BY LOUIS ADDEO-WEISS
On May 21, 1971, soul singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Marvin Gaye released his eleventh studio album What’s Going On, a record, while reflective of the era in which it was released, remains one that continues to resonate with new listeners as time progresses.
Like any great record, context is everything, so it’s only right to discuss the events that led up to the release of what Rolling Stone referred to as the sixth greatest album of all-time in their “500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.”
Gaye, a former Motown-prodigy, who established himself, along with his late-female counterpart Tammi Terrell, during the 1960s with a run of successful singles such as “Ain’t That Peculiar,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).” But now, with the loss of Terrell in 1970 to a brain tumor, a state of deep depression that followed, an ever-growing dependence on cocaine, along with being witness to incidents reflective of the era in which he was living, Gaye felt he needed to reinvent his image for the decade that lay before him.
In fact, Gaye himself had this to say about where he saw his music as the swinging sixties reached a close.
“In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say … I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.”
For him and those who bore witness, the 1970s meant a new, more emotionally complex and socially conscious Marvin Gaye.
What’s Going On, as much as it reflects the mood of America during the late-60s and early 70s, the album also serves as truly the first time listeners got a glimpse inside the mind of Gaye.
Themes here range from police brutality, something Gaye and Four Tops member Obie Benson witnessed firsthand in 1969 when police began violent resistance against anti-war protestors in Berkeley’s People Park, with one student dying at the hands of police fire.
The date, May 15th, would soon become known as “Bloody Thursday,” and something that greatly impacted Gaye prior to and after the recording of what many feel to be his magnum opus.
As previously noted, context means everything and one cannot ignore the fact that, at the time of its release, the United States was still involved in the Vietnam War, a conflict that served as the source of inspiration for numerous activist movements, dominated by the rise of the hippie movement in Height Ashbury, and the Black Panther Party.
Gaye, who always felt strong resentment towards the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, intended the record to be written from the perspective of a returning Vietnam veteran greatly affected by the influx of instability occurring in his country.
While the 1960s gave us the Beatles, Woodstock, Martin Luther King Jr., and the first man on the moon, the dichotomy of the decade can be personified by the assassinations of the aforementioned King, JFK, RFK, and Malcolm X, and the stabbing of Meredith Hunter at Altamont, along with the millions of American civilians, many of them black, who perished overseas, fighting a war for a country who failed to fully acknowledge their place as equals in society.
In “What’s Happening Brother”, Gaye echoes these sentiments when he sings, “war is hell, when will it end? When will people start getting together again,” and while he sings from the perspective of those present during the Vietnam War, those sentiments carry continuing relevance in our current social and political context.
Now, when the prevailing mood in America is that of division, whether you’re a red or a blue, the fight for universal peace is one we’re seemingly still searching for.
“Who really cares to save a world in despair,” a line from “Save the Children,” almost serves as foreshadowing for the materialistic world in which many of us have been born into. One of the beauties of “What’s Going On,” other than the lush instrumentation courtesy of the Funk Brothers to the angelic, almost-gospel-like vocal harmonies layered throughout, is the fact that the record follows a linear trajectory, which each song seamlessly flowing into one another, musically and thematically. The question Gaye asks at the outset of “Save the Children” gets back to the idea of war, and why it’s fought. Countries engage in conflict for a myriad of reasons, mostly due to disagreements of political ideologies, and the idea of doing good without reward in return reflects an overtly selfish nature obsessed with material or monetary compensation.
For Gaye, he asks that we “live for the children,” and try to inform them on the terrors that exist in the world in which we live, but at the end of the day, we’re all human and we all yearn to be loved.
A write up for this record would be incomplete without discussing the title-track. From its now-memorable opening soprano saxophone lines, provided, thankfully, by session musician and Funk Brother member, Eli Fontaine, to the iconic bassline laid down by Motown-superman James Jamerson, drumming of Gaye and Chet Forrest, to Gaye’s own keyboard and piano inflections it’s no secret why Rolling Stone ranked it as the fourth greatest song of all-time in 2004.
Lyrically though, the track sets the tone for the record and its place in history is rightly justified. Listening back to the lines leading up to the song’s chorus, “picket signs and picket signs, don’t punish me with brutality. Talk to me so you can see what’s going on,” I find it hard not getting choked up, yet disgruntled with the where we were then as a society, and the continued trend we’ve taken in recent years. For lack of a better word, the song is timeless, and perfectly encapsulates a period of great social and political instability.
While “What’s Going On” may turn 48 today, its messages remain as fresh today as they were in 1971. This is a large reason for the record’s staying power, as great art transcends time and impacts those across eras.
