Trouble Man
Marvin Gaye
I come up hard baby, but now I'm cool
I didn't make it sugar, playin' by the rules
I come up hard baby, but now I'm fine
I'm checkin' trouble sugar, movin' down the line
I come up hard baby, but that's okay
'Cause Trouble Man, don't get in my way
I come up hard baby, I've been for real, baby
Gonna keep movin', gonna go to town
I come up hard, I come up gettin' down
There's only three things that's for sure
Taxes, death and trouble, oh
This I know, baby, this I know, sugar
Girl, ain't gon' let it sweat me, babe
Got me singin', yeah, yeah
Woo
Come up hard, baby, I had to fight
Took care my business with all my might
I come off har- come-off-hard, I had to win
Then start all over and win again
I come up hard but that's okay
'Cause Trouble Man don't get in my way, hey, hey
I know some places and I've seen some faces
I got good connections, they take my directions
What people say, that's okay, they don't bother me, no
I'm ready to make it, don't care what the weather
Don't care 'bout no trouble, got myself together
I feel the kind of protection that's all around me
I come up hard, baby, I've been for real, baby
With the trouble mind, I'm movin', goin' to town
I come up hard, I come up gettin' down
There's only three things for sure
Taxes, death and trouble, oh
This I know, baby, ooh, this I've known, baby
Ain't gon' let it sweat me, baby
Woo
Oh Lord, baby
Ooh, I've come up hard, but now I'm cool
I didn't make it, baby, playin' by the rules
Come up hard, baby, now I'm fine
I'm checkin' trouble, sugar, hey, movin' down the line, oh
Two different versions:
Trouble Man, Marvin Gaye, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kduvcqx-BU
by Neneh Cherry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PufNx9X-lsc
8/1/22
“My argument to someone for Neneh Cherry’s version as able to stand on the same level of excellence as Marvin Gaye’s:
“ I’m making a different point, if I’m understanding you.
Job cries out in anguish.
This song is also about anguish, Trouble Man, and about dealing with it and struggling to get past it. It’s about the struggle against it, which is rooted in the recognition of what that trouble has been, will be again and always will be. And in that recognition there is pain.
… I come up hard baby, but that's okay
'Cause Trouble Man, don't get in my way…
…I come up hard, baby, I've been for real, baby
With the trouble mind, I'm movin', goin' to town…
What Neneh Cherry uniquely conveys in her reading is what that anguish is like, that coming up hard, for real, that “trouble mind.”
And she captures effectively too the complicated hope tinged with desperation that troubled man can stay ahead, stay out, of trouble in the sped up part of the song
…I know some places and I've seen some faces
I got good connections, they take my directions
What people say, that's okay, they don't bother me, no
I'm ready to make it, don't care what the weather
Don't care 'bout no trouble, got myself together
I feel the kind of protection that's all around me…
You can hear the hope, hustle, jive and desperation in these lines, which in being sped up quite dramatically convey the need to move quickly to stay ahead of everything that’s trouble and troubling, which will always be chasing him. These lines can’t be seen as separate from the pain of the trouble and its constant potential to inflict itself.
He’s reassuring himself as much as he’s reassuring “baby,” “sugar.”
The tentativeness and impermanence of his now being cool is evident in his need to keep “movin' down the line, oh.”
So, in sum, it’s the coming up hard, the trouble, what’s been for real, the certainty and inescapable constancy of death, taxes and trouble, the need each time to start all over and fight to win again, his trouble mind, it’s all of that aspect of the song, in tension with his determination to keep beating it all time after time, that she uniquely conveys in her singing with, as I originally said, a Job like resonance.
Or so I argue.”
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