What's Going On

Annotation

As discussed above, Marvin Gaye, born in Washington D.C. (2 April 1939), helped shape the sound of the Detroit-based Motown Records in the 1960s, and thus he became one of the most influential soul singers of the era. In the early 1970s with the album What's Going On, he worked on his own production, breaking away from the Motown team. It introduced the concept album to R&B, while it contained innovative music, using gospel, jazz, soul, and classical orchestration, as the songs flowed seamlessly together. Note that Gaye also released the Vietnam-related songs Soldier's Plea (1962) and "I Want to Come Home for Christmas" (1972). The song "What's Going On" (Tamla Records # T 54201), the title track to the album above, also released as a single, included some war references - "we don't need to escalate you see, war is not the answer" - as well as documenting inner-city violence and racial tensions. Considered one of the greatest songs ever by various music publications, such as Rolling Stones, this single scored big in the charts, selling over two million records. As well as topping the R&B Billboard chart for five weeks, it crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching # 2.1Sources1Wikipedia: What's Going On (song)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Civil Rights Songs

As discussed above, Marvin Gaye, born in Washington D.C. (2 April 1939), helped shape the sound of the Detroit-based Motown Records in the 1960s, and thus he became one of the most influential soul singers of the era. In the early 1970s with the album What's Going On, he worked on his own production, breaking away from the Motown team. It introduced the concept album to R&B, while it contained innovative music, using gospel, jazz, soul, and classical orchestration, as the songs flowed seamlessly together. Note that Gaye also released the Vietnam-related songs Soldier's Plea (1962) and "I Want to Come Home for Christmas" (1972). The song "What's Going On" (Tamla Records # T 54201), the title track to the album above, also released as a single, included some war references - "we don't need to escalate you see, war is not the answer" - as well as documenting community violence and Civil Rights issues. Considered one of the greatest songs ever by various music publications, such as Rolling Stones, this single scored big in the charts, selling over two million records. As well as topping the R&B Billboard chart for five weeks, it crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching # 2.1Sources1Wikipedia: What's Going On (song)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs

As discussed above, Marvin Gaye, born in Washington D.C. (2 April 1939), helped shape the sound of the Detroit-based Motown Records in the 1960s, and thus he became one of the most influential soul singers of the era. In the early 1970s with the album What's Going On, he worked on his own production, breaking away from the Motown team. It introduced the concept album to R&B, while it contained innovative music, using gospel, jazz, soul, and classical orchestration, as the songs flowed seamlessly together. Note that Gaye also released the Vietnam-related songs Soldier's Plea (1962) and "I Want to Come Home for Christmas" (1972). The song "What's Going On" (Tamla Records # T 54201), the title track to the album above, also released as a single, included some war references - "we don't need to escalate you see, war is not the answer" - as well as documenting inner-city violence and racial tensions. Considered one of the greatest songs ever by various music publications, such as Rolling Stones, this single scored big in the charts, selling over two million records. As well as topping the R&B Billboard chart for five weeks, it crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching # 2.1 Sources1Wikipedia: What's Going On (song)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Mother, mother, there's too many of you crying / Brother, brother, there's far too many of you dying / You know we've got to find a way to bring some lovin' here today / Father, father, we don't need to escalate / You see, war is not the answer / For only love can conquer hate / You know we've got to find a way to bring some lovin' here today

Notes

Tamla T 54201, matrix Q-S5-M5-S6-831M05; "What's Going On" (A. Cleveland-M. Gaye-R. Benson), 3:40, © 1970 Jobete, BMI; Marvin Gaye; "Produced by Marvin Gaye", "Arranged by David Van De Pitte"; "A Trademark of Motown Record Corp. © 1971"; yellow and maroon globe label. [From the record sleeve and labels] Label: Tamla T 54201, © 1970 Jobete BMI, matrix Q-S5-M5-S6-831M05; label time 3:40; produced by Marvin Gaye, arranged by David Van De Pitte. [From the record label]

About the artist

Born 2 April 1939, Washington, DC, USA. Died 1 April 1984, Los Angeles, California, USA

Themes

Soldier's Perspective

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs