What’s Gog On at 50: Marv Gaye’s masterpiece is still so te to life | Marv Gaye | The Guardian

Contents:

• MARV GAYE
• ‘SUGAR SHACK,’ AN INIC PATG FEATURED ON A MARV GAYE ALBUM VER, SELLS FOR $15.3 LN
• RENOWNED "SUGAR SHACK" PATG ED FOR MARV GAYE ALBUM ARTWORK SELLS FOR $15.3 LN
• MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ALBUM COVER WAS A TOTAL ACCINT
• 50 YEARS AFTER MARV GAYE ASKED, ‘WHAT’S GOG ON?’ AMERI STILL SEARCHG FOR AN ANSWER
• ANTHOLOGY: THE BT OF MARV GAYE
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• THE MARV GAYE COLLECTN
• 50 THGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARV GAYE'S WHAT'S GOG ON
• ‘I WANT YOU’: MARV GAYE’S CARNAL CLASSIC
• 28 DAYS OF ALBUM COVER BLACKNS WH VSB, DAY 14: MARV GAYE'S I WANT YOU (1976)

MARV GAYE

They all wa for their moment wh Barn’ work, a piece that entered pop-culture nscns after appearg on the 1970s s “Good Tim” and as the ver art to Marv Gaye’s 1976 album, “I Want You.

‘SUGAR SHACK,’ AN INIC PATG FEATURED ON A MARV GAYE ALBUM VER, SELLS FOR $15.3 LN

“He went crazy and he was like I have to have this, ” Cooks gmented the patg to clu referenc to Gaye’s mic, and the work beme the ver of his “I Want You” album 1976. “The Sugar Shack” has bee a wily regnized image – thanks part to s appearance on Gaye’s 1976 “I Want You” album and to s e across four seasons of the s “Good Tim, ” which centered around the liv of a poor fay the Chigo hog projects.

RENOWNED "SUGAR SHACK" PATG ED FOR MARV GAYE ALBUM ARTWORK SELLS FOR $15.3 LN

He started out sgg church and later beme a member of popular doo-wop group The the genre began fizzlg out the 50s, the group's foundg member Harvey Fuqua took then 20-year-old Gaye to Detro where he met Berry Gordy Jr., the founr of Motown rerds.

At the label, he earned the tle of Prce of Motown for his soulful sound and duetted wh the lik of Diana was shot ad 1984, the day before his 45th birthday, by his father Marv Gaye Sr. It was Gaye's eleventh stud album, "What's Gog On", that went on to fe him for s after his album was released on May 21 1971, exactly 50 years ago today. The photograph was taken the backyard of Gaye's ver was signed by Motown art director Curtis McNair and photographed by Jim asked an terview for Boston newspaper The Bay State Banner 2008 what his favore ver was, McNair named "What's Gog On.

MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ALBUM COVER WAS A TOTAL ACCINT

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.

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

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. 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.

ANTHOLOGY: THE BT OF MARV GAYE

" 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.

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

) 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. That first Anthology [1974] featured nothg om Let's Get It On or afterward; the newt Anthology adds even more om that era while subtractg a b om Gaye's earlier years, cludg a few of his numero duets.

It's well-nigh impossible to enpsulate a reer as lengthy and trailblazg as Gaye's on jt one disc; Anthology hs all the high pots of the Motown years a more ncise fashn than the llector-oriented box set The Master, makg the bt summatn of Gaye's reer yet released.

THE MARV GAYE COLLECTN

Kickg off wh his first h "Stubborn Kd of Fellow, " Disc One trac Gaye's rise to stardom as part of the Motown h mache, featurg 20 solo cuts om the '60s as well as seven of his most important duets wh Tammi Terrell, Kim Wton, and Mary Wells. While the newer pilatn has the advantage of licensg Gaye's post-Motown smash "Sexual Healg" (which is missg om Anthology), unfortunately ntas 13 fewer tracks, makg Anthology the preferred alternative if you n track down.

50 THGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARV GAYE'S WHAT'S GOG ON

After brilliantly surveyg the social, polil, and spirual landspe wh What's Gog On, Marv Gaye turned to more timate matters wh Let's Get It On, a rerd unparalleled s sheer sensualy and rnal energy. Always a sexually charged performer, Gaye's passns reach their boilg pot on tracks like the magnificent tle h (a number one smash) and "You Sure Love to Ball"; silky and shimmerg, the mic is sctive the most leral sense, s fluid groov so perfectly signed for romance as to borr on parody.

“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? ”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).

‘I WANT YOU’: MARV GAYE’S CARNAL CLASSIC

” 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.

28 DAYS OF ALBUM COVER BLACKNS WH VSB, DAY 14: MARV GAYE'S I WANT YOU (1976)

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.

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.