What's Going On

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List Price: £8.99 (GBP)
  • Lowest New Price: £3.65
  • Lowest Used Price: £1.93
  • Lowest Collectible Price: £9.99
  • Total New: 34
  • Total Used: 16
  • Total Collectible: 2
  • Total Refurbished: 0
  • Artist : Marvin Gaye
  • Binding : Audio CD
  • EAN : 0044006402222
  • Format : Extra tracks
  • Format : Original recording remastered
  • Label : Commercial Marketing
  • Languages : Original Language: English
  • Manufacturer : Commercial Marketing
  • Number Of Discs : 1
  • Package Dimensions : 0.39 inches (Height) x 5.67 inches (Length) x 0.22 pounds (Weight) x 4.65 inches (Width)
  • Package Quantity : 1
  • Product Group : Music
  • Publisher : Commercial Marketing
  • Release Date : 2003-01-27
  • SKU : mon0000994023
  • Studio : Commercial Marketing
  • UPC : 044006402222

Sly & The Family Stone might have psychedelicised soul music, but Marvin Gaye personalised it. Although the powers-that-were Motown didn't even want to release the record, the unexpected success of What's Going On, issued in 1971, inspired Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and just about every other black artist on the planet to take greater responsibility for their music and its meaning. Gaye co-wrote the songs and produced the album, flavouring it with layer upon layer of his own multi-tracked vocals, oceans of hand percussion, strings, flutes and jazzy horn solos. Spacy and loose as a spliff-fuelled Sunday afternoon jam in the park, the nine songs all played like hit singles. The title track-- inspired by his brother's return from the Vietnam War--and the obvious social commentary of "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" actually were hit singles. Two other tracks ("Wholly Holy" and "Save the Children") would inspire hit covers by Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross, respectively. Nevertheless, What's Going On sounds as fresh today as it did the week that it came out. --Don Waller

- Amazon.co.uk Review

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On may be the most powerful soul record ever made. In this Deluxe Edition, the original recording is embellished with an alternative Detroit Mix of the album, which is almost equally strong, and a previously unreleased recording of Gaye's live performance at the Kennedy Center in 1972. It also includes brilliant liner notes, including song lyrics and a mini-essay by Smokey Robinson, who calls What's Going On his favorite album of all time. The raw emotionality of the live disc further demonstrates Gaye's commitment to his own sentiments, and the feeling of longing and sadness that soaks the album. Gaye went into uncharted R&B territory on What's Going On: leaving love ballads behind, he explored social commentary from an intimate personal perspective. The world weighed heavy on his heart, and on this album he brings home the confusion of the Vietnam era, when America the Beautiful began to seem a little bit ugly. Armed with only his heart and his voice, Marvin Gaye took on Uncle Sam, and won many Americans over. --Lizz Mendez Berry

- Amazon.co.uk Review

Tracks:

  • Disc 1

    • 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 (Makes Me Wanna Holler)
    • 10: God Is Love (Bonus Track)
    • 11: Sad Tomorrows aka Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky)

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