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

Contents:

• MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE ALBUMS RANKED
• 5 MARV GAYE ALBUMS YOU MT OWN
• RANKG ALL THE MARV GAYE STUD ALBUMS
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• REMEMBERG MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON'
• ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’: WHEN MARV GAYE UNVEILED A MASTERPIECE
• 50 YEARS LATER, WHY MARV GAYE'S SEMAL ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ENDUR

MARV GAYE

Many stutns have posthumoly btowed Gaye wh awards and other honors cludg the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and ductns to the Rhythm and Blu Mic Hall of Fame, the Songwrers Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blsed wh an exceptnally wi range that enpassed three distct vol styl—a piercg falsetto, a smooth mid-range tenor, and a ep gospel growl—Gaye bed great technil prows wh rare mil dividualy.

MARV GAYE ALBUMS RANKED

Gaye also displayed dazzlg virtuosy by overdubbg (buildg sound track by track onto a sgle tape) his own voice three or four tim to provi his own rich harmony, a technique he would employ for the rt of his reer.

5 MARV GAYE ALBUMS YOU MT OWN

Here, My Dear (1979) brilliantly alt wh Gaye’s divorce om Gordy’s sister Anna (the first of the sger’s two tumultuo divorc)’s growg addictn to e exacerbated his psychologil stggl.

Gaye, who ced his chief fluenc as Ray Charl, Cly McPhatter, Rudy Wt (lead sger for the doo-wop group the Five Keys), and Ltle Willie John, was ducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1987.

RANKG ALL THE MARV GAYE STUD ALBUMS

He received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement an artist who employed urban soul mic to exprs social and personal ncerns, as well as a sger of exquise sensivy and romantic grace, Gaye left a legacy that has wined sce his mise, and his mic has bee a permanent fixture Amerin pop. The album featured some of the bt rerdgs of Gaye’s Soul genre of all time, cludg the classic “Hello Broadway, ” “Days of We and Ros, ” and “On the Street Where You Live. What's Gog On is not only Marv Gaye's masterpiece, 's the most important and passnate rerd to e out of soul mic, livered by one of s ft voic, a man fally ee to speak his md and so move om R&B sex symbol to te rerdg artist.

Wh What's Gog On, Gaye medated on what had happened to the Amerin dream of the past -- as related to urban y, environmental wo, ary turbulence, police btaly, unemployment, and poverty. Bis cementg Marv Gaye as one of the most important artists pop mic, What's Gog On was far and away the bt full-length to issue om the sgl-domated Motown factory, and arguably the bt soul album of all time. Conceived as a statement om the viewpot of a Vietnam veteran (Gaye's brother Frankie had returned om a three-year hch 1967), What's Gog On isn't jt the qutn of a baffled soldier returng home to a strange place, but a promise that listeners would be rmed by what they heard (that missg qutn mark the tle certaly wasn't a typo).

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

Instead of releasg listeners om their troubl, as so many of his sgl had the past, Gaye ed the album to reflect on the climate of the early '70s, rife wh civil unrt, dg abe, abandoned children, and the spectre of rts the near past. Alternately prsed and hopeful, angry and jubilant, Gaye saved the most sublime, eply spired performanc of his reer for "Mercy Mercy Me (The Elogy), " "Inner Cy Blu (Make Me Wanna Holler), " and "Save the Children.

" The songs and performanc, however, furnished only half of a revolutn; ltle uld've been acplished wh the Motown sound of prev Marv Gaye hs like "Stubborn Kd of Fellow" and "Hch Hike" or even "I Heard It Through the Grapeve.

REMEMBERG MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON'

Marv Gaye ava déjà fa partie d'un groupe Doo-Wop lorsqu'il éta llège: The DC Ton, et avec un s membr et un membre s Raibows, ils forment The Marque et enregistrent ux sgl pour le label Okeh en 1957. Par l'termédiaire cet homme, Marv Gaye va enregistrer nouve et participer à s séanc stud pour Chuck berry ou enre Etta Jam, dont Harvey Fuqua t le pagnon.

‘WHAT’S GOG ON’: WHEN MARV GAYE UNVEILED A MASTERPIECE

Au début s année 60, le Doo-Wop t sur le décl et Marv Gaye déci suivre Harvey Fuqua à Détro où ce rnier vient monter un label qui porte son nom: Harvey. Toujours à la recherche nouvex talents, Berry Gordy déci d'engager Marv Gaye en tant que battr stud et tournée pour l Miracl (le groupe Smokey Robson, tre icône la Motown) et le jne Stevie Wonr. Tout me Sam Cooke paravant, Marv Gaye en profe pour ajouter un « e » à son patronyme, pérant mettre f x allns d’homosexualé que lui nféraient son nom.

50 YEARS LATER, WHY MARV GAYE'S SEMAL ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ENDUR

Marv Gaye va ensue enchaîner une série d’albums duo avec différent partenair tell que Mary Wells, Kim Wton et surtout Tammi Terrell avec qui il va enregistrer plirs albums. Mais le bonhr n't pas fa pour Marv Gaye qui dès 1967 tente mettre f à s jours, acblé par s problèm récurrents avec sa femme et surtout très affecté par l premiers sign la maladie qui emportera Tammi Terrell trois ans pl tard. Alors que Berry Gordy, patron la Motown, déci transférer s burex en Californie, Marv Gaye en profe pour écrire et produire tégralement son nouvel album tulé What’s Gog On.

Sorti en 1971, cet op t une vérable révolutn, non slement par l thèm abordés dans l différent chansons (guerre du Vietnam, vlenc urba, élogie) mais ssi par la manière dont Marv Gaye va enregistrer l lign vol. Lorsqu’il acceptera falement le prser, il en profera pour manr un nouve mixage (sans l’acrd Marv Gaye), pl policé, mos « black », pl en adéquatn avec l productns « 60’s » la Motown. En 1973, Marv Gaye sort Let’s Get It On, album tout ssi remarquable mais qui, ntrairement à son tre œuvre maîtrse, trae pl souvent sexualé que problèm idéologiqu.

Une procédure qui s’étalera sur ux longu anné très éprouvant pour Marv Gaye dont la forte nsommatn ïne ne fa qu’aggraver l relatns qu’il entretient avec sa nouvelle pagne. Artiste torturé, chantr phrasé remarquable, aspirant à la paix et à l'amour, Marv Gaye rte une source tarissable d’fluence pour to cx qui rtent nnecté avec le r. “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. 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. Photograph: Jim Brt/Getty ImagWhat I listen for now are moments like the, which, spe repeated plays, ver versns and sampl of Gaye’s songs, still sound disrdant and unrolved. In this portn of the rerd, timg and melody e unmoored, as Gaye mak room for hard, even spairg qutns: is possible to “save a world that is sted to die”?

If at first Gaye seems ncerned wh parsg good om bad actors, “those of who simply like to socialise” v “those of who tend the sick and heed the people’s cri, ” he also gathers them all to an affirmative, right-on roll ll that mellows out to an oblique paean to sex: “And my darlg, one more thg / If you let me, I will take you to live where love is kg. The squawkg tenor saxophone solo wh which Wild Bill Moore tears through Mercy Mercy Me might be the most dramatic performance of the “holler” Gaye sgs about Inner Cy Blu – but which Gaye himself livers, at the end of that song, as a stylised cry: “Owwww!

What Gaye performs stead is the virtuosic, ant ntrol required, the midst of panic, of Black people Ameri, no ls than that other war elements are not easily absorbed or nscripted to narrativ about Gaye’s moment or our own; precisely bee they are the rerd’s jagged edg, they keep reachg out to grab listeners through time.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH")MARVIN GAYE: (Sgg) Listen, baby, a't no mounta high, a't no valley low, a't no river wi enough, TERRELL: (Sgg) If you need me ll me, no matter where you are, no matter how (Sgg) Don't worry, Tammi Terrell's ath 1970 vastated Marv Gaye. (SOUNDBITE OF MARVIN GAYE SONG, "MERCY MERCY ME")CERMAK: The song "Mercy Mercy Me" sort of stood out to me - oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury.