What's Going On [Pazzazz Collection] (CD - 1971)

Album Description

• This deluxe edition of WHAT'S GOING ON includes a 20-page booklet with

  complete lyrics, never-before-published photos from personal family collections and an essay by David Ritz.

  Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); David Van Depitte (arranger, conductor); Robert White, Joe Messina (guitar); Johnny Griffith (celeste, keyboards); Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); Eli Fountain (alto saxophone); Wild Bill Moore (tenor saxophone); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, percussion); Bob Babbit, James Jamerson (bass); Chet Forest (drums); Eddie Brown, Earl DeRouen (bongos, conga); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion).

  Recorded at Hitsville, Golden World and United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michican. Originally released on Tamla (310).

  WHAT'S GOING ON: DELUXE EDITION features the original album, plus an unreleased Detroit mix, a live version from Kennedy Center, and unreleased single versions and instrumentals.

  WHAT'S GOING ON:

  Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); David Van Depitte (arranger, conductor); Robert White, Joe Messina (guitar); Johnny Griffith (celeste, keyboards); Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); Eli Fountain (alto saxophone); Wild Bill Moore (tenor saxophone); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, percussion); Bob Babbit, James Jamerson (bass); Chet Forest (drums); Eddie Brown, Earl DeRouen (bongos, conga); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion).

  Recorded at Hitsville, Golden World and United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michican. Originally released on Tamla (310). Includes liner notes by Smokey Robinson, Ben Edmonds and Harry Weinger.

  LIVE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER:

  Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); Robert White (guitar); Jack Ashford (glockenspiel, percussion, kazoo); Uriel Jones (drums); Eddie "Bongo" Brown (bongos); The Andantes, Freddie Gorman, Walter Gaines, Hank Dixon, C.P. Spencer (background vocals).

  Recorded live at The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1972.

  All tracks have been digitally remastered.

  What's Going On is not only Marvin Gaye's masterpiece, it's the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices, a man finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist. With What's Going On, Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past -- as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty. These feelings had been bubbling up between 1967 and 1970, during which he felt increasingly caged by Motown's behind-the-times hit machine and restrained from expressing himself seriously through his music. Finally, late in 1970, Gaye decided to record a song that the Four Tops' Obie Benson had brought him, "What's Going On." When Berry Gordy decided not to issue the single, deeming it uncommercial, Gaye refused to record any more material until he relented. Confirmed by its tremendous commercial success in January 1971, he recorded the rest of the album over ten days in March, and Motown released it in late May. Besides cementing Marvin Gaye as one of the most important artists in pop music, What's Going On was far and away the best full-length to issue from the singles-dominated Motown factory, and arguably the best soul album of all time.

  Conceived as a statement from the viewpoint of a Vietnam veteran (Gaye's brother Frankie had returned from a three-year hitch in 1967), What's Going On isn't just the question of a baffled soldier returning home to a strange place, but a promise that listeners would be informed by what they heard (that missing question mark in the title certainly wasn't a typo). Instead of releasing listeners from their troubles, as so many of his singles had in the past, Gaye used the album to reflect on the climate of the early '70s, rife with civil unrest, drug abuse, abandoned children, and the spectre of riots in the near past. Alternately depressed and hopeful, angry and jubilant, Gaye saved the most sublime, deeply inspired performances of his career for "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," and "Save the Children." The songs and performances, however, furnished only half of a revolution; little could've been accomplished with the Motown sound of previous Marvin Gaye hits like "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" and "Hitch Hike" or even "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." What's Going On, as he conceived and produced it, was like no other record heard before it: languid, dark, and jazzy, a series of relaxed grooves with a heavy bottom, filled by thick basslines along with bongos, conga, and other percussion. Fortunately, this aesthetic fit in perfectly with the style of longtime Motown session men like bassist James Jamerson and guitarist Joe Messina. When the Funk Brothers were, for once, allowed the opportunity to work in relaxed, open proceedings, they produced the best work of their careers (and indeed, they recognized its importance before any of the Motown executives). Jamerson's playing on "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" functions as the low-end foundation but also its melodic hook, while an improvisatory jam by Eli Fountain on alto sax furnished the album's opening flourish. (Much credit goes to Gaye himself for seizing on these often tossed-off lines as precious; indeed, he spent more time down in the Snakepit than he did in the control room.) Just as he'd hoped it would be, What's Going On was Marvin Gaye's masterwork, the most perfect expression of an artist's hope, anger, and concern ever recorded. ~ John Bush

  Originally released in 1971, WHAT'S GOING ON remains a landmark album, one that redefined music with powerful, anthemic songs that remain pertinent to this day. Before WHAT'S GOING ON, R&B albums were collections of singles, with secondary "filler" material rounding out the LPs. Marvin Gaye changed all this by releasing a concept album that went beyond the usual boy-meets-girl scenario, weaving together an aural collage of societal ills. "Crime is increasing/Trigger-happy policing," from "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," is as potent a line today as it was over 20 years ago, and with the country still divided over the Vietnam War, the title track became a rallying cry for peace.

  Dark, mercurial, and jazzy, WHAT'S GOING ON was as radical musically as it was conceptually. Layered with lush orchestrations, heavenly background vocals, and loose, fiercely grooving arrangements, WHAT'S GOING ON so surpassed anything previously known as soul music that it virtually reinvented the genre. The critical and commercial success of Gaye's opus also enabled other artists to break free from the creative shackles imposed by Motown and other companies, and to experience more autonomy in musical and thematic expression, thereby changing the industry. In short, the musical and historical significance of WHAT'S GOING ON cannot be overestimated; it was Gaye's masterpiece, and still stands as one of the greatest soul albums of all time.

  Originally released in 1971, WHAT'S GOING ON remains a landmark album, one that redefined music with powerful, anthemic songs that remain pertinent to this day. Up to that point, R&B albums were collections of singles, with secondary material rounding out the LPs. Marvin Gaye changed all this by releasing a concept album that went beyond the usual boy-meets-girl scenario, weaving together an aural collage of societal ills.

  "Crime is increasing/Trigger-happy policing," from "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," is as potent a line today as it was over twenty years ago. With the country still divided over the Vietnam War, the title track became a rallying cry for peace. Layered with lush orchestrations, heavenly background vocals and traces of jazz in particular spots, WHAT'S GOING ON never sounds musically dated. The critical and commercial success of Marvin Gaye's opus also enabled other artists to break free from the creative shackles imposed by Motown, and experience more autonomy in the making of their music.

Track Listing

Album Information

• UPC:
  00883717004925
• Release Date:
  May 10, 2005
• Type:
  Performer
• Genre:
  R&B - Motown
• Label:
  Pazzazz
• Distrbutor:
  Big Daddy Mu
• Country of Origin:
  USA
• Original Release Year:
  1971
• # of Discs:
  1
• Studio / Live:
  N/A
• Mono / Stereo:
  Stereo