"Masochistic Beauty" is a song by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

singer

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

, released posthumously in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

Background

Unlike the majority of Gaye's music, the song is a dedication to S&M, which was something that Gaye was known to have an interest in. The lyrics find Gaye playing the role of a Dom in a faux British accent where he raps throughout the track. The song shares some similarities to " Sanctified Lady", receiving

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

work from Gordon Banks, and having an electro-funk flavor. Both controversial tracks were also unfinished outtakes from the '' Midnight Love'' sessions, which received later work from Gordon Banks, and were released on the posthumous

Dream of a Lifetime ''Dream of a Lifetime'' is the eighteenth and first posthumously released studio album by the American recording artist Marvin Gaye. It included the top five R&B single, " Sanctified Lady". Background In 1982, after final negotiations to leav ...

album.

Credits

*Lead vocals by Marvin Gaye and Gordon Banks (

) *Instrumentation by Marvin Gaye and Gordon Banks *Produced by Gordon Banks

References

{{authority control Songs written by Marvin Gaye Marvin Gaye songs Song recordings produced by Gordon Banks (musician) Songs released posthumously 1985 songs Songs about BDSM