What's Going On is the finest record to come out of Motown and perhaps one of the best protest records of all time.
Originally written in a time where there was something to rebel against, a time of radical changes so deep that most of the participants didn't even know what they were causing, Gaye's masterpiece immediately spoke for an entire generation, the first record by a black artist that spoke for the entire country.
It works so well because the protests are human and intensely personal. Dylan could write a protest album, sure, but he did not suffer nearly the kind of injustice Gaye went though during this time in his life. Sick of the Motown hit factory that robbed artists of their integrity and creativity, fueled by sadness from his own disintegrating marriage and the death of Tammi Terrell, his duet partner, Gaye isolated himself and created this record.
Its genius is in its air of hope, the underlying optimism that undercuts Gaye's soaring voice, one that is equal parts sadness, hope and romance. The title track is the most recognized masterpiece, as it should be; Gaye's brother Frankie had just returned from the war, and in a way this record uses him as the narrator to address a country torn apart by war and social strife. Starting with some happy studio banter, the song uses a sensual sax beat and sparse production, putting the emphasis strongly on Gaye's lyrics, which are simple but direct: "Picket lines and picket signs / Don't punish me with brutality / Come on talk to me / So you can see what's going on." The background vocals (courtesy of two Detroit Lions) and the occasional handclaps and scat singing just bring the point home, as does the soul underpinning.
Motown owner Berry Gordy did not release the song as a single, further cementing its legacy as an ultimate protest tune, and Gaye refused to make any more music until Gordy relented. He did, and Gaye finished this disc in a week. But you wouldn't know it by the quality of the performances.
Using jazzy beats with dark basslines and a variety of percussion, Gaye drives home his anger, hope and compassion in these nine songs, some of the fastest 35 minutes in music history. "Right On" is a seven-minute tune about the gap between rich and poor, but you'd never know it's that long, so lucid and smooth is Gaye's musical vision. The upbeat Latin-tinged music is a counterpoint to the somewhat bitter lyrics: "Some of us were born for races to win / Some of us are aware that it's good for us to care / Some of us feel the icy wind of poverty blowing in the air," he croons.
Through much of the record, Gaye turns to God, a frequent theme in his life partly because of his strict Christian upbringing. While Gaye never went to the lengths of his abusive father, he loved the Bible and believed God was the answer, which gives some of the songs here a hymn-like feel, especially "Wholly Holy" and "God Is Love." But they are never as preachy as they sound: the latter is a two-minute ditty with lines like "He made this world for us to live in / and gave us everything / and all He asks of us is we give each other love." This echoes the theme of the title track and most of the record, where love is pretty much demanded by the singer.
Yet Gaye never forces anyone to feel emotion -- he tells it as he sees it, which is evidenced by the album's title, What's Going On. Note the lack of a question mark. Gaye wants to know what's going on, of course, but he's also going to tell you what's going on, which he does in the album's centerpiece, "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)." Encompassing everything right about soul music in three minutes, Gaye simply sings "Oh mercy mercy me / Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no / Where did all the blue sky go? / Poison is the wind that blows." The song uses four stacked verses and then goes into a free-form jazz instrumental before ending on a dissonant series of notes that leave an eerie feeling.
In a way, it's the musical opposite of the closing "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," which lyrically recalls the title track but is a bit more of a clarion call to the government. "Rockets, moon shots / Spend it on the have nots / Money, we make it / 'Fore we see it, you take it / Oh make you wanna holler / The way they do my life." It's a testament to the power of the record that Gaye croons the lyrics in a tenor rather than spit them out, as if realizing that fighting violence and injustice with anger would not accomplish anything. Make no mistake, Gaye was angry, but it was a righteous anger.
That outpouring of emotion resulted in his best work, a world of difference from both his "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" years and the ensuing Let's Get It On. Few artists matched the power of this record, and Motown was pretty much finished after this, as Gaye and labelmate Stevie Wonder broke free from the shackles and made the music they always wanted to make.
Lucky for us, what Gaye wanted to make turned out to be a timeless and relevant record, as the problems he sings about have only worsened 35 years after the fact. Music rarely is this honest and meaningful, and by externalizing his pain and frustration Marvin Gaye made a record that managed to address the problems facing all Americans but undercut them with an air of hope, a thought that by simply loving and appreciating we could make life better for everybody. It's a beautiful thought and an intense, beautiful album.
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