Sexual Healing – English Lyrics

• By: Marvin Gaye

Lyrics & Translation

Learning a language through music is a powerful tool, and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" offers a unique opportunity to delve into the nuances of English expression. The song's lyrics, which blend poetic imagery with direct emotional appeals, can help you understand how language is used to convey deep feelings of longing and the desire for connection. Its vocabulary around emotions and intimacy provides a rich context for learning, all set to an iconic and soulful melody that makes the learning process enjoyable and memorable.

[English]

♪ Get up, get up, get up, get up ♪

♪ Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up ♪

♪ Oooh baby, now let's get down tonight ♪

♪ Oooh ♪

♪ Baby, I'm hot just like an oven ♪

♪ I need some loving ♪

♪ And baby, I can't hold it much longer ♪

♪ It's getting stronger and stronger ♪

♪ And when I get that feeling ♪

♪ I want sexual healing ♪

♪ Sexual healing ♪

♪ Oh, baby ♪

♪ Makes me feel so fine ♪

♪ Helps to relieve my mind ♪

♪ Sexual healing, baby, is good for me ♪

♪ Sexual healing is something that's good for me ♪

♪ Whenever blue teardrops are falling ♪

♪ And my emotional stability is leaving me ♪

♪ There is something I can do ♪

♪ I can get on the telephone and call you up, baby ♪

♪ And honey, I know you'll be there to relieve me ♪

♪ The love you give to me will free me ♪

♪ If you don't know the thing you're dealing, oh ♪

♪ I can tell you, darling, that it's sexual healing ♪

♪ Get up, get up, get up, get up ♪

♪ Let's make love tonight ♪

♪ Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up ♪

♪ 'Cause you do it right ♪

♪ Baby, I got sick this morning ♪

♪ A sea was storming inside of me ♪

♪ And baby, I think I'm capsizing ♪

♪ The waves are rising and rising ♪

♪ And when I get that feeling ♪

♪ I want sexual healing ♪

♪ Sexual healing is good for me ♪

♪ Makes me feel so fine, it's such a rush ♪

♪ Helps to relieve the mind and it's good for us ♪

♪ Sexual healing, baby, is good for me ♪

♪ Sexual healing is something that's good for me ♪

♪ And it's good for me and it's so good for you, my baby ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oooh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Just take control ♪

♪ Just grab a hold of my body and mind ♪

♪ Soon we'll be making it, honey ♪

♪ Oh, you're doing fine ♪

♪ You're my medicine, open up and let me in ♪

♪ Darling, you're so great ♪

♪ I can't wait for you to operate ♪

♪ Get up, get up, get up, get up ♪

♪ Let's make love tonight ♪

♪ Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up ♪

♪ 'Cause you do it right ♪

♪ Heal me, my darling ♪

♪ Heal me ♪

♪ I can't wait for you to operate ♪

♪ When I get this feeling, I need sexual healing ♪

♪ Oh, when I get this feeling, I need sexual healing ♪

♪ I gotta have sexual healing, darling, ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm all alone ♪

♪ Sexual healing, darling, till you come back home ♪

♪ Please don't procrastinate ♪

♪ It's not good to masturbate ♪

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
heal /hiːl/ B1	verb - to become healthy again; to make someone healthy again
feeling /ˈfiːlɪŋ/ A2	noun - an emotional state or reaction
love /lʌv/ A1	noun - a strong feeling of affection verb - to feel great affection for someone
mind /maɪnd/ A2	noun - the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel
relieve /rɪˈliːv/ B2	verb - to alleviate or reduce (pain or distress)
call /kɔːl/ A1	verb - to give someone a telephone call
free /friː/ A2	verb - release from captivity adjective - not under the control or power of someone else
sick /sɪk/ A2	adjective - affected by physical or mental illness
storming /ˈstɔːrmɪŋ/ B2	verb - to attack and capture (a place) by force verb - (of the weather) to be violent and noisy
rush /rʌʃ/ B1	noun - a sudden feeling of excitement or energy verb - to move with urgent speed
control /kənˈtroʊl/ A2	verb - determine the behavior or supervise the running of. noun - the power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events.
operate /ˈɑːpəreɪt/ B2	verb - control the functioning of (a machine, process, or system)
alone /əˈloʊn/ A1	adjective - having no one else present
home /hoʊm/ A1	noun - the place where one lives

Key Grammar Structures

• Baby, I'm hot just like an oven

  ➔ Simile (using 'like' for comparison)

  ➔ This line uses a simile to compare the speaker's feeling of being sexually aroused to the heat of an oven. The word "like" establishes the comparison.

• Baby, I can't hold it much longer

  ➔ Modal verb ('can't') + adverb of degree ('much') + comparative adjective ('longer')

  ➔ This shows an inability to control an urge. "Can't hold it" expresses a lack of self-control. "Much longer" implies a limit is near.

• And when I get that feeling, I want sexual healing

  ➔ Conditional clause (when + present simple) + main clause (present simple)

  ➔ This is a type 0 conditional, expressing a general truth or a habit. "When I get that feeling" sets the condition for "I want sexual healing".

• Whenever blue teardrops are falling

  ➔ Adverbial clause of time (whenever + present continuous)

  ➔ "Whenever" indicates any time the condition occurs. "Are falling" (present continuous) implies a continuous action in progress.

• I can get on the telephone and call you up, baby

  ➔ Modal verb ('can') + phrasal verb ('call up')

  ➔ "Can" indicates ability or possibility. "Call up" is a phrasal verb meaning 'to telephone'.

• The love you give to me will free me

  ➔ Relative clause ('you give to me') + future simple ('will free')

  ➔ "You give to me" is a relative clause modifying "the love". "Will free" expresses a future result.

• It's not good to masturbate

  ➔ Impersonal 'it' + infinitive clause ('to masturbate')

  ➔ Here, "it" is used as an impersonal pronoun, where the actual subject is the infinitive clause "to masturbate". It expresses a general statement about something.