“What’s Going On,” 40 years later
by Brian Gilmore, progressive.org
May 24th 2011
It was 40 years ago this month that Marvin Gaye’s legendary album, “What’s
Going On,” was released. The album, now considered a masterpiece of music and
social commentary, remains all-too relevant today.
Gaye’s album appeared at a time of tremendous political and social chaos in the
United States.
The civil rights movement was dying a slow death in 1971. Martin Luther King
Jr. was no more, and Bobby Kennedy, as well. Richard Nixon had been elected
President in 1968 using racial division as a campaign strategy.
The Vietnam War was still raging in 1971, despite its growing unpopularity.
Millions of people in Southeast Asia were dead, and 50,000 U.S. soldiers had
lost their lives there.
The “war on poverty” was over. Poverty had won. Riots had broken out in some
inner cities in the 1960s as a result, but the problem still festered.
Marvin Gaye’s album dropped into this America on May 21, 1971.
Gaye, born in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 1939, was a highly successful
singer-songwriter with Motown records. Gaye’s venture did not go over well with
his boss at Motown, Berry Gordy, who hated the single “What’s Going On” and
initially refused to release it. But he relented in January 1971, and “What’s
Going On” immediately shot up the pop charts. Soon, an entire album was
demanded. Gaye delivered his gem a few months later.
“What’s Going On” was Gaye’s desperate cry for a world where war was not the
answer, where only love could conquer hatred. Other songs on the album
addressed many of the social ills of then and now: “Inner City Blues” dealt
with the problems of urban America; “Save the Children” focused on the children
of the world; “Mercy, Mercy, Me” condemned environmental destruction.
Today, the United States is still engaged in wars abroad that have taken a huge
financial and human toll. Today, racism still lurks beneath the surface,
poverty and economic inequality remain with us, and corporate interests
continue to destroy the environment.
The persistence of these problems makes Gaye’s album more important every day,
as does his universal message of love. It is a message we should heed today.
Brian Gilmore, a lawyer and poet, resides in Michigan. He can be reached at
pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.
You can read more pieces from The Progressive Media Project by clicking here.
Original Page: http://www.progressive.org/mpgilmore052411.html
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