How would you define an album that is flawless musically, lyrically, and technically? In 60 years of listening, there are only a few that are, for me, so satisfying that I can listen to them anytime, anywhere. What brought me to write about this topic was that today, I pulled out an album that still shines brightly nearly 50 years after it was first released.
Marvin Gaye's What's Going On happened to rise to the top of a bunch of cds I like. My late sister Susan had excellent taste in music, and I first heard Marvin's masterpiece on her little stereo. Not being an expert on quality of sound mixing, I heard the album as a complete gestalt type of listening experience. I went out and bought my first of many copies of the album.
The years immediately preceding What's Going On being released were difficult years for African Americans. Fed up with token help, frustrated after the deaths of leaders, the advent of rioting began to show up in a number of United States cities. Foreshadowing the talking protest albums from Gil Scott Heron, the protest music from Sly Stone, and the militance of the Black Panthers, What's Goin' On delivered passionate music by a passionate recording artist. No one who heard What's Going On ever doubted the deep passion and emotional turmoil artists like Marvin Gaye expressed in their music.
I will not spend time speaking about the relationship between Marvin and his father. That Marvin and his father did not get along would be a generous description of father and son. Marvin's death after being shot by his father is a tragedy that is hard to accept. Marvin's father, a Pentecostal minister, had emotional issues with Marvin that took their toll on both men.
In 1970, Marvin had an idea for a concept album that would express the love he felt for his family and fans. In a sense, the nine songs making up the What's Going On album are meditations on the problems of the era. Marvin describes his perceptions in a manner that empowers his mind to identify the various issues and to express his thoughts and impressions of why life problems are a serious dilemma for him. The author tied young African Americans who are trying to stay prayerful about the numerous barriers to a better quality of life. It is clear that Marvin Gaye found some inspiration in exploring barriers to equality in mind as well as in the projects, jobs, breaking open new paths to success at radio, tv, and unique press stories once the album got airtime.
What's Going On has nine songs that, help frame the optimistic and pessimistic feelings that make the record so powerful. The discussion of topics that were timely in 1971 are minimally expressed, causing there to be a certain optimism to be absorbed by the listener. Each of the nine songs on What's Going On is a prayer for action or justice. If a listener comprehends Marvin's spirituality, this album that is as powerfully in 2018 as it was in 1971.
Marvin Gaye's What's Going On happened to rise to the top of a bunch of cds I like. My late sister Susan had excellent taste in music, and I first heard Marvin's masterpiece on her little stereo. Not being an expert on quality of sound mixing, I heard the album as a complete gestalt type of listening experience. I went out and bought my first of many copies of the album.
The years immediately preceding What's Going On being released were difficult years for African Americans. Fed up with token help, frustrated after the deaths of leaders, the advent of rioting began to show up in a number of United States cities. Foreshadowing the talking protest albums from Gil Scott Heron, the protest music from Sly Stone, and the militance of the Black Panthers, What's Goin' On delivered passionate music by a passionate recording artist. No one who heard What's Going On ever doubted the deep passion and emotional turmoil artists like Marvin Gaye expressed in their music.
I will not spend time speaking about the relationship between Marvin and his father. That Marvin and his father did not get along would be a generous description of father and son. Marvin's death after being shot by his father is a tragedy that is hard to accept. Marvin's father, a Pentecostal minister, had emotional issues with Marvin that took their toll on both men.
In 1970, Marvin had an idea for a concept album that would express the love he felt for his family and fans. In a sense, the nine songs making up the What's Going On album are meditations on the problems of the era. Marvin describes his perceptions in a manner that empowers his mind to identify the various issues and to express his thoughts and impressions of why life problems are a serious dilemma for him. The author tied young African Americans who are trying to stay prayerful about the numerous barriers to a better quality of life. It is clear that Marvin Gaye found some inspiration in exploring barriers to equality in mind as well as in the projects, jobs, breaking open new paths to success at radio, tv, and unique press stories once the album got airtime.
What's Going On has nine songs that, help frame the optimistic and pessimistic feelings that make the record so powerful. The discussion of topics that were timely in 1971 are minimally expressed, causing there to be a certain optimism to be absorbed by the listener. Each of the nine songs on What's Going On is a prayer for action or justice. If a listener comprehends Marvin's spirituality, this album that is as powerfully in 2018 as it was in 1971.
The incredible title single from the album opens with a conversation between a person who has been away from the neighborhood for awhile. The returned traveler receives his answer from a friend from the neighborhood who answers his questions. The friend answers by confirming there are no jobs, cannot pay the rent, children are hungry, and other problems.
The person from the neighborhood answers his returning soldier friend by explaining how addiction has made his life impossible. His friend goes on to elaborate that there is no reason addicts can see to get off the dope because things are so desperately awful. His friend asks "who really cares to save a world that is destined to die?" "Such a bad way to live..." The friend then seems to experience a revelation, and says "Let's Save the Children....save the babies...."
As the meditation or prayer continues, Marvin says "God is my friend." All God asks is that people love each other. The answers continue to the newly returned traveler. The friend who continues to tell him about how things are ecologically. He says the sky's are grey, poison is carried in the air, and that oil spills kill the animals, fish are laced with mercury, radiation above and below ground is killing animals and people. The question raised is " how much more abuse from mankind can our Earth take before the Earth dies.
Then, suddenly a meditation on what is going well in the world arises as if to make the point that only love can conquer the world's darkness. Helping people like nurses, ministers, and people who follow God make up the core of the new world, a world that is full of true love. Love is the way our world can transform itself into a beautifully happier and more peaceful way.
Marvin's beautiful meditation on the state of the world in 1971 pleads with his listeners to save the babies and the children of the world as an act of love, and even if futile, to do so because it is the spiritually correct thing to do.
Marvin saw our world's destruction and defiling as a act of suicide as a species. The bridges between tracks segue each song (meditation), helping his listeners see the state of this small world through his eyes, bringing a sense of immediacy to the problems of our planet. In one sense, the songs are a prayer to action, to examine our state of mind, and to come into harmony with the world, instead of treating the Earth as our personal playground to plunder.
The two songs that are formally prayers, Wholy Holy and God is Love are placed at critical locations in what may be a song cycle. God is Love is placed after the reunion of two friends, one who is getting back from a war overseas and wants to know all that has changed while he was gone. His friend answers his questions with information about hunger and poverty in the neighborhood, and horrible drug addiction. Following God Is Love, the friend from the neighborhood about the pollution that is ruining the Earth and killing people.
The friend then tells the soldier that pure love that is from God will conquer the evil and suffering that people are feeling. especially on their mutual neighborhood. What follows next is Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler), which many listeners have interpreted to be a return to expression of anger and frustration about their neighborhood. Personally, I have always seen the song to be a call to action. If we continue to accept conditions as they are, such as stereotypes about other races and ethnicities, the planet and life on it will die. Furthermore, I see a strong sense of frustration with having to put up with being stereotypically judged based on skin color or national background. What the person from the neighborhood does, is to ask his traveling friend to settle down and help the world get better after being in a very unpopular war. probably Viet Nam. Love conquers hate.
Shall we begin??
Copyright 2018 by Peter Reum
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