What's Going On

Prior to the recording of What’s Going On Marvin Gaye’s music would normally be about love, falling in love, hanging onto love, or losing love. He usually wrote very romantic or sexual music. What’s Going On was not about love at all, or at least not in a romantic sense. Before he decided to put this album together he spent a long time away from his music after the death of his friend Tammi Terrell. While he was taking this time off he witnessed all the racial, political, and social problems going on in our country on the news. He readed letters from his brother, who was fighting in the Vietnam War, which said how his brother and other soldiers were confused on what they were even fighting for and why they were fighting for a country that didn’t except them because of there skin color. All this along with the loss of Terrell motivated him to get back to Motown. The first song he tried to release, as a single, was “What’s Going On”. His producer Berry Gordy refused to release it because it was too political and different from other Motown songs. He believed there was know way it would be a hit. Gaye refused to record any more songs until they released it. Of course later the song was released and it was a hit, the song song 100,000 copies the first day. For this album Gaye had complete control over the production. He hired producer Chet Forest, because of his experience with big bands. With his help he had large assortments of percussion, including woodblocks, congas, even a cardboard box that Gaye beat with drumsticks. This, along with using a choir instead of the usual three person back up vocals usually heard in Motown had added an element to Motown never heard before. This was the first Motown album that could not simply be classified as soul or R&B. Also it was the first Motown album to list the session musicians, for this album they were the Funk Brothers. I really like this album the instrumentation and lyrical value is very impressive.