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What's Going On
Rmst ed.
Extra Tracks, Remastered
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Return this item for free
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Listen Now with Amazon Music |
What's Going On
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Price | New from | Used from |
MP3 Music, May 21, 1971
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Audio CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, January 14, 2003
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| $1.99 | $4.52 |
Vinyl, Import, May 20, 2016
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| $25.17 | $29.50 |
Audio, Cassette, Original recording remastered, April 7, 1998
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From the brand
Track Listings
1 | What's Going On |
2 | What's Happening Brother |
3 | Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) |
4 | Save the Children |
5 | God Is Love |
6 | Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) |
7 | Right On |
8 | Wholy Holy |
9 | Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) |
10 | God Is Love (Bonus Track) |
11 | Sad Tomorrows a/k/a "Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky)" (Bonus Track) |
Editorial Reviews
The 1971 classic, digitally remastered and with the original artwork restored. Still one of the best soul records ever made.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Product Dimensions : 5.55 x 4.92 x 0.47 inches; 3.25 ounces
- Manufacturer : Motown Records
- Item model number : 2003102
- Original Release Date : 2003
- SPARS Code : DDD
- Date First Available : January 23, 2007
- Label : Motown Records
- ASIN : B00007FOMP
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,519 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #6 in Quiet Storm (CDs & Vinyl)
- #8 in Classic R&B (CDs & Vinyl)
- #11 in Motown (CDs & Vinyl)
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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The big surprise was that it was Marvin Gaye who made it. Gaye was Motown's superstar solo act who had had a hit filled career since Stubborn Kind of Fella in 1962. His image was that of a suave, smooth, happy-go-lucky guy, always well dressed and somewhat of a ladies man, an image reinforced by his many duets with Mary Welles, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. But that was a record label image. The real Marvin Gaye was aware of the time in which he lived, a time that had left the sunny early 60's behind and which had become turbulent and torn by a multitude of problems: the Vietnam War and its protests, the counterculture, life in the ghetto, drugs and the only recent realization that the natural environment was being destroyed in a way no one had suspected. Then came a personal crisis of the worst kind, the death of his singing partner and friend Tammi Terrell from a brain tumor. We all go along in life thinking there's some kind of sense and justice to it all, then something really horrible happens to someone really good and undeserving of such a fate and that shakes you to your foundations. I think that her death, on top of everything else really shook Marvin Gaye and made him realize he couldn't put out another happy, bouncy Motown album as he always had.
The song came from Obie Benson the deep voice of the Four Tops who co-wrote it with Motown house songwriter Al Cleveland. But the other Four Tops didn't want to do what they saw as a protest song and passed on it. But Gaye was interested and cut the single in the Summer of 1970. Then came the resistance to it in the form of Berry Gordy Jr. who called it "The worst thing I have ever heard" and vetoed its release. But Berry Gordy Jr. was very old school. His dream had been to make popular music for the mainstream and get black performers out of the isolation of the R&B charts and onto the pop charts. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. But beyond that he only wanted to get his acts into fancy clubs like the Copa and on network TV. He didn't seem to have much of a social consciousness and if he did, it didn't matter because he saw anything controversial as something that could ruin Motown. Norman Whitfield had been able to update the Temptations into edgier songs but nothing as all-encompassing as this.
But Marvin Gaye was fired up by this song, truly inspired. He went on strike, swearing not to record anything until the song was released. Motown was forced to release a Super Hits album instead of a new one and some weak singles that didn't chart very high. In the end Gordy gave in and the single, What's Going On was released in January of 1971. Opening uniquely with a party in full swing then the clarion call of a beautiful alto sax, it commanded the immediate attention of everyone by its sheer originality. It soon was #2 in the country and stayed on the charts for months. Gordy had to give the green light for the album, which was recorded over just ten remarkable days in March. Gaye often called it "God's album" not only because he sought a spiritual answer to mankind's problems but because he, the musicians (Motown's Funk Brothers house band), the producer (David Van De Pitte) and his co-writers all felt a rush of inspiration like they had never felt before.
The result was unique among Motown albums. Songs flowed into each other without breaks. Instead of the usual punchy beat this album seemed to float effortlessly, buoyed by multiple rhythms and jazz sax that continued throughout most of the tracks. Only Right On leaves this sound world and inhabits an earthier kind of jazz that almost brings the album down a bit too much until it ascends again with Wholly Holy. Each song is its own vignette from the puzzlement of the returning soldier of What's Happening Brother who comes home to a decade's worth of change in just a few years (which is how fast things were changing in the 60's) to the addict of Flyin' High (In the Friendly Skies (the United Airlines slogan) who knows he's hooked. Mercy Mercy Me is still practically the only ecology song that isn't cloying and it has one of the eeriest endings ever in a pop song. and direct pleas like Save the Children and God Is Love are sincere pleas for some kind of sanity in this world. It all ends with the album's final hit single, Inner City Blues which ends us where it all began with the beginning of What's Going On.
Universal owns the Motown master tapes and this CD sounds fantastic, with every note clear and full. Many good things have been said of this album. Many claims of greatness have been made. They're all true.
He truly needed an outlet and wasn't being given the freedom to do so musically which is one of the reasons I believe he turned so heavily to drugs early on. It was through a series of letters he received from his brother who was serving in Vietnam that this incredible album and it's overall message would come into being. His brother was informing him about the war and what that all entailed and Marvin begin to tie that in with life here in the U.S. and what it was going to be like for his brother, or anyone in his situation, to return home. And from that, WHAT'S GOING ON was conceived and born.
It truly is a tortured soul, begging, no, SCREAMING for all to come together and put aside petty bigotry, hate and war. But it's also, in many ways, a confessional for Marvin as, if you pay close attention, he is revealing many of the thoughts and struggles he's personally dealing with at the time. It's Marvin's life struggles, the "microcosm" relaying the overall issues and struggles facing the nation and world as a whole, the "macrocosm." It's an album that really and truly needs to be listened to all at once as it truly was meant to be a continuous message and not a series of "singles."
We've heard of "concept" albums before but this was the truest since of that term as each song is a part of an overall story that Mr. Gaye takes us on. With each note he sings, you can hear the plea in the man's voice calling out for both outward togetherness and inner peace. He was actually contemplating leaving music behind altogether prior to the creation of this album. However, his brothers stories plus his own personal demons, compelled him both to write & record this album as well as fight Gordy and the powers that be at Motown for it's promotion and release. It's amazing to listen to Gordy now as he reflects back on what he told Marvin about the album then versus the conversations they had in the years after it's release and historical success.
I may never have been as moved as when I first heard this album for the first time, the tears flowed, I danced, shouted, cried out and expressed just about every kind of emotion humanly possible. I truly love this album and pray that this brilliant, loving, tortured soul has finally come to know the peace he agonized over and sang about to us on this record so long ago. This is a quintessential album and EVERY music lover no matter what genre you may prefer should give it a listen. I promise you will not be disappointed.
There was never an album recorded like this one up to that point, it truly was/is one of a kind as was/is it's creator. Marvin Gaye was a true musical giant and deeply profound man, his work is being reassessed more and more as it should be as some of the very best ever recorded. While my personal favorite album of his is HERE MY DEAR due to it's extremely personal nature, this is, without question, his most influential and historic album worthy of any and all conversations about the greatest recordings of all time.
I feel like I heard this album for the first time after decades of missing it.
Top reviews from other countries
Just holding this piece brings you right back in the feel and smell of the 70's.