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

Contents:

• MARV GAYE
• 31 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, MARV GAYE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
• 10 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ IS AS RELEVANT TODAY AS IT WAS 1971
• THE STORY BEHD THE MURR OF MARV GAYE
• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• THE REAL MEANG BEHD MARV GAYE'S 'WHAT'S GOG ON'
• MARV GAYE: A LOOK INSI HIS FAL YEAR OF LIFE
• REMEMBERG MARV GAYE'S INIC 'WHAT'S GOG ON'
• 50 THGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARV GAYE'S WHAT'S GOG ON
• 50 YEARS LATER, WHY MARV GAYE'S SEMAL ALBUM 'WHAT'S GOG ON' ENDUR
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER
• MARV GAYE’S “WHAT’S GOG ON”

MARV GAYE

Blsed wh an exceptnally wi range that enpassed three distct vol styl—a piercg falsetto, a smooth mid-range tenor, and a ep gospel growl—Gaye bed great technil prows wh rare mil dividualy.

Gaye also displayed dazzlg virtuosy by overdubbg (buildg sound track by track onto a sgle tape) his own voice three or four tim to provi his own rich harmony, a technique he would employ for the rt of his reer. Gaye, who ced his chief fluenc as Ray Charl, Cly McPhatter, Rudy Wt (lead sger for the doo-wop group the Five Keys), and Ltle Willie John, was ducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1987. He received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement an artist who employed urban soul mic to exprs social and personal ncerns, as well as a sger of exquise sensivy and romantic grace, Gaye left a legacy that has wined sce his mise, and his mic has bee a permanent fixture Amerin pop.

Marv Gaye is different, different for one simple reason: he had immense talent, not jt as a sger but also as a songwrer that set him on a higher plane, as well as a social nscience that advoted change.

31 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, MARV GAYE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

His new directn and newfound social nscns is bt heard on the h, ‘Abraham Mart & John’ which Gaye ma his own, spe the origal beg rerd by rock and roll survivor Dn (of the Belmonts fame). Wh 1963’s ‘Pri and Joy’, Gaye sred his first Top Ten smash, but often found his role as a hmaker stiflg – his sire to bee a crooner of lh romantic ballads, ran direct opposn to Motown’s all-important emphasis on chart succs and the ongog battle between his artistic ambns and the label’s mands for a mercial product, ntued throughout Gaye’s long tenure wh the pany. Wh 1964’s Together, a llectn of duets wh Mary Wells, Gaye sred his first chartg album; the duo also notched a number of h sgl together, cludg ‘Once Upon a Time’ and ‘What’s the Matter Wh You, Baby?

However, Gaye’s greatt duets were to be wh Tammi Terrell, wh whom he sred a seri of massive hs, penned by the team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, cludg 1967’s ‘A’t No Mounta High Enough’ and ‘Your Prec Love’, followed by 1968’s ‘A’t Nothg Like the Real Thg’ and ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. The team’s succs was tragilly cut short 1967 when, durg a ncert appearance Virgia, Terrell llapsed to Gaye’s arms on-stage, the first evince of a bra tumour that abptly end her performg reer and fally killed her on March 16, 1970.

10 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT MARV GAYE

A highly percsive album, which rporated jazz and classil elements, to fe a remarkably sophistited and fluid soul sound, What’s Gog On was a nceptual masterpiece that brought Gaye’s eply held spirual beliefs to the fore. Explorg issu rangg om poverty and discrimatn to the environment, dg abe, and polil rptn; chief among the rerd’s ncerns was the nflict Vietnam, as Gaye stctured the songs around the pot of view of his brother Frankie, himself a soldier recently returned om bat. As a rult of a 1976 urt settlement, Gaye was orred to make good on missed alimony payments by rerdg a new album, wh the tentn that all royalti earned om s sal would then be award to his ex-wife.

The 1978 rerd, a two-LP set sardonilly entled Here, My Dear, bterly explored the uple’s relatnship such timate tail, that Anna Gordy briefly nsired sug Gaye for the vasn of privacy.

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

In 1981, longstandg tax difficulti and renewed prsur om the IRS forced Gaye to flee to Europe, where he began work on the amb In Our Lifetime, a eply philosophil rerd that ultimately severed his longstandg relatnship wh Motown after he claimed the label had remixed and eded the album whout his nsent. It is the rerd that, better than anythg else, reveals jt how profound an impact Gaye ma on pop begngs: Wednday is the 31st anniversary of Gaye's untimely ath, and while he might be bt known today as the guy who got ripped off by Rob Thicke, 's important to remember the profound impact he had on mic and society.

THE STORY BEHD THE MURR OF MARV GAYE

As a rpe om the pa, Gaye sang and played the piano om a young 1961, while tourg the Midwt wh a group lled the Moonglows, Gaye's silky tenor ught the ear of none other than Berry Gordy, the founr of Motown.

The timg uldn't have been better, as Amerins alt wh social unrt surroundg the Kent State massacre 1970 — an event that eply affected Gaye — his socially nsc mic ught a way most pop never do.

"To have Marv Gaye e out wh a song that rerced that necsy to be nsc, to be active, was a wonrful thg, " Audley Smh, CEO of Detro's Motown Mm, recently told every song on the rerd was polilly cisive.

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

He showed that all the issu are related — they're tied to one another, they're tied to each of , and they're tied to pop is Gaye's and his album's most important legacy: a template for morn popular prott mic.

“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.

THE REAL MEANG BEHD MARV GAYE'S 'WHAT'S GOG ON'

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. 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: A LOOK INSI HIS FAL YEAR OF LIFE

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.

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

In his last year of life, he even moved back wh his parents, settg the stage for a prolonged power stggle between the two men — and for the vlent nontatn that would take Gaye's life. In his last year of life, Marv Gaye was unr prsure om all sis — om troubled fay relatnships to his stggl wh dgs and profsnal prsure to tour, somethg that he never enjoyed, acrdg to Ebony.

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

And this meant that, which he did receive some ath threats as large stars unfortunately sometim do, some of the most dntg threats Marv Gaye faced his fal months existed only his md. As he grew more agated and emotnally isolated his fal year, Marv Gaye seemgly sought to return to the stabily and fort of two of the people who had known him the bt and red for him the most — his two ex-wiv, Anna Gordy Gaye and Janis Gaye.

In his emotnal ght state, Ebony reported, Gaye attempted to rekdle relatnships wh both of them at the same time, tellg iends he was thkg of rtartg his relatnship wh Anna Gordy Gay, whom he divorced 1977, all while actively pursug Janis Gaye, who had recently broken off their relatnship.

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

While Marv Gaye's relatnship wh his father had always been marked by hostily and nflict, he and his mother, Alberta Gay (she mataed the origal spellg of their fay name), had always been fiercely loyal to each other, acrdg to Ebony. Wh his physil and mental health rapidly terratg his fal months and his star seemg to have crted — tickets for his fal tour cled as went on, acrdg to Ebony — Marv Gaye beme creasgly sponnt and self-stctive.

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

Alberta Gay, who wnsed the whole nontatn and narrowly missed a bullet herself, regnized the pistol: It was among the guns Gaye had given his parents for their personal safety some time before. (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.

MARV GAYE’S “WHAT’S GOG ON”

(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: (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. Wh progrs, 100 years we'll look back on the rerd as an album that broke down barriers and beme the blueprt on how to live harmonly wh each other and our, though, let's take a closer look at the makg of Gaye's masterpiece as the album reach s mid-life surround by a world still crisis. The boss at Motown thought Gaye was jeopardizg his reer wh this albumIn the fall of 1970, Gaye was so exced about the prott album he had md — and the song "What's Gog On" that he'd jt fished — that he tracked down the head of Motown Rerds, Berry Gordy, who was on vatn the Bahamas, to tell him the ia.