very old before he understood that."

Until her death at age 74, seven years ago, those who knew Alberta Gay say she never got over her husband killing her son. She isn't alone.

"I've never gotten over that and I'm sure I never will," Jan Gaye confides. "I don't think it's something I can ever be at peace with because I have never really confronted his father about it. When something like that happens within a family, unless you confront it head-on and ask questions, I don't think you can ever be at rest."

Then why didn't she confront him? Why didn't she ask him the questions she needed answers to in order to put her soul at rest? "I was afraid of what I might do," she confesses. "I was afraid of what I might say. I was afraid of how it might affect my children. And there was so much anger. There is still a lot of anger there."

All I tried to say in my OP, was that passing didn't seem like the correct word.

i associate the word passing with something like passing in your sleep. Gently, quietly. Getting shot twice at point blank range doesn't fit with my idea of "passing" away. He was murdered, probably unjustly, but that's how it went.

i wanted to pay my respects to a man who's music has meant alot to me, and a great deal to many others. he fell on hard times and it ultimately lead to his cold, heartless slaying (is that better?). i didnt mean to stir up such ugly emotions because the man and his music certainly don't stir that within me. i know how he left this world, its well known, and its unfortunate, but i don't think it in any way defines him.

"Passing on" or "passed away" is a gentler way to say someone died.  It's usually used so the person saying it can feel more ease...regardless of "how" the person died.  It simply means that a person passed from one life to the next...passed on to heaven...hell...whatever.  "Passing" is a very legitimate way to refer to death no matter the manner...maybe not the most preferred term at this juncture, but definitely not worth bickering over.  Rude and unwarranted...and handled with virtually no class at all.  8-)

You guys are so sensitive. I mentioned that fact he met a tragic, but violent demise, and you all get your panties in bunch.

The man made awesome music, and some of it carried an important message. I wasn't bickering, just pointing out the way he went out. You all took offense to it.

And try and sugar coat it all you want, he was at least partly responsible in playing his part in meeting his maker. It's a sad, tragic way to go out.  :'(

Quotetoday marks the 25th anniversary of marvin's passing. i still remember my mom weeping in the kitchen.

Same here, Slim.  I've only seen my mother cry a few times and Marvin's death was one of them.

Now, where's my copy "What's Going On?"  Definitely should have played that start to finish earlier this week.  Today will have to do.

whatever went down, does not matter now. The music is the only thing that matters.

Quotewhatever went down, does not matter now. The music is the only thing that matters now.

Reasonable