Marvin Gaye sang like he lived in bed. He could croon, deliver a political commentary, and sing to you like you were the only other soul on this earth. And in 1976 he gave us a taste of his erotic imagination with I Want You. An album made in honor of his ongoing love affair with Janis (Jan) Hunter, Gaye delivered excess and restraint to sound his desire. I Want You is an album that stands apart from Gaye’s earlier collaborations with Diana Ross, Tammi Terrell, Mary Wells, and Kim Weston. Though not technically a duet, Gaye forges another kind of collaboration with Jan, the result of which is an album that provides an intimate portrait of an artist in love and lust.

Using interviews, visual art, poetry, criticism, and gossip, this book explores ecstasy, funk, sensation, and a host of other delicious and fleshy concerns that animate I Want You. It does not attempt a strict historicization of the album as that would do it a disservice. Instead, this book seeks fidelity to the album by centering Gaye’s fantasies, his engagement with Ernie Barnes’ painting Sugar Shack, and sonic expression of desire for Jan.