Unlike the album analyzed in the first TBVO, Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, What’s Going On is a clear and dynamic recording that ranks closer to the best-sounding albums of 1971 ( Tapestry, Who’s Next, Every Picture Tells a Story, Blue) than the worst ( Percy, Songs of Love and Hate, Byrdmaniax, High Time). This combination of consumer love and critical acclaim has led to a dizzying array of What’s Going On reissues, remasters, and anniversary editions, making the album a perfect candidate for the second installment of TBVO. When Rolling Stone asked “271 artists, producers, industry executives and journalists to pick the greatest albums of all time” in 2003, What’s Going On landed at number six, making it the only album by an African American artist to crack the top ten. Blending pop, soul, jazz, and funk, Gaye created a flowing, interconnected suite of music that told the story of a black serviceman – loosely based on Gaye’s own brother, Frankie – coming back from Vietnam only to discover his city and country riven with segregation, poverty, and pollution.Ĭritically acclaimed and commercially successful at the time of its May 1971 release, What’s Going On has only gained in stature since. Like Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, or Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, What’s Going On is a singular, genre-defying expression of musical auteurship.įor the first time in his career, Gaye wrote or co-wrote every song. Nearly 50 years ago, Marvin Gaye released What’s Going On, an album that was not only an undeniable artistic leap forward for Gaye, but also a revolutionary statement of political agency and artistic freedom (especially for a Motown artist).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2023
Categories |