"What’s Gog On" at 50 — Marv Gaye’s Motown classic is as relevant today as was 1971 |

Contents:

• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE
• MARV GAYE IS SHOT AND KILLED BY HIS OWN FATHER
• SERI OF VIRTUAL EVENTS KICKG OFF TONIGHT WILL CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARV GAYE’S INIC ALBUM, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’
• ALBERTA GAY, 74, DI; MOTHER OF SOUL SGER
• "WHAT’S GOG ON" AT 50 — MARV GAYE’S MOTOWN CLASSIC IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS WAS 1971
• FOR THE RERD: INSI MARV GAYE'S REVOLUTNARY 'WHAT'S GOG ON' AT 50
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ TURNS 50 — SECRETS BEHD THE H ALBUM
• MARV GAYE'S 'WHAT'S GOG ON' STILL RONAT 50 YEARS LATER
• MARV GAYE'S SISTER CALLS OUT 'WICKED & VDICTIVE' QUCY JON

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

As a child, mician Devon Gilfillian remembers his father, a profsnal weddg sger, harmonizg wh Marv Gaye’s inic “What’s Gog On” album their livg room. 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. Versn, and effectively (if a b randomly) hs all the key songs om Marv Gaye's semal stay wh Motown Rerds, om early hs like “A’t That Peculiar” and “I Heard It Through the Grapeve” through the urban jazz-pop of later songs like “Distant Lover” and “Trouble Man.

” What don’t have is anythg om Gaye's short, subsequent stay wh Columbia Rerds, which means “Sexual Healg, ” certaly one of Gaye's greatt songs, is absent here: perhaps the one omissn a pretty prehensive llectn. 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.

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

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? ”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.

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

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

MARV GAYE IS SHOT AND KILLED BY HIS OWN FATHER

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.

SERI OF VIRTUAL EVENTS KICKG OFF TONIGHT WILL CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARV GAYE’S INIC ALBUM, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’

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”?

ALBERTA GAY, 74, DI; MOTHER OF SOUL SGER

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.

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.

"WHAT’S GOG ON" AT 50 — MARV GAYE’S MOTOWN CLASSIC IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS WAS 1971

“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.

“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.

FOR THE RERD: INSI MARV GAYE'S REVOLUTNARY 'WHAT'S GOG ON' AT 50

It also marked the high pot of 25-year Marv Gaye’s reer - which went hand hand wh womanisg, dg addictn and creasg paranoia, and end wh tragedy a day before his 45th birthday. At the same time he add an ‘e’ to his origal surname of Gay - to shut down any speculatn about his sexualy and to distance himself om his abive dad.

At the peak of his reer, Marv Gaye was the Prce of Motown—the soulful voice behd hs as wi-rangg as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and “Mercy Mercy Me (The Elogy). That life me to a tragic end on April 1, 1984, when Marv Gaye was shot and killed by his own father one day short of his 45th the physil e of Marv Gaye’s ath was straightforward—”Gunshot wound to cht perforatg heart, lung and liver, ” acrdg to the Los Angel County Coroner—the events that led to were much more tangled.

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

Marv Gay, Sr., (the “e” was add by his son for his stage name) was a preacher the Hebrew Pentestal Church and a proponent of a strict moral he enforced btally wh his four children.

MARV GAYE'S 'WHAT'S GOG ON' STILL RONAT 50 YEARS LATER

Clearly harbored unrolved feelgs toward his abive feelgs spilled out for the fal time the Los Angel home of Marv Gay, Sr., and his wife Alberta. Only one year removed om his first Grammy w and om a triumphant return to the pop charts wh “Sexual Healg, ” Marv Gaye was horrible physil, psychologil and fancial an argument between father and son lated to a physil fight on the morng of April 1, 1984, Alberta Gay was tryg to lm her son his bedroom when Marv Sr.

Marv Gaye’s brother, Frankie, who lived next door, and who held the legendary sger durg his fal mut, later wrote his memoir that Marv Gaye’s fal, disturbg statement was, “I got what I wanted….

To explore and celebrate this inic artist and his groundbreakg album, the 92nd Street Y New York is offerg Marv Gaye: What’s Gog On, a seri of virtual events that will beg tonight, curated by seven-time Grammy Award-wng bassist, artistic director, broadster and tor Christian McBri.

MARV GAYE'S SISTER CALLS OUT 'WICKED & VDICTIVE' QUCY JON

The seri will ntue wh a send streamg ncert June 5 featurg such classic Gaye songs as “Let’s Get It On” and “You’re All I Need, ” led by mic director Ray Angry. But by 1970, reelg om the tragic ath of his beloved duet partner Tammi Terrell and the harrowg stori his brother shared upon his return om Vietnam, Gaye’s yearng to addrs eper issu his mic pelled him to fight for creative ntrol.

"Throughout his entire reer, Marv Gaye reprented a high level of micianship, artistic bety and vulnerabily that transcend so-lled genre and touched generatns, ” said McBri. EDT on May 23, McBri will lead a roundtable discsn on the legacy of the album, wh a group of distguished wrers and experts on Gaye. They will clu his bgrapher, David Rz, thor of Divid Soul: The Life of Marv Gaye; legendary mic journalist Nelson Gee, who terviewed Gaye durg his lifetime; noted wrer and cric Angelika Beener; and mic director Steven Reeke, creator of a symphonic ncert based on What’s Gog On which featured John Legend.

He will play Gaye’s most sential rerdgs and share sights to his parable artistry and the micians he later fluenced, om Prce to Jt Timberlake and Legend, among sr of others. McBri’s playlist will clu some of Gaye’s most lible hs, “What’s Gog On, ” “Let’s Get It On, ” “I Heard It Through the Grapeve, ” “I Want You, ” “Mercy Mercy Me” and his inic duets wh Tammi Terrell.