Marvin Gaye's What's Going On: A Departure That Defined A Generation

Cover of What's Going on'What's Going On': A Departure That Defined A Generation - WNYC

what's going on - Marvin Gayes

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Marvin Gaye's album dropped into this America on May 21, 1971.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Gaye-s-message-still-true-1398168.php#ixzz1O5CNHMVHForty years ago, one of Motown's greatest soul singers released a ground-breaking album.  Forty years ago today, Marvin Gaye's album "What's Going On?" was released. It was sweet, sad and had bite. Without being explicit or obvious, it seemed to sing at the era of marching in the streets and mourning for those who died, both overseas and in the struggle for civil rights at home. The song seemed to catch the wave of history, became a huge hit.

"What's Going On" served as an anthem of social awareness."
"What's Going On, an album filled with introspective lyrics regarding a country divided by war, could be applied to what's happening today."

Transcript

"It's interesting. You could almost, like, draw comparisons to, like, the last several years in the U.S. You know, I think we're in three wars and the country itself is going broke. You know, if Marvin was here in he'd probably be singing about it"
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"The Temptations and countless other African-American artists were available and on the charts and jukeboxes. But Marvin Gaye's title track was message music with a difference. It was an overture and an anthem. From its warm greetings between black men to the steady slap and patter of the congas — and with Gaye's vocals, which glided from sorrow into soaring at the bridge — "What's Going On" was and still is a poetic plea for justice and contemplation within black communities. (The whole world could stand to tune in, as well.) Forty years ago, Gaye found a way to offer up a prayer in the form of a powerful question with an equally ringing affirmation."


What's Happening Brother
Song: Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
"This slow jam should be a love song, or at least about sex, but it's about markets, money, police brutality.  In the last few months, I've been playing What's Going On when I drive around Detroit. When I look at the city and hear "Inner City Blues," I wonder how many people listened, and how many just danced."


Song: Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)

Save the Children
Song: God Is Love
Song: Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Legend has it that what Motown head Berry Gordy Jr. didn't like about the album was not the political poetry of the songwriting, but instead the five-song suite that flowed from one song to the next. Gordy was thinking of singles and radio play; Gaye was thinking of a grand statement about the world and all that was wrong with it. 
Song: Right On   Marvin:"For those of us who tend the sick and heed the people's cries, let me say to you, 'Right on.' 
Allison Keyes: "From the first time I heard "Right On" and that beat, the groove resonated with my soul. I was too young to understand its message then, but the album was one you heard everywhere where I grew up."


Song: Wholy Holy
Mavis Staples - Wholy Holy
Aretha Franklin made her own famous rendition 

Today, the United States is still engaged in wars abroad that have taken a huge financial and human toll. Today, racism still lurks beneath the surface, poverty and economic inequality remain with us, and corporate interests continue to destroy the environment.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Gaye-s-message-still-true-1398168.php#ixzz1O5CdYnjI