What's Going On

A key chapter in the apocryphal back-story of Motown Records has it that when Berry Gordy the label's founder first heard Marvin Gaye's conceptual masterwork he simply wanted to shelve it as the work of a self-indulgent "artiste" who had lost his commercial bearings - since nothing about the record conformed to Gordy's hugely successful "Motown Sound" formula that routinely cranked out hits in apolitical, three minute increments.

It is only when Smokey Robinson intervened and told Gordy that "he did not quite know how to classify Gaye's new offering but he was certain that it was divinely inspired" (or words to that effect) that the Motown chieftain relented and agreed to a "limited" pressing. Thank you Smokey Robinson!

Even after hundreds of plays, What's Going On still leaves me speechless and groping for new superlatives. This is a mesmerizing and timeless record that is literally the soul and spirit of an extremely troubled man turned inside out with his humanity and heartache pressed into every groove.

Coming off a multi-year hiatus from recording in 1971 with his life in shambles and the social and racial fabric of the nation unraveling, Gaye was able to channel his own emotional fragility into a staggering and moving testimony to life on the streets that so poignently tapestried the crosscurrents of joy, beauty, redemption, drugs, despair, racism, anger and hopelessness - all within the framework of a near perfect thirty nine minute song cycle.

Of course you'll recognize the three major hits - What's Going On, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) and Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) however it the quieter, more plaintive pieces such as Save the Children and Wholy Holy that allow Marvin to open his veins and infuse the entire record with supernatural grace.

What's Going On is Gaye's urban gospel of alienation told against a musical score that remains to this day a reference standard for rock-funk-R&B fusion and forms the foundation for what is IMHO the single greatest achievement in popular recording since Chuck Berry laid down his first three chords. WGO should be a cornerstone title for any collection not only for what the record once meant but for the meaning that it continues to offer new audiences.

AT 52 YEARS OLD THIS REMAINS MY FAVORITE ALBUM OF ALL TIMES AS MARVIN IS MY FAVORITE SINGER!HIS MESSAGE STILL RINGS TRUE AND REVALENT,TO THESE HORRIFIC TIMES W ARE LIVING IN.................THERE WILL NEVER ANOTHER ARTIST QUITE AS SENSITIVE AND INTUATIVE TO SOCIAL INJUSTICES AS MARVIN.................A TRUE RENAISSANCE MAN!

If anyone would like to hear a prophet of the times, they should listen to this CD by Marvin Gaye.

The situation of the world at the time of the recording of this album, has not changed from the world we live in today.

I agree with the many reviews that rate this a classic album. I know more people who bought this album, than any of the other great soul albums released in the early 70's.
I have several other Marvin Gaye albums, but this is the only one I still play all the tracks.
It's so sad his personal life was ruined by drug addiction.
This is beautiful, heartfelt music.

I'm a big fan but this cd did not have the songs I like best