What's Gog On? 50 Years Ago, The Answer Was Bigger Than Marv Gaye : NPR

Contents:

• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS IT WAS 1971
• MARV GAYE
• ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’: WHEN MARV GAYE UNVEILED A MASTERPIECE
• DEVON GILFILLIAN RE-RERDS MARV GAYE'S 1971 ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON'
• REMEMBERG MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON'
• MARV GAYE 1971-1981
• MARV GAYE – WHAT’S GOG ON (1971)
• MARV GAYE 1971
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ TURNS 50 — SECRETS BEHD THE H ALBUM

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

"What’s Gog On" was a turng pot for Marv Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, Marv Gaye’s album beme a monster, spawng three h sgl on s way to beg Motown’s bt-sellg album to date. The album also marked a turng pot for Motown and for Marv Gaye as an artist.

And the host of the weekly rad show “Soul Stori, ” I am stck by how many of the them Gaye explor rema as relevant today as they were when he first wrote about them 50 years ago. Gaye’s evolutn.

But the song provis an sight to the evolutn of Gaye’s mic to enpass overtly polil them. For example, “Soldier’s Plea, ” the first sgle om Gaye’s send album, “That Stubborn Kda Fellow” 1962, offers a cidly romantic view of war:.

MARV GAYE

Gaye produced “What’s Gog On” himself – a revolutnary act at Motown. “Can’t fd no work, n’t fd no job, my iend, ” Gaye laments on “What’s Happeng Brother. Gaye repeats the affirmatn “right on” – a phrase distctly ground black urban vernacular – throughout the album and on a song bearg that name.

” Gaye affirms “Right on, brother” to men who rpond kd at different pots the song.

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

The ll and rponse munit a sense of shared ncern, shared stggle, and shared remptn – an ethos Gaye took om the gospel tradn that rms his mily.

DEVON GILFILLIAN RE-RERDS MARV GAYE'S 1971 ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON'

This ll and rponse is repeated “Wholy Holy, ” wh Gaye utilizg a multrackg technique to layer two versns of his own vols:. Gordy was ially reluctant to embrace Gaye’s new directn.

Gaye’s classic album still ronat wh dienc on s 50th anniversary. Marv Gaye. Marv Gaye's artistic peak -- an 11-year perd that volved brilliant, pensive soul and unrvalued film mic, the sweett quiet-storm slow jams and the sourt post-spl ballads -- is vered on the third and fal volume of box sets bundlg the man's Motown and Tamla albums.

Even though 's missg some of the bt material Gaye rerd durg the era, 's a sharp package that retas the sonic and graphic tegry of one of the most fascatg -pl stud ns. To unrstand the seismic shift the reer of Marv Gaye that was brought about by his bold new artistic directn on What’s Gog On, ’s worth steppg back to the Motown mastay’s prev LP release.

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

That rerd was That’s The Way Love Is, released all of 19 months earlier, the wake of Gaye’s summer 1969 h wh the nfintly upbeat tle track. Retreatg om view as he tired of his rponsibili as a sgl-oriented hmaker for Motown, Gaye’s 1970 release schle was filled wh pilatns. But jt as his fellow Motown A-lister Stevie Wonr was reachg new creative matury, so did Gaye.

Marv Gaye - What's Gog On (Official Vio 2019). In a revealg terview wh Disc & Mic Echo as the new project was emergg, Gaye nfirmed that he had been through a perd of reappraisal of his place mic. Marv Gaye - What's Gog On (Live).

The album, unveiled on May 21, 1971, was hailed by Billboard as “a cross between Curtis Mayfield and that old Motown spell, and outdo anythg Gaye’s ever done. Marv Gaye - Inner Cy Blu (Make Me Wanna Holler).

MARV GAYE 1971-1981

“The material is social mentary but there’s nothg extreme on , ” said Gaye that ntemporaneo terview. Marv Gaye's 1971 album What's Gog On. And today, as further proof that Gaye's mic rri jt as much (if not more) power 2020 as did when was origally ma, Nashville-based artist Devon Gilfillian has released a brand new track-by-track ver of the entire album.

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.

MARV GAYE – WHAT’S GOG ON (1971)

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

MARV GAYE 1971

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.

MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ TURNS 50 — SECRETS BEHD THE H ALBUM

) 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.