What's Gog on [Deluxe Edn] - Marv Gaye | Release Info | AllMic

Contents:

• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE
• MARV GAYE / WHAT’S GOG ON / 40TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDN / REVIEW

MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE

When Marv Gaye brought the tle track of 1971’s What’s Gog On to Motown founr Berry Gordy, Gordy reportedly said was the worst thg he’d ever heard. Gaye untered.

Even Elvis was sgg prott songs (1969’s “In the Ghetto”)—why uldn’t Marv Gaye?

MARV GAYE / WHAT’S GOG ON / 40TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDN / REVIEW

As Sly & The Fay Stone channeled their anger to to bter funk (1971’s There’s a Rt Go’ On), Gaye sublimated his lh strg sectns and Lat percsn—signals not jt of mil gentlens, but cultural sophistitn.

The revelatn is that polil mic don’t have to be nontatnal— n be mellow and vg too, the provce not jt of radils, but the same mixed, middle-class dienc that had been buyg Gaye’s albums all along.

You tch more fli wh honey than wh vegar, and as Gaye seems to say on What’s Gog On, you don’t have to be a hippie to be worried by what you see—you jt have to be human.

Marv Gaye.

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. Fally, late 1970, Gaye cid to rerd a song that the Four Tops' Obie Benson had brought him, "What's Gog On.

" When Berry Gordy cid not to issue the sgle, emg unmercial, Gaye refed to rerd any more material until he relented.

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). 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. (Much cred go to Gaye himself for seizg on the often tossed-off l as prec; ed, he spent more time down the Snakep than he did the ntrol room.

) Jt as he'd hoped would be, What's Gog On was Marv Gaye's masterwork, the most perfect exprsn of an artist's hope, anger, and ncern ever rerd. Motown/UMe has marked the 50th anniversary of Marv Gaye’s sgle release for “What’s Gog On” — the tle track om Rollg Stone’s Greatt Album of All Time — wh an all-enpassg digal reissue of the 1971 LP out now on streamg servic.