I Heard It Through The Grapevine/I Want You/Vulnerable Sessions

An impressively packaged Italian release, North American Tour was recorded at various unspecified stops during Marvin Gaye's 1983 spring-summer U.S. tour, offering up a powerful taste of an outing that was made all the more poignant in retrospect by the singer's murder the following year. Blistering through a set that includes massive renditions of crowd favorites "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Let's Get It On," and "What's Going On," Gaye also delivers a dirty groove across "Come Get to This." And on it goes through "God Is Love" and "Joy," a stomping eight-minute medley that blends Ashford & Simpson's "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing" with "If This World Were Mine" and "Your Precious Love"(among others), before the evening wraps up, of course, with "Sexual Healing." It's a breathless set. Indeed, although Gaye's own performance does fall into patchy shambles from time to time, the overall mood is so exuberant that any passing failings are readily forgiven. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? However, there is one gross flaw to this album that is inexcusable. Rather than presenting a seamless performance, the sound -- usually the roar of a delirious crowd -- cuts out between every individual track, seconds of silence that are absolutely disconcerting and completely spoil the experience. For the casual fan simply wanting a taste of Gaye in concert, there are many better albums to sample. However, for the collector, this late-era vibe should be spun. The 2002 Goldenlane Records Performance CD duplicates this same disc with the same flaws. ~ Amy Hanson|