Customer Reviews

Whats Going On (Vinyl)

5 star:		(129)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is by far the best album Marvin Gaye ever made. It is also a record that people need to hear today! This record deals with war, unemployment and personal demons. When he first brought the master to Motown Barry Gordy and his management laughed at it and said it was going to flop. How wrong they were. It was a huge hit and today is Motowns top selling record ever. Mofi has done an excellent job with the remaster and transfer. Like the Band SACD's they have gone for a warm anolog sound instead of trying to make it sound like a record recorded with digital equipment today. So if you thought you were going to hear something that Sounds like "Brother in Arms" it's not going to happen. I really hope there are a lot more SACD's coming from Mofi. Besides I can't afford the ones from Japan.

I bought this CD not because I'm a big Marvin Gaye fan. (although I respect his work) Nor did I buy it because I'd ever heard the entire album before. I simply bought it because it's one of the highest rated albums of the 70's. And for good reason. Listening to the cuts, I couldn't believe how environmentally aware Marvin Gaye was at a time when very few people were even aware of 'environmental issues'. Listening to it, you'd think it had come out since the millenium! Not only are the lyrics thought-provoking, the music itself is classic! If you're looking for a classic album, maybe something out of your norm - you have to pick this up! I think this is where to start if you're not necessarily a fan but want to know what the man was about.

This is simply put the greatest body of work ever written for the public to enjoy, and yet to learn from too. He was not just writing for one person, he wrote this for all of us.

It stands alone in the music world, in high demand still, even after its 1971 release. Motown did not want this album, it was too volitile to release in 1969, so it sat for a year and a half. Yet it revoloutionized music, it was an album, a concept album when America was into singles still.
I am so glad they realized someone had to say what was said on this disc. To me this is a work of musical, and spirtual art. He is speaking of himself and of society, all in one beautiful musical journey.If you have never heard this work, listen to this disc, and listen with an open mind.

It is simply one the BEST musical compositions of all time. Timeless and powerful, a piece of love from a man who was so troubled in his own life. He gave us a message from God, a gift he could not ultimately find himself, peace and love.

My oh my. When true rightness hits you, it hits you hard. Despite Charlie Keil's quasi-Marxist disdain for this record, it remains a landmark in musical history, as it should be. Just like The Wu Tang Clan's early CDs, OutKast's OutPut, Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton's inspirations, James Brown's gifts, Jimi's jams, Monk's Music or James Reese Europe's genius, whatever inspires you to be your full self, this record has it. Utterly in command yet completely given over to the One, it is among the works that set the standard for true music of both a previous time and for our time as well.
This 2CD edition contains the released mix, the first unreleased mix, a 1972 concert in DC, 3 7" singles mixes, and two un-issued dubs, all of which illustrate Mr. Gaye's musical heart in these songs. If inspiration could communicate its source (which by definition it can't) these works would be among those where It was communicated most clearly. Like Big Boi says, go and marinate on that a little bit.

Marvin had broke out of Motowns formulaic hit making machine with this 1970 album and set out to record the kind of music he wanted to make. The result was 'Whats Going On', possibly the greatest R&B album ever. That title track is just eternal.... What a groove!

The whole atmosphere Marvelous Marvin creates here is just incredible! Moody and dramatic numbers about the world, people of today, social ills... The songs are carefully crafted and flow into each other one by one, culminating in the all time classic high of 'Inner City Blues'. 'Mercy, Mercy Me' is also present, and the rest of the material is equally inspired and pleasurable on the ear. Marvin was in the zone with this one, just as important & relevant today as it was back then, essential.

There are NO type of words to describe HOW beautiful this album is! I mean, people had been saying that for a while before I finally copped it around 2000 but when I finally heard the album with nine tracks in all its glory, I was floored! I mean, this is what a TRUE artist IS! Marvin Gaye is more than just a musical legend, he is a legend for the entire world. Each song he had done, he always knew how to invoke so much emotion, so much pain, so much hardship and still come out with a piece of beauty.

Save Sam Cooke and Al Green, no other artist turned R&B upside down and made it personal better than the man hailed from the Chocolate City. With his 1971 album, "What's Going On", Brother Marv went from singing about NEEDING love all the time to singing about WANTING love not only for himself but also for the entire world from ghetto to ghetto, backyard to yard, country to country. Forget Elvis, Marvin was truly a rock & roll innovator. He proved Black artists can sing a full album full of personal anguish and make it touch you deep inside your heart.

No track is a filler and it's not so much the music but the message behind it that hits home. Telling a story of the singer's brother returning from Vietnam and asking that important question ("What's Going On"), his Rip-Van-Winkle sense of things-gone-by ("What's Happening, Brotha?"), his descend to drug abuse ("Flying High In The Friendly Sky"), and Marvin's own messages of trying to understand his place ("Right On"), trying to understand why the world is in such a disarray ("Mercy Mercy Me"), tormented because the children of the world are already going through terrible times while living in the ghetto ("Save the Children") to accepting Jesus into his life and also asking those not to question His majesty ("God Is Love") to embarking on a mission to conquer all hate ("Wholy Holy") and finally exposing the truth of his surroundings as poetically as he could in the streets ("Inner City Blues"--which is his landmark single IMO, but it's hard to choose THE landmark since Dude has had so many "landmarks"). This album told a STORY. It wasn't all out there like the work from the Beatles and the Beach Boys, less raucous than music from the Rolling Stones and the Temptations (who was going through a "psychedelic-soul" phase) and was just as serene as the music that would be released soon afterwards from these acts:

Issac "Black Moses" Hayes

Curtis Mayfield
His fellow Motown brotha, the Wonderful Stevie
Leon Ware (who would also produce a classic album along with Marv five years afterward)

And much, much more.

It also paved the way for Black acts to personally write about their own troubles like a book and not so much about pleasing youngsters but pleasing the soul within us. After Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye helped bridged the gap in Black music. This album remains his ultimate landmark but he was just getting started. This will be his decade to shine.

You know the only bad thing about it is that the man who inspired a lot of R&B, rock, pop, hip-hop and soul singers today is no longer with us to experience and tell us more stories about ourselves that before, we didn't have an idea or clue about, also his music is so timeless because the stuff that had happened when he recorded this in the late-'60s and early-'70s (Vietnam, civil rights movement, Black Panthers, etc), is still going on today in 2004 (Iraq, civil rights lawsuits, injustice among celebrities, the FCC, etc).

Long live Marvin P. Gaye, Jr. forever and ever!

My overall rating of this classic: 10+

As I said in the title, LEGEND is all that needed to be said! We love you and miss you, Marvin.

How does one write words about this wonderful album that can speak to our heart and our soul? Love one's fellow man and remember to express your love to God too. Wow. Mr. Gaye was writing at a time of very great social unrest in the USA. MLK & RFK were dead and people were very, very distressed about the Vietnam war. He spoke of basic love. Now we listen to him as if he is the Walt Whitman of R&B music. And he is. Beautiful sound. Inspiring lyrics. Makes you want to hug your mom, dad, your children and....see your neighbor as your equal and your responsibility to care for. It doesn't get any better than that.

Marvin Gaye's 1971 classic "What's Going On" is a tremendous R&B album that every self-respecting fan of the genre should have. What makes this album so great is its uncompromising history: Berry Gordy wanted more up-beat songs from Marvin, and received the title track, which lamented the wasteful war in Vietnam. Gordy was horrified and almost refused to release it. Of course, the song became a huge hit in the US thanks to increasing awareness about societal problems, and now Marvin had to record an entire album to supplement the single.
The entire album took an intense 10 days to record, but you could never tell by the languid flow it possesses. This album is dense with rhythm and melody, and flows together like a single song suite, making it a must-listen all the way through in one sitting. What's also great about the album is that its messages still hold true today. We still face problems that Marvin saw the US face 30 years ago: a needless war, problems with the environment, and social problems across inner cities in the US. Marvelous music, uplifting message, this is truly a classic album.

This is not "merely" a great album - it's the best album of all time! When all the wise foolish critics get together and scribe out their "best of" lists, this is where they (and everyone else) must start. Marvin Gaye was a phenomenally talented singer with a long history of family strife, addiction, abuse and even laziness, self-doubt and procrastination. He had tasted success previously (most notably with "I heard it through the grapevine") and not only was a member of the famous Motown stable, but he married in to the Gordy family (yeah, how inscure was he anyways?). But this album immediately put him in a class by himself, beyond reach of the Stones and Beatles and Beach Boys of the pop world and the Aretha Franklin's and Otis Reddings and Stevie Wonders from the soul/R&B side. Did he know what he was doing or was it a happy accident? No one will know for sure, except that this suite of songs changed forever what music would be and shattered people's expectations of what an album could be. The topics aren't fluffy and cute (Sergeant Pepper) or ultimately useless (Who's Next), but they hit hard and home. Poverty? Drug addiction? Government Spending (or overspending, to be more specific)? Child abuse? Religious confusion? It's all there.

Any artist coming out with a release after 1971 knew in the back of their mind that they would forever be compared with the bench mark of "What's Going On". If you're Milli Vanilli and out to make money, great. If you're Smashing Pumpkins and you want to be a critical smash (in addition to the money), great. Whatever and whoever you are, you're going to be measured by this album. It's almost comical (tragicomical) when artists such as Whitney Houston will have the audacity to compare their work with this one. Can you really call any single album number one? No and yes. No, you can only group them with a top 20 of best works, and yes, there is one exception: "What's Going On".

The problem with topical is you can only go so far with it: we are forever a world of indulgence, and that said, we need music, nice hummable melodies that if possible fill our souls with emotions. The end result of lyrics, melodies, performances and productions should be that they take you another, better place. This is exactly what "What's Going On" accomplishes. To pin a historical analogy on it, when you listen to "what's Going On", consumers can finally have their cake and eat it too.

The song "What's Going On" is ok. When people ask me, "What's Going On?" I respond by saying "'What's Going On?' Do I look Like Marvin Gaye to you?"