'What's Gog On': When Marv Gaye Unveiled A Masterpiece | uDisver

Contents:

• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE
• MARV GAYE
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• ROLLG STONE PLAC MARV GAYE AT THE TOP OF S NEW, LS ROCK HEAVY LIST OF THE BT ALBUMS EVER
• MARV GAYE’S LOST ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ FOLLOW UP, ‘YOU’RE THE MAN,’ SET FOR RELEASE
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’: WHEN MARV GAYE UNVEILED A MASTERPIECE
• A PAFUL LISTEN TO MARV GAYE’S NEWLY RELEASED POSTHUMO ALBUM
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER
• SERI OF VIRTUAL EVENTS KICKG OFF TONIGHT WILL CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARV GAYE’S INIC ALBUM, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ TURNS 50 — SECRETS BEHD THE H ALBUM
• MARV GAYE LIVE! (EXPAND EDN)
• IN SPIKE LEE’S FUR NEW FILM, MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS STILL FIGHTG THE POWER
• 500 GREATT ALBUMS PODST: HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHRONICLED A NATN TURMOIL

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.

“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.

“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.

MARV GAYE

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.

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

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.

ROLLG STONE PLAC MARV GAYE AT THE TOP OF S NEW, LS ROCK HEAVY LIST OF THE BT ALBUMS EVER

Marv Gaye’s 1972 lost album, You’re the Man, will fally be released March 29th, jt days before what would’ve been the mician’s 80th birthday, April 2nd. Gaye rerd the tracks for the would-be rerd Detro and Los Angel durg a particularly prolific perd, but none of them – save the tular sgle – were released at the time.

MARV GAYE’S LOST ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ FOLLOW UP, ‘YOU’RE THE MAN,’ SET FOR RELEASE

Gaye origally rerd “My Last Chance” around 1972, and though was never released, the song was revised as “I Love You Secretly” for the Miracl’ 1973 album, Renaissance. In the Neti, Motown issued a quiet storm-style mix of the track, which beme a mor posthumo h for Gaye, while 2001 the origal versn fally appeared on a bt-of pilatn.

The physil versn of the rerd wh new ler not om Gaye bgrapher, David Rz, who exam “Gaye’s eply personal ternal nflict as a source of creative vigor and emotnal burn as he experienced What’s Gog On‘s massive succs and all that me wh .

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

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. (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.

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

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MERCY MERCY ME")GAYE: (Sgg) Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas, fish full of That one really h me bee I was an environmental science scholar studyg the world's oceans, lerally, and studyg the creatur the oceans and startg to learn that same bad news all over aga. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MERCY MERCY ME")GAYE: (Sgg) Oh, mercy, mercy In the late 2000s, I found myself dog outreach tn wh high schoolers and teachg this environmental science g standardized textbooks and realizg that I wasn't really engagg the stunts - right? (SOUNDBITE OF MARVIN GAYE SONG, "MERCY MERCY ME")JEFFERSON PATERSON: The other song that actually guts me is the song - and I feel like I'm gog to choke up now talkg about , but 's the song "Inner Cy Blu.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INNER CITY BLUES")GAYE: (Sgg) Oh, make me want to holler the way they do my life, yeah, make me want to holler the way they do my life. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INNER CITY BLUES")GAYE: (Volizg) That was Eva Jefferson Paterson, a civil rights lawyer who -found the Equal Jtice Society and also sgs a Motown ver band Oakland, Calif.

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.

A PAFUL LISTEN TO MARV GAYE’S NEWLY RELEASED POSTHUMO ALBUM

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.

Gaye, seemed, was settlg to a groove, albe one not pletely wele unr the Motown umbrella of factory-assembled hs about romantic love and happily ever after.

The 17-song llectn clus mic om the origal album as well as some of Gaye’s addnal work om that perd, cludg a rare extend take on “I Want to Come Home for Christmas. In a betiful homage to his own gospel roots — mic troduced to him by his father, Marv Gay Sr., who would eventually kill his own son — “Piece of Clay” is a vivid examatn of society manipulatg s younger generatns to rryg the ss of their elrs. Wh Motown refg to further explore the impact and succs of Gaye’s socially nsc rerdgs, stead released Gaye’s soundtrack to the Ivan Dixon-directed Trouble Man.

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

But even wh the chaos of his own life, lan by heartbreak that seemed to stalk him, Gaye still believed brighter tomorrows — when he wasn’t his own worst enemy. The song, built around an terpolatn of Marv Gaye's "I Want You, " is acpanied by a vio nsistg of a sgle shot of Lamar, g epfake technology to morph him to Black male celebri who have faced public scty — om O. Marv Gaye, 'What's Gog On'“What’s Gog On, ” a poignant mil masterpiece crafted a season of unease, persists as a timely backdrop to another heated summer, half a century later, when the world feels upsi down.

Marv Gaye's 'What's Gog On'is still relevant and revealg, 50 years laterRacial tensns, police ntroversy, environmental anxieti, a globe on edge – they were the topics on the ont burner when Gaye rebooted his mil reer and took ntrol of his creative visn si Motown. It would bee the first Top 10 LP for Gaye, a major rerdg artist who’d had many h sgl but hadn’t reached higher than number 33 on the Top 200 album chart.

The album was unlike anythg prevly released by a Black superstar: Wrten and produced by Gaye (a first for any Motown artist not named Smokey Robson) and clockg at jt over 35 mut, secured his spot as one of mic’s leadg Black trs of the . He wasn’t the first Black artist to produce challengg mic after assumg plete creative ntrol — Jam Brown had done and so had former Imprsns lear Curtis Mayfield — but Gaye, who butted heads hard wh Motown orr to pursue a new artistic directn (he was signed to the Motown imprt Tamla), was the first to do wh such a thematilly and milly hive statement.

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

If he had wanted to, Gaye probably uld have spent years astg on the 1968 succs of “I Heard It Through the Grapeve, ” a chart-toppg smash that, at one pot, was Motown’s bt-sellg sgle of all time. That probably would have helped Motown head Berry Gordy, who has said that he was “terrified” when Gaye first said he wanted to make a “prott album, ” sleep easier at night.

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

But stead of vg to creative expectatns, Gaye cid to challenge himself and his dience by embarkg on a stunng mic reventn that rivaled what The Beatl had done a half- earlier wh “Rubber Soul.

” Gaye, who had once harbored aspiratns to be the Black Frank Satra, thoroughly transformed his sound and image, creatg a new chameleonic mil persona that would rry him through the ‘70s. In addn to reposng and rebrandg Gaye s before “rebrandg” beme a thg, “What’s Gog On” blend the polil and the relig a way no sger had managed to do sce Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” seven years earlier.

” John Lennon rerd “Image” about a week after the release of “What’s Gog On, ” and although the former Beatle had already been tacklg polil them his solo work, ’s easy to image him beg fluenced and spired by Gaye’s foray to social nscns. The followg year, Gaye’s Motown labelmate Stevie Wonr would, like Gaye, assume creative ntrol of his reer and release “Talkg Book, ” which end a ne-year Top 10 dry spell on the album chart and began his n of ‘70s classics. Cyndi Lper, Robert Palmer, and Angela Wbh all enjoyed chart hs wh remak of “What’s Gog On” tracks; the Strok vered “Mercy Mercy Me” as a B-si; and when D’Angelo burst onto the R&B scene 1995 wh his “Brown Sugar” album, he sound like the rernatn of Gaye, who was killed by his father 1984, on the day before his 45th birthday.

MARV GAYE LIVE! (EXPAND EDN)

Although he rerd a thematilly siar album, “You’re the Man, ” as a follow-up, that project was shelved and went unreleased until 2019, and Gaye would never aga make such an overtly album-length polil statement. Curtis Mayfield veered to social nscns nearly one year before Gaye did wh his 1970 but solo album “Curtis, ” but like Jam Brown’s proclamatns of Black pri om the same era, sounds thoroughly of s time. Gaye uld release today, and s melodi wouldn’t be out of place, and lyrics like “Crime is creasg/ Trigger-happy policg/ Panic is spreadg/ God knows where we’re headg” (om “Inner Cy Blu”) would stg as acutely now as they did then.

Reviews were somewhat mixed upon s release (like several other ‘70s Gaye albums, cludg “Let’s Get It On” and “Here, My Dear, ” s cril reputatn would grow over time), and spe lnchg three Top 10 sgl, the album wasn’t a naway chart h.

It only reached number six on the Top 200 album chart, and sred jt one Grammy nomatn, bt R&B vol performance, male, for “Inner Cy Blu (Make You Wanna Holler), ” which Gaye lost to Lou Rawls’ “A Natural Man. 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.

IN SPIKE LEE’S FUR NEW FILM, MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS STILL FIGHTG THE POWER

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.

500 GREATT ALBUMS PODST: HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHRONICLED A NATN TURMOIL

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.