By mid 1970 Marvin Gaye had reached a crossroads in both his personal life and his career, his beloved singing partner Tammi Terrell had lost a prolonged battle with a brain tumor, he was struggling with depression and spiralling drug use, his marriage was over and feeling trapped by an ongoing battle with Motown over artistic control he stepped away from performing and actively pursued an alternative career playing NFL football. He was deeply moved by his brother Frankie’s experiences in Vietnam and frustrated and disillusioned by social injustices closer to home he began exploring his spirituality and embracing more expansive art forms..Classical music, Jazz…he needed something more, to ‘say’ something more…
Enter ‘Obie’ Benson from The Four Tops…He had witnessed an incident of police brutality against anti-war protesters from the window of his tour bus and began to document the experience in a song with Motown house writer Al Cleveland. After his band mates turned the song down, uneasy with recording an overt ‘Protest song’, the pair were keen to find someone willing to make the statement on their behalf. Legend has it that Joan Baez turned the song down but on hearing the song Gaye was immediately taken by the subject matter though having stepped away from performing initially planned to produce the track with another Motown act, The Originals. Benson insisted that Gaye consider working on it himself…Gaye added some further lyrics and ‘What’s Going On’ was born. Benson later said “He added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem more like a story than a song. He made it visual”. Motown boss Berry Gordy wasn’t happy with Gaye’s new approach deeming social commentary uncommercial but the touch paper for a masterpiece had been lit and the single was an unexpected hit after Gordy declared the song “The worst thing I ever heard in my life”…
Gaye then entered the studio to complete the concept album with a hand picked group of Motown’s best house musicians and also some added players from Detroit’s Symphony Orchestra and work began on material drawing on Vietnam, a growing drug epidemic, the environment, poverty, unemployment, social injustice and in ‘Save The Children’ a plea to turn things around for the future generation…duetting with himself throughout to incredible effect after an accidental playback of two different vocal takes revealed a new sound and approach
for Gaye…
The album’s free flowing, jazz inspired latin grooves, heavenly choirs and gospel spirit alongside the socio-political lyrical themes and a darker more autumnal classical expansiveness creates a deeply moving spiritual combination. The album is a work of art, a classic…important, unrivalled. If you don’t know it then you really should seek it out and immerse yourself in Marvin’s beautiful vision for a better world. That, nearly fifty years after the album’s 1971 release, we are still struggling with so many of the issues the album confronts only makes it all the more poignant and essential…
DANNY & DEL AT UNION
Del Day and Danny Wilson run Union Music Store in Lansdown Place www.unionmusicstore.com
