How Marv Gaye's 'What's Gog On' Changed the Sound of R&B Forever - Variety

Contents:

• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• 50 YEARS LATER, WHY MARV GAYE'S SEMAL ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ENDUR
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS IT WAS 1971
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER

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

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.

To honor the sgle’s 50th birthday, Motown/UMe grouped together all that bon mic for the digal release dubbed What’s Gog On: Deluxe Edn/50th Anniversary, which ntas the origal album pl 12 bon tracks cludg sgle versns, mos and more, the “Detro Mix” of the album and the llectn of “Funky Natn” stmentals om Gaye’s post-What’s Gog On rerdg ssns.

“The Detro Mix” of What’s Gog On, Gaye’s origal versn of the album before ncelg and reworkg Los Angel, prevly featured on the 30th anniversary reissue of the album 2001. “Funky Natn: The Detro Instmentals, ” a seri of jams Gaye laid down the rerdg ssns after releasg What’s Gog On, was clud the 40th anniversary reissue.

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

“Through the regnn of What’s Gog On Day, we hope to brg awarens to Marv Gaye’s profound words as his timels mic remas our hearts and mds and ntu spirg generatns to e. Marv Gaye’s classic 1971 rerd What’s Gog On turns 50 this month, which means more people than ever will have ocsn to note how timely is. “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.

After a of polished pop hs, Gaye, now his early 30s, revealed there was a lot on his md: the outrage of the war Vietnam (What’s Happeng Brother? The surgent subject matter was acpanied by a change Gaye’s personal style: he stopped wearg ti and grew a beard. ”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).

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

” 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. This, any se, is the imprsn I get when watchg Gaye troduce the tle track at the Montrx jazz ftival the summer of 1980. 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.

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

Gaye’s crique of the Vietnam war, for example, which was rmed by his brother Frankie’s experienc of the nflict, was disarmgly distctive.

So, too, was Gaye’s growg matury, which Black fans heard both his mment to Black life and their own potential. ”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.

MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS IT WAS 1971

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. ” Here is a nvivialy you make jt by showg up, where you don’t have to know someone to be glad they Gaye the stud 1973. 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.

HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER

(oh, for the children), ” Gaye sgs, makg his way up a hntg and haltg mil sle, as if toward a future jt out of reach.