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

Contents:

• WHAT’S GOG ON AT 50: MARV GAYE’S MASTERPIECE IS STILL SO TE TO LIFE
• MARV GAYE, THE VENONA PROJECT AND OTHER LETTERS TO THE EDOR
• MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ GETS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIGAL REISSUE
• HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S LIFE
• MARV GAYE WHAT'S GOG ON
• ANTHOLOGY: THE BT OF MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE: YOU'RE THE MAN REVIEW – 'LOST ALBUM' SS AT CROSSROADS OF SOUL

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

“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 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).

MARV GAYE, THE VENONA PROJECT AND OTHER LETTERS TO THE EDOR

” 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.

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

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.

HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S 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. 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. Although both albums suffer om this over-exposure of lyric stiffns, Gaye’s work is much more supple and nversatnal ultimately smoothg self out on what is a very fe rerd while Wonr’s is too self-nsc and edg to pretentns (“Suffote the new high Ri the thorny mule that cri ‘Dig your grave and step right '”) the recently-veloped Curtis Mayfield Syndrome beg nearly prehensible when sung.

Where Stevié was ntent to liver his msag — however blurred — three or four songs, Gaye has signed his album as one many-faceted statement on ndns the world today, ma nearly seamls by reful transns between the cuts. The style is set the first cut, “What’s Gog On, ” wh s sweet horn openg le; Gaye’s soft, simmerg voice reflectg on self betifully om two or three tracks; the ntrast of ngas and strgs; the breaks an excg jumble of street-rner jive and sttg. ” “Mercy, Mercy Me” is one of the most bearable elogy songs, a genre that don’t seem to spire pecially subtle or telligent lyrics; Gaye’s are offensive and the song self is lovely.

MARV GAYE WHAT'S GOG ON

♦To the Edor: While readg through the fascatg llectn of reviews on the theme of space exploratn, which largely ignored elogy, equaly and what enomists ll “opportuny st, ” I kept playg two classic songs my head om half a century ago, still sadly more relevant than ever: Gil Stt-Heron’s “Whey on the Moon” and the openg l of Marv Gaye’s immortal “Inner Cy Blu”: “Rockets, moon shots / Spend on the have-not’s. 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.

Over the prev seven years, the relatnship between the sger and his label was ntent yet uful; grty uptempo songs like "Stubborn Kd of Fellow" and "Hch Hike" were hs, but they unrmed Gaye's dream to be a ballaer the mold of Nat Kg Cole.

"Instead of releasg "What's Gog On" that fall, Motown put out the Gaye pilatn Super Hs, which picts s clean-shaven star as a rtoon superhero flyg through the air and fixg a rad tower as a buxom damsel periloly hangs om his shoulr. Five months later, Marv Gaye released his full-grown symphony to God, What's Gog On, wh ltle years of ubiquy have ma the tle track monplace, so 's easy to fet that the song was the "most avant-gar h Motown ever had, " acrdg to Ben Edmonds' thorough album history What's Gog On: Marv Gaye and the Last Days of the Motown Sound.

ANTHOLOGY: THE BT OF MARV GAYE

Wh this album, Gaye wished to sistep the sound that ma him and others famo durg Motown's untouchable 60s n, tradg that tramark big, bright beat for laid-back groov spired by De Ellgton, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hay, and Santana.

MARV GAYE

All of this might have been more acceptable — or ls disappotg — om a lser performer than Gaye, but after a landmark album like What’s Go’ On one expects somethg wh a ltle more substance and spir.

Gaye often spoke boxg metaphors, and 1979 — the wake of a stly divorce om his first wife, tranged om his send, gripped by e addictn, and badly bt to the IRS — the image of the pummeled prizefighter beme particularly potent to him.

MARV GAYE: YOU'RE THE MAN REVIEW – 'LOST ALBUM' SS AT CROSSROADS OF SOUL

Though much has been wrten about Gaye’s downward spiral the late Seventi and early Eighti, about the rurgence of his reer the wake of “Sexual Healg, ” and his 1984 murr at the hands of his own father at the fay’s home, ltle has been wrten about this event. C., Gaye was huiated by his father’s double life, feelgs that led to a lifelong stggle wh his own masculy; he even add the “e” to his last name hop of dispellg mors about his sexualy.