REVIEWS:
Post your comments about Marvin Gaye
(Samuel Fassbinder's review)
You all know who Marvin Gaye was, no? Rising star of Motown, slick style of vocal delivery (with occasional histrionics), died in the '80s when his dad shot him during a family dispute. On a low-rated hour of Saturday night television, on a low-rated station, they were showing some obscure compilation of videotaped Marvin Gaye concert appearences, so I watched it to see what the guy was like in concert. I was only mildly impressed. Maybe it was the quality of the videotaping; the sound wasn't terribly impressive, even though Marvin Gaye (in the film he's dressed in a tacky 1970s-style polyester suit with a cloth cap over his head, shiny blue pants) put a strong spirit into each of his tunes, as much as you can expect when the guy is basically up there in front of an audience doing it for a share of the proceeds. Marvin Gaye put out a lot of duets with women (Tammi Terrell, etc.), so there was a big medley of those on the compilation. Some of it maudlin, some of it boring, all of it with Marvin Gaye's entertaining pop qualities. Afterward, I listened again to What's Going On, to compare.
There are two Marvin Gaye genres. Early Marvin Gaye, the '60s stuff, tickles my ear as above-average Motown romantic pop, from Detroit, from the Motown label, of course. Love songs, simple songs about relationships. Even though I'm not on a regular diet of that stuff, I guess that's the way to go if you're going to listen to Motown. The later '70s Marvin Gaye stuff displays some cheesy pick-up lines ("Let's Get It On," "Sexual Healing") that seem to be so hokey as to conceal a basic anxiety bubbling inside. Look, if his dad eventually shot and killed him in a family argument, you have to figure that something was up, no?
What's Going On is the album in the middle, between the early and the late, and it's the disc where Marvin Gaye lets loose with that tell-tale quaver of sincerity, from a popstar who'd been singing songs all his life that were tailored to his label's standards, and one who went back to singing something along those lines after this album. This is the "I'm doing what I want" album, where the anxiety that you suspected of the other Marvin Gaye stuff comes out, straight, no chaser. On top of that it's gift-wrapped, no instrument left out, nothing was spared in its production, all of its emotional cues intensified by the interaction between the instruments and voices. A concept album, the concept ("love before it's too late," sez the liner notes) maintained without digression from the first note to the last. In sum, this is a delicate sliver of a part-of-the-way Release Of The Repressed wrapped in gold foil, completely irony-free. None of the sex stuff you read in Freud, tho', but he did hint at the thing with his dad, suspiciously: "Don't you talk about my father/ God is my friend..."
The tunes here are bass-driven; the bass lines here are all funky and hook-laden in a sort of godlike way. You've heard all the elements before, on albums done by popstars of many genres. You've heard the strings backup, the salsa beat, the xylophone and the cymbals on "Flyin' High," the female background choruses. You've heard concept albums before. If you liked that other stuff you'll like this stuff even more. This is Marvin Gaye going out of his way to show that he'd actually thought about life, about the lives the people around him were living, and that he actually had a considered opinion about all of it. Man this is an anxiety-laden album. Just listen to it as a stream-of-consciousness narrative, all the way through.
You might know the famous Top 40 tunes here, "What's Going On," about the '60s, "Mercy Mercy Me" about ecological destruction, and "Makes Me Wanna Holler" about the conditions of inner-city life. In between those singles, there are maudlin statements of compassion like "Save The Children," but you can tell even there that he's trying to "get real" about both inner and outer worlds. None of the numerous cover versions (http://www.warr.org/ has a list), probably none of the live stuff either, really can substitute for the heavy intensity of what happened in the studio here.
As an expression of attitudes, it's there. Marvin was into religion bigtime -- lots of preaching, Marvin poured his voice into it, "God Is Love," "Wholy Holy." Marvin had religion connected to love, or so he said; it's also wrapped up with his anxiety about sin, though he's got that shoved onto self-hatred: "I go to the place where danger awaits me and it's bound to forsake me/ So stupid minded"... This isn't gospel; gospel would be a public celebration of the eternal. This is a dated confessional narrative set to orchestral funk. Marvin wanted to have an intimate conversation with community, with his brother Frankie especially, partly 'cause he messed up by never writing to Frankie when Frankie was away fighting in Vietnam (as the liner notes say). So there's stuff about the conflicts in the '60s here (the title track). But you can hear the community in the title track and elsewhere, they're the background voices. He tells the community "What's Happening Brother" and "Right On," in two of the songs. "Right On" is one of my favorites, with a great flute performance. Remember, this came out in 1971, "right on" _really means_ "right on" here. I could say more, but those are the basics. This is one of THE masterpieces of privileged compassion, of course. You won't want to listen to it a lot 'cause it's so heavy, but it still gets an...
Waes Hail! Christmas is a lovely time of the year, isn't it? People seem happy and are always grinning until they go shopping at the mall and get FRIGGIN CUT OFF BY A WOMAN OLDER THAN HER YEAR OF BIRTH IN A PANZER DISGUISED AS AN OLDSMOBILE....sorry, real life adventures at the mall this week. Good grief; I have NEVER seen so many people driving so insanely. Lay off the eggnog before getting on the road, folks! At any rate, what do Christmas and Marvin Gaye have in common? Nothing really; I just felt like telling that charmingly seasonal story while sipping my nice hot wassail and singing The Coventry Carol, which is a lovely seasonal song that people forget about because they'd rather sing Jingle Bells for the umpteenth-million time as opposed to truly lovely holiday songs like the aforementioned Coventry Carol and O Come O Come Emmanuel....dang it, holidays always make me rant. Holidays and chicks. Speaking of chicks, my lovelife isn't worth talking about this review. So you can breath a sigh of relief, o noble reader.
Before I forget to actually review the dang album, I'll leave it at this came in the mail from a music club whose name I won't say; I'll just say that it begins with Columbia and ends with House. Oopsies. At any rate, I got the "deluxe edition" of What's Going On, which basically translates in they took a 9-song album and turned it into a 2-cd set with a jillion original mixes, live cuts, single versions, etc. It wasn't much more money, so I figured what the heck and got it.
Now, I'll not waste your time reviewing the whole deluxe spiel; I'll just waste it reviewing the actual 9 song album. In total honesty, Motown is not exactly my bag....well, I take that back somewhat. I love the occasional choice Motown single; you can't deny the sheer pop perfection of most Motown productions. However, living on Motown alone would be like me eating nothing but nice little Belgian chocolates; it'd probably taste good and go down easy, but I'd never get filled and then gain 100 lbs and drop dead from a heart attack. Well, you get the idea. BUT, this ain't strictly Motown. My Girl this stuff ain't. You do get fairly Motown-ish general sound (mellow brass, strings, the Motown rhythm section, etc.), but the message is something entirely different from your other Motown stuff. Anti-war songs? Social commentary? Talk about the environment? What the heck??? I thought Motown was about catchy ditties about love and romance!
Well, ole Marvin Gaye (not to be confused with Gay Marvin, the owner of a popular male escort service based out of Barney Frank's apartment) certainly thought Motown could be serious. Serious commentary with sweet soul music... like it. Another neat feature is how well everything flows....no breaks between songs, similar enough basic sound that the album seems to be one big multi-part soul record. Now, as for individual songs, there are certainly some high points. Of course, the rightly-famous title track is simply great. You can really hear some of Marvin's anguish on those appeals to mother and father. Also well-known (and very good) is Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology). Marvin tries to sound concerned about the ole third rock from the sun, and he does it to a really lovely melody. Heck, really everything is lovely...my sole complaint is the, uh, length of certain songs. I'm sorry, but NO MOTOWN SONG DESERVES TO BE OVER 4 MINUTES. The Motown sound gets a LITTLE tedious on the longer cuts, and when the longest song is ridiculously repetitive with no good hook (in my humble opinion), you gots problems.
So, how do ye score one like this? It's simple; you draw a number out of a hat. Not really. There's too much sonic monotony for a 10 or even a 9, but the melodic strength and beauty of most of the songs certainly warrant a good score. So I give it an 8 and say rest in peace, Marvin.
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COMMENTS
[in response to the second review:]
[email protected] (Michael Wright)
Dude, I have never heard of anyone so far off base in my life. I mean, how can you even hear the music with your head THAT FAR up your own ass? It's truly amazing that you or anyone could write a bad review on a classic album such as What's Going On and it’s even more dumbfounding that some jackass even gives you a forum for such a misinformed view. I guess you got a little side tracked when you started in on your trip to the mall and your eggnog stories. That real important stuff and totally goes with the theme of this (still WAY ahead of it time) album. No, I’m serious. I can totally see the parallels. Holiday traffic/ inner city suffering. Hmmmm, what was I thinking all of these years. It’s so clear now!!!!!!
I'm guessing you're also the kind of DUDE that would call Sly & the Family Stone's There's A Riot Gong On album fragmented and sloppy or that Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark album was predictable and boring, and yet hail everything that Eric (yawn) Johnston ever did. How close am I, champ? Or are you just a fucking moron that wouldn't know beauty, soul and brilliance if it kissed you dead on the lips?
Check this out sporto, the next time you decide to review a timeless album but you're not feelin' the genre, do us all a favor. DON'T DO IT! You're just bound to embarrass yourself again.
1, 2 FUCK YOU!
Mike Wright
No offense, Mike Wright, but you arrogant ass. If you can't tolerate musical opinions contrary to your own, then don't even fucking read sites like this. There's no such thing as objective musical opinion, and it's certainly not yours. So fuck off.
Now, on to the album! What's Going On is a pretty cool LP, as well as a revolutionary one. I wouldn't rate it QUITE as low as Mr. Baker here does--it should get a nine just for the effort. The main flaw of the record, as I see it, is the sequencing. The second song, "What's Happening Brother," has the EXACT SAME CHORD SEQUENCE as "What's Going On", which precedes it. I understand that this is a conceptual album, but dammit, you don't repeat the main theme twice in a row. You just don't. Then it just sounds redundant. I think Mr. Gaye should've switched the places of the "Right On/Wholy Holy/Inner City Blues" and "What's Happenin'/Flyin' High/Save the Children/God is Love/Mercy Mercy Me" suites. That would've made a much more logical musical structure. OTHER THAN THAT, I have no complaints. This is catchy, well-constructed, well-sung, emotional, and musically brilliant stuff. A 9, all the way.
[added on much later:]
Note to readers--disregard any of the above comments I have made on this album. I am a jerk, asshole, degenerate, and otherwise enemy of mankind for writing such evil, un-Christian nonsense. And please put the feel-good music of the Carpenters on to help us put this whole messy, nasty, stinky business behind us, once and for all, and unto eternity.
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