Marv Gaye and 5 R&B artists om the '60s and '70s

Contents:

• STYLE HERO: 1970S MARV GAYE
• HOW MARV GAYE’S ‘WHAT’S GOG ON’ CHANGED THE SOUND OF R&B FOREVER
• MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE AND 5 R&B ARTISTS OM THE ’60S AND ’70S
• MARV GAYE: THE PRCE OF SOUL
• MARV GAYE
• MARV GAYE 70S FASHN GIF

STYLE HERO: 1970S MARV GAYE

Marv Gaye rerdg at Goln Wt Studs Los Angel, 1973. When asked a 1983 vio terview about why he exiled to Europe, Marv Gaye. Gaye is btally hont his rellg of this story, as he was throughout his.

Often misunrstood, Gaye’s shy sensivy and fierce telligence was overshadowed. at all is a ttament to Gaye’s relentls drive to brg about social change, or at the very least awarens,. Gaye admted: “In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole ncept of what I.

In an act of fiance and self-belief, Gaye released the song behd Gordy’s back, and the weeks to.

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

Marv Gaye’s life was plited and short-lived – he was shot ad by his father.

Gaye’s. today, would Marv Gaye exile to Europe through choice given Ameri’s current state of affairs? Then along me Marv Gaye’s “What’s Gog On, ” a 1971 game-changer that turns 50 on May 21.

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 .

MARV GAYE

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. 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.

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.

MARV GAYE AND 5 R&B ARTISTS OM THE ’60S AND ’70S

” 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. ’s recent song of the year Grammy-wng “I Can’t Breathe” is like a direct scendant of Gaye’s magnum op.

’”, Gordy relled years later), but what would Gaye’s legacy be whout ?

MARV GAYE: THE PRCE OF SOUL

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. Stevie Wonr would grab the baton, while Gaye moved on to other thgs. 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.

MARV GAYE

There may not have been a surpl of joy on “What’s Gog On, ” but by scendg so betifully to spair, Gaye created brand new hope for generatns to e.

In the years surroundg Marv Gaye's 'What's Gog On, ' artists like Stevie Wonr, Curtis Mayfield, Diana Ross, and the O'Jays all joed a new wave of socially nsc R&B mic. But the sight of Marv Gaye’s 1971 What’s Gog On atop Rollg Stone’s 500 Greatt Albums of All Time list is a formidable remr that socially-nsc pop was very much alive durg that perd — jt not rock & roll. Gaye was hardly an outlier this way.

Marv Gaye, “Cloud Ne” (1969).

MARV GAYE 70S FASHN GIF

Two years before What’s Gog On, Gaye tted the social-nscns waters wh this versn of the Temptatns’ psychelic-soul h om the prev year. Gaye didn’t pletely make the song his own, but he clearly nnected wh the imag of a large fay growg up a slum, wh ltle food and ltle the way of an pe plan. In a sign of how eply Gaye’s song impacted on pop right after s release, the Oh Players — normally given over to lasciv funk hs like “Fire” and “Love Rolleraster” — rolled out a warm, reverent ver of the song a year after Gaye’s own.

If Gaye’s versn felt personal and timate, the Oh Players’ rendn turned the song to a multi-voiced claratn of munal spir, and heavier on the backbeat, too.

Their “What’s Gog On” was a tribute to both Gaye and to the healg power of the mic, pecially at that time.