In 1981 Marvin Gaye's biographer David Ritz visited his subject, hiding from a capsizing career and fighting drug addiction, in Ostend exile. Spying a cache of S&M porn in the singers' flat, the writer suggested the Gaye should be seeking 'sexual healing' rather than what he felt to be aggressive stimulus. So, Gaye asked Ritz to script lyrics for a hit (one which later ended in writs, Ritz uncredited). As a "healing" act, the songs lyric fails close scrutiny beautifully. First, the banal rhyming (oven/lovin', longer/stronger, feeling/healing, tonight/right, morning/stormin'). Then, their message: less about mutual respect through loving than 'my emotional stability is leaving me' so come round here and give us a fuck cos that will make me feel better 'bout myself. However, the song, backed by the smooth chatter of a TR-808 rhythm track, is so seductively performed with a peerless vocal, that its faults can be glossed over. Just give thanks that the single edit fades right before the moment where Gaye can be (mis?)heard rhyming "procrastinate" with "it's not good to masturbate"…