What’s Going On.
Before the album What’s Going On Marvin Gaye was a very happy singer. Some people were falling asleep during his shows because how slow and bland they were. Even though they were very good, the audience wanted more. He had a relaxed smooth flow to his songs and snag from the heart. This is the music he loved and this was the music he wanted to play. He never played music for the money it was for the love he had for his music and all music. He was brought up with love never hate. Hate was a word not allowed in his household growing up and he stuck with the morals his family imbedded into his head. He lived by them and brought them out into his music. When talking about What’s Going On and looking for singers his mother was telling him its too controversial. This was not what he was going for. He was not trying to fight the man but just ask the simple question what’s going on. He was shocked that we can land on the moon but still fight each other. He could not make since of how people were being killed at war. Because of his upbringing nothing like this made sense to him. All this lead to What’s Going On. The thing that touched him most and made this song have so much meaning and heart was listening to his brother’s story of his experience in the war. All the hate valance and tragedy gave him the inspiration to put all his hear and soul into this master peace.
The world was not the only thing having trouble. His album was being shelved. No one would sell it or play it. The main reason was his wife’s brother. Marvin and him had never seen eye to eye. Marvin wanted to play what he wanted and that was not ok with his brother in law/producer. His producer went to the extreme to not let this album come out. Telling his connections with the radio to not play it. Also making it very difficult for Marvin to record this album.
The true meaning of this album was really asking the question. He knew what he wanted to make and didn’t want to compromise with anything less. Although some of the elements that made this came into play by chance. Using some players from the Liens NFL team to sing backgrounds. Although it was not really them singing but more of a chant it gave the song what it needed. Another sound that just happened to pop into the album was people smoking in a horn isolation booth in the studio. For backgrounds he also used two people singing but they were not singing together. The slight offset of the singers gave depth to the recording. As for his sax, the session was not recorded. They did not need a session due to the face the sax player was worming up and Marvin was recoding him. As he was ready to play Marvin said your free to leave we have what we need. Shocked and a little confused the sax player said he was just goofing around, Marvin replayed your goofing was perfect and just what we needed.
The main message I get out of listening to What’s Going On was peace. There was very bad things going on and all they were doing was leading to more bad things. The message needed to get out to tell the story of how the war was really affecting people and this was the way Marvin could help. It showed how a lot of people were being used and how little life was worth. It puts prospective on how many bad things there are in front of your face but anything can get twisted to seem not as bad. This album also showed me how love for your music can get things done. Marvin wanted to sign about what he could put his heart into and he did. The only thing left to say is thank you Marvin Gaye.
