What’s Gog On at 50: Marv Gaye’s masterpiece is still so te to life | Marv Gaye | The Guardian

Contents:

• HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S LIFE
• WASHGTON, D.C., S WH LKS TO MARV GAYE
• WHAT WAS MARV GAYE’S E OF ATH?
• 10 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT MARV GAYE
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• D’ANGELO: FIRST TERVIEW 12 YEARS VERS MARV GAYE DREAMS, MADONNA AND HIS EBACK
• MARV GAYE BGRAPHY, LIFE, INTERTG FACTS
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• MARV GAYE

HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S LIFE

Gaye often spoke boxg metaphors, and 1979 — the wake of a stly divorce om his first wife, tranged om his send, gripped by e addictn, and badly bt to the IRS — the image of the pummeled prizefighter beme particularly potent to him. Though much has been wrten about Gaye’s downward spiral the late Seventi and early Eighti, about the rurgence of his reer the wake of “Sexual Healg, ” and his 1984 murr at the hands of his own father at the fay’s home, ltle has been wrten about this event.

It’s a story that illtrat so much about Gaye — his fears, his misplaced ias of masculy, his charms, his abily to pull profundy out of pa, his celty, and his lns. C., Gaye was huiated by his father’s double life, feelgs that led to a lifelong stggle wh his own masculy; he even add the “e” to his last name hop of dispellg mors about his sexualy.

Gaye was one of Motown’s most reliable hmakers throughout the Sixti, but wh 1971’s What’s Gog On, he beme somethg more: an ner-cy bard and soul mic’s social nscience.

WASHGTON, D.C., S WH LKS TO MARV GAYE

Acrdg to Divid Soul, Gaye claimed Jan was the flh-and-blood maniftatn of a recurrg dream, which he watched as a young woman tnted him as she had sex wh other men.

Penrgrass, steppg out om the shadow of Philly soul group Harold Melv and the Blue Not, strapped himself to the rocket that was the dis-soul craze of the late Seventi and experienced massive succs jt as Gaye’s reer was takg a downturn. ” Wh “Ego Trippg Out, ” Gaye set out to make a mercial rerd, somethg that would reigne his stagnant reer, but stead, he wound up makg somethg much more gut-wrenchg, reflective, and profound. The fay cid to take a walk on the beach, and as the kids ran ahead and played, Gaye and Jan began to fight over his sire to divorce and her sistence that they first iron out the fancial tails.

WHAT WAS MARV GAYE’S E OF ATH?

” The fight was locked for September, and Gaye agreed to sg ahead of the ma event, a rematch between Larry Holm, fendg his WBC heavyweight tle, and Earnie Shavers. FOLLOWING THE ALTERCATION Hermosa Beach, Gaye was released om ctody, and soon he, his mother, Alberta, his brother, Frankie, and their sister, Zeola, crowd to his ctomized Greyhound b and head to Vegas.

10 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT MARV GAYE

“We left … on September 27th, durg a heat wave, only to fd the temperature climbg even higher as we traveled the long, solate highway through the sert, ” Frankie wrote his memoir, Marv Gaye, My Brother. And standg the center of this maelstrom of garish Amerin imagery was Marv Gaye, wh his black eye and black su, clutchg a microphone wh what looked like tears his ey, as “The Star-Spangled Banner” crept through the PA. Electric piano and a ltle guar gave way to church an and Gaye’s voice, which sailed om velvet whispers to tearful wails, turng an arne hymn to a raw and personal prayer.

While livg London, Gaye pleted another brilliant but misunrstood album, 1981’s In Our Lifetime, a darkly sexy, fire-and-brimstone medatn on what he saw as the impendg nuclear holot. Around this time, Ebony terviewed Gaye, teasg the piece on the ver: “Exiled London, ntroversial sger Marv Gaye talks about: Losg his home and fortune to the IRS; kidnappg his own son …” As if that wasn’t bad enough, that ver featured none other than Sugar Ray Leonard, whose reer had gone supernova sce the Price fight.

50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER

“Marv didn’t open up to many people right off, but once he heard Freddy relate his Ali story, he had to tell about his failed volvement boxg, ” Frankie Gaye wrote his memoir. SWMarv Pentz Gay Sr., a preacher at the Kentucky-based Hoe of God, moved to Washgton wh his wife, the former Albert Cooper, a domtic and schoolteacher, the year they married, 1935. NWThe recently renovated landmark, where De Ellgton and Ella Fzgerald once performed, was a showse for the gospel and R&B stars whom the teenage Gaye studied the 1950s.

NEThen home to rock pneer Bo Diddley the late '50s, where Gaye's group the Marque rerd their first sgle the basement: "Wyatt Earp" backed by "Hey, Ltle School Girl" for Okeh Rerds, produced by Diddley. LOS ANGELES -- Soul sger Marv Gaye was gog to pack up and leave the fay home the day he was shot to ath durg a heated argument wh his father, the entertaer's mother told police. ” He did jt that wh “Blurred L, ” his 2013 h wh Rob Thicke, for which he seemed to metabolize almost every aspect of Marv Gaye’s 1977 h “Got to Give It Up, ” cludg the crowd nois and the wbell.

The dissentg judge on the Nth Circu Court of Appeals, Jacquele Nguyen, scribed the lg as “a vastatg blow to future micians and posers everywhere, ” bee allowed “the Gay to acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style. ) Ingrid Monson, the Qucy Jon Profsor of Ain Amerin Mic at Harvard, who also served as an expert wns for the Gaye fay the “Blurred L” trial, told me, “There uld be no pyright system ls sued to rewardg the creativy of Ain Amerin mic than the one we have. To crics, her prentatn was all smoke and mirrors, signed to trick the jury to thkg that a llectn of unprotectable elements was forensic proof that “Blurred L” was staed wh Marv Gaye’s mil Sheeran leav a Southern District of New York urthoe on April 26th, after ttifyg Griff v.

D’ANGELO: FIRST TERVIEW 12 YEARS VERS MARV GAYE DREAMS, MADONNA AND HIS EBACK

He poted out that the chord progrsn Ed Townsend had played for Gaye was so mon that was elementary mic-method books such as “How to Play Rock ’n’ Roll Piano, ” published 1967. ”Ilene Farkas, who closed for the fense, noted that we were all here bee, exactly fifty years ago, Ed Townsend sat down at his piano and played Marv Gaye four chords.

I., and Pharrell Williams, “Blurred L” (Star Trak); Johnny Cash, “Folsom Prison Blu” (Sun Label Group); The Chiffons “He’s So Fe” (Capol Rerds); Marv Gaye, “Let’s Get It On” (Motown Rerd Company); Cory Daye, “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (Featherbed Mic); Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down” (MCA Rerds); Gee Harrison, “My Sweet Lord” (G.

Estate); Gordon Jenks, “Crcent Cy Blu” (Universal Mic); Miguel Bosé, “Don Diablo” (Sony Mic); Sami Swch, “Oh Why” (Sami Swch); The Gap Band, “Oops Upsi Your Head” (One Media); Sam Smh, “Stay wh Me” (Capol Rerds); Paramore, “Misery Bs” (Atlantic Rerdg); Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You” (Asylum Rerds); Bno Mars, “Uptown Funk” (Kobalt Mic); Matt Cardle, “Amazg” (Columbia); Dua Lipa, “Levatg” (Warner Rerds UK); TLC, “No Scbs” (LaFace Rerds); Katy Perry and Juicy J, “Dark Horse” (Capol Rerds); Olivia Rodrigo, “Good 4 U” (Geffen Rerds); Ed Sheeran, “Photograph” (Asylum Rerds UK); Ed Sheeran, “Thkg Out Loud” (Asylum Rerds UK); Led Zeppel, “Stairway to Heaven” (Mythgem); Marv Gaye, “Got to Give It Up” (Motown Rerds); Flame, “Joyful Noise” (Cross Movement Rerds); Spir, “Ts” (Sony Mic); Artikal Sound System, “Live Your Life” (Controlled Substance Sound Labs). The father of Marv Gaye said a jail cell terview published here today that he did shoot his son, but thought the weapon that killed the soul sger was load wh BBs or blanks and "I regret what happened to this moment. ' " In the terview, published today's Los Angel Herald-Examer, Gay, a retired ordaed mister, also said his son was heavily g e, which turned him to "somethg like a beastlike person...

MARV GAYE BGRAPHY, LIFE, INTERTG FACTS

" The elr Gay--whose name is spelled differently bee his son add an "e" to the fay name when he began his reer--said his son was troubled and prone to vlent outbursts. " The two were separated by the mother, Mart said, and Gaye was on the bed talkg to her when the father appeared at the doorway wh a gun his hand and fired one round. " Gay said he had seen no news acunts of the ath of his son, whose hs ranged om the 1960s Motown sound of "I Heard It Through the Grapeve" to the 1983 Grammy-wng "Sexual Healg.

Marv Gaye add the “e” to the end of his name to dispel mors of his homosexualy and to distguish himself om his father, Marv Gay Sr., wh whom he did not get along. You may or may not know that Marv Gaye’s first wife, Anna, is the elst sister of mic in and Motown founr Berry Gordy, makg Marv an official member of the Motown fay.

In a recent terview for a new CNN documentary about Gaye’s work, tled “What’s Gog On: Marv Gaye’s Anthem for the Ag, ” the Grammy-nomated artist and activist relled redisverg the album jt before headg to a prott Nashville last summer. After Gaye was shot and killed by his father 1984, the GQ story says, the then-8-year-old known as Michael Archer began to have black-and-whe dreams about a young Gaye meetg him at Motown’s Hsville U. They fally stopped when D’Angelo was 19 and had gotten signed to his first rerd the last one, D’Angelo says, Gaye “got to this whirlpool Jacuzzi wh his wife and his dghter and his ltle son, and that's when he turns around and looks at me.

WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE

“He uld have wrten What’s Gog On yterday, ” poet Nikki Gvanni noted an terview last tumn, explag that the ver portra of her 2020 llectn, Make Me Ra, pays homage to Gaye’s album ver, picturg Gvanni a raat, her llar upturned. The rerd’s endurance – most movgly displayed by Nelson Manla, who, shortly after his release om prison 1990, reced l om the album at Tiger Stadium Detro – has practilly bee a one is wrong, of urse, to say that Gaye’s album cuts as eply today as did 1971.

A dively spired work driven by social rage – one that braid doo-wop harmoni, jazz and the hymns Gaye had loved as a child – What’s Gog On was also Gaye’s claratn of creative pennce om Berry Gordy’s Motown mache. ”What’s Gog On remas val, above all, for how turns away om that “Ameri” and stead addrs the tle qutn to a closer-kn group – those people gathered at the hoe party Gaye stag the album’s openg moments; the “mother, mother” and “father father” he lls out to (and that the party settg might emboln him to ndidly addrs). ” the speaker asks What’s Happeng Brother?, checkg the claims of those power agast the thory of everyday Black is one thg to celebrate Gaye’s endurg and prcient mo of creatn; another to appld the ntued ronance of his album’s ncerns.

We should not be sangue, for stance, that Gaye’s unrstated blu crique of “trigger-happy policg” has stayed so relevant; or that anti-Black vlence has so persisted over the last 50 years that remas necsary for Black artists and everyday people to approach the task of survivg and thrivg Ameri wh the energy, elegance and grace that Gaye molled this landmark work.

MARV GAYE

Maybe he was tired – was the last song of a long set – but the 40-year-old Gaye, his illed whe shirt and sequned red su jacket, appears to not jt work the crowd but panr to wh some ntempt: “This was our very first No 1 rerd ever the world, ladi and gentlemen. Photograph: US Army/Getty ImagThis is precisely the kd of galvanisg work that Gaye was dog wh What’s Gog On, for his own people his own time – a historil pot that is often obscured when we fixate on the rerd’s timelsns.

”Vcent se Gaye’s actns as “the drivg force” behd Stevie Wonr’s polil turn at Motown, as well as the rigoro funk of Sly and the Fay Stone and the righteo soul of Aretha Frankl’s 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black. The stars, along wh untls ssn micians, were “dog their bt work ever at this ccial moment time” – settg the standard, the se of Gaye and his llaborator David Van De Pte’s meticulo strg, nga, bass and vol arrangements – for what Vcent lls “soul mic as high art” be sure, What’s Gog On is an impecbly posed sue. Listen to how Gaye cranks the volume back up jt as the tle track starts to fa out – a sign of rilience as well as a petty refal to let a track that Gordy hated end whout a fight.