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

Contents:

• MARV GAYE: THE POWER AND THE GLORY
• MARV GAYE
• THE LIFE AND TRAGIC ATH OF MARV GAYE, THE SON OF A PREACHER WHO BEME MOTOWN'S VOICE OF POLIL CHANGE AND DIED AT THE HANDS OF HIS OWN FATHER
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER
• HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S LIFE
• ‘MORE LIKE A STORY THAN A SONG’: HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ REMAS RELEVANT 50 YEARS LATER
• MARV GAYE'S ISOLATED VOLS ON 'I HEARD THROUGH THE GRAPEVE' WILL GIVE YOU GOOSEBUMPS
• 10 BT MARV GAYE SONGS OF ALL TIME

MARV GAYE: THE POWER AND THE GLORY

” In the bedroom, behd closed doors, drsed a robe and stockg p, his face vered wh a facial mask, Marv Gaye acpanied by three biceped roadi (bodyguards? Later, after Berry had tablished Motown as an pennt label, Marv cut The Soulful Moods of Marv Gaye, a llectn of MOR standards done wh a b of jazz flavor.

“Hch Hike, ” a thumpg boogie turn that aga lled for a rougher style than Gaye enjoyed, was produced by Stevenson and his bright young assistant Clarence Pl. For all his sex appeal and tert sexualy (“you make a person thk you’re gog to do somethg, but never do until you’re ready”), Gaye wanted to assert his physil superry over other men. In his way, what Gaye did was reerate electronilly the polyrhythmic Ain unrpngs of black Amerin mic and reasss the domtic polyphony which is s lear extensn.

In fact, if one were to say that Jam Brown uld be the Fletcher Henrson and Count Basie of rhythm and blu, then Marv Gaye is obvly s Ellgton and Mil Davis. Part of the reason for Gaye’s trospectn was a seri of personal dramas — a stly divorce om Anna, a temptuo marriage to a woman 17 years his junr, nstant creative hassl wh Motown and antagonism wh his father over relign, money, and his mother. Drsed as dapperly as any nightclub star, standg before an dience of die-hard sports fans, and some of the world’s greatt athlet, Gaye turned out our natn’s most nfg melody, assertg an athetic and tellectual power that rocked the hoe.

MARV GAYE

Blake Shelton's Voice nttant Wendy Moten sang a powerful rendn of Marv Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "You're All I Need to Get By" on Monday night's live show. When The Voice's Wendy Moten brought down the hoe wh her performance of Marv Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "You're All I Need to Get By" durg Monday night's show, she had her longtime fiancé, mician David M.

After disbandg the Moonglows, Fuqua took the 20-year-old Gaye to Detro, where Berry Gordy, Jr., was formg Motown Rerds. Gaye also enjoyed a seri of succsful duets, most notably wh Tammi Terrell (“A’t Nothg Like the Real Thg” [1968]). 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. ”Other major artists—most importantly Stevie Wonr—followed Gaye’s lead and acted as producer of their own efforts. Here, My Dear (1979) brilliantly alt wh Gaye’s divorce om Gordy’s sister Anna (the first of the sger’s two tumultuo divorc)’s growg addictn to e exacerbated his psychologil stggl.

THE LIFE AND TRAGIC ATH OF MARV GAYE, THE SON OF A PREACHER WHO BEME MOTOWN'S VOICE OF POLIL CHANGE AND DIED AT THE HANDS OF HIS OWN FATHER

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.

The life and tragic ath of Marv Gaye, the son of a preacher who beme Motown's voice of polil change and died at the hands of his own father.

Inially startg wh gospel mic his father's church, Gaye beme enthralled by the R&B and doo-wop tun popular the 1950s.

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

Gaye had fallen to a ep prsn surroundg the ath of long-time llaborator Tammi Terrell, the failure of his first marriage, and troubl wh addictn. Rpondg to the protts and police btaly of Bloody Thursday Berkeley 1969, Gaye put out the now-famo "What's Gog On.

" The choice to tegrate polics to Motown not only troduced Gaye to a larger dience, but paved the way for a new kd of prott mic rhythm and blu. "In the early 1980s, Gaye briefly moved to Ostend, Belgium to ntrol his issu wh substance abe, addrs his fancial troubl wh the IRS, and rebuild his WBUR.

Gaye left Motown Rerds and signed wh Columbia 1982 — this partnership yield his last album Midnight Love and s lead sgle "Sexual Healg. " This smash h earned Gaye his first two Grammy Awards, Bt Male R&B Vol Performance and Bt R&B Instmental Performance 1983. 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.

HOW A 1979 BOXG MATCH BEME THE FIGHT OF MARV GAYE’S LIFE

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. 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.

‘MORE LIKE A STORY THAN A SONG’: HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ REMAS RELEVANT 50 YEARS LATER

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.

MARV GAYE'S ISOLATED VOLS ON 'I HEARD THROUGH THE GRAPEVE' WILL GIVE YOU GOOSEBUMPS

” 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. From “What’s Gog On” to “Let’s Get It On” to “I Want You” to “Here, My Dear, ” no Gaye album would sound que like the one that preced . 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.

Lookg both ward and outward, Gaye ventured to areas like social jtice, environmental awarens, dg addictn, war, and fah.

10 BT MARV GAYE SONGS OF ALL TIME

” 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.