Additional information
This deluxe edition of WHAT'S GOING ON includes a 20-page booklet with complete lyrics, never-before-published photos from personal family collections and an essay by David Ritz. Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); David Van Depitte (arranger, conductor); Robert White, Joe Messina (guitar); Johnny Griffith (celeste, keyboards); Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); Eli Fountain (alto saxophone); Wild Bill Moore (tenor saxophone); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, percussion); Bob Babbit, James Jamerson (bass); Chet Forest (drums); Eddie Brown, Earl DeRouen (bongos, conga); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion). Recorded at Hitsville, Golden World and United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michican. Originally released on Tamla (310). WHAT'S GOING ON: DELUXE EDITION features the original album, plus an unreleased Detroit mix, a live version from Kennedy Center, and unreleased single versions and instrumentals. WHAT'S GOING ON: Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); David Van Depitte (arranger, conductor); Robert White, Joe Messina (guitar); Johnny Griffith (celeste, keyboards); Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); Eli Fountain (alto saxophone); Wild Bill Moore (tenor saxophone); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, percussion); Bob Babbit, James Jamerson (bass); Chet Forest (drums); Eddie Brown, Earl DeRouen (bongos, conga); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion). Recorded at Hitsville, Golden World and United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michican. Originally released on Tamla (310). Includes liner notes by Smokey Robinson, Ben Edmonds and Harry Weinger. LIVE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER: Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (vocals, piano); Robert White (guitar); Jack Ashford (glockenspiel, percussion, kazoo); Uriel Jones (drums); Eddie "Bongo" Brown (bongos); The Andantes, Freddie Gorman, Walter Gaines, Hank Dixon, C.P. Spencer (background vocals). Recorded live at The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1972. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Originally released in 1971, WHAT'S GOING ON remains a landmark album, one that redefined music with powerful, anthemic songs that remain pertinent to this day. Before WHAT'S GOING ON, R&B albums were collections of singles, with secondary "filler" material rounding out the LPs. Marvin Gaye changed all this by releasing a concept album that went beyond the usual boy-meets-girl scenario, weaving together an aural collage of societal ills. "Crime is increasing/Trigger-happy policing," from "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," is as potent a line today as it was over 20 years ago, and with the country still divided over the Vietnam War, the title track became a rallying cry for peace. Dark, mercurial, and jazzy, WHAT'S GOING ON was as radical musically as it was conceptually. Layered with lush orchestrations, heavenly background vocals, and loose, fiercely grooving arrangements, WHAT'S GOING ON so surpassed anything previously known as soul music that it virtually reinvented the genre. The critical and commercial success of G
Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.90) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Greatest protest album ever made? Most stirring soul-music symphony? Yes and yes. And then some." Rolling Stone (1/23/03, p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Revolutionary..." Rolling Stone (8/5/71, p.44) - "...There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them..." Rolling Stone (9/30/71, p.42) - "...there is no question that he has gotten progressively better...Gaye's multi-tracked lead vocals answer one another like a man talking to himself, finally enveloping the listener in a world view of incalculable intensity..." Rolling Stone (1/23/03, p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Revolutionary..." Rolling Stone (9/30/71, p.42) - "...there is no question that he has gotten progressively better...Gaye's multi-tracked lead vocals answer one another like a man talking to himself, finally enveloping the listener in a world view of incalculable intensity..." Rolling Stone (8/5/71, p.44) - "...There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them..." Rolling Stone (1/23/03, p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Revolutionary..." Spin (p.80) - "[A]n indelible quiet-storm jeremiad." Spin (p.51) - Ranked #9 in Spin's 'The Top 10 Reissues Of 2011' -- "[T]he sound is honeyed, feather-light....For protest music, it sure glides." Spin (p.122) - "The godhead of '70s soul albums plays like one seamless groove-song, with jazzy orchestrations..." Q (p.120) - "[T]his was the first soul album to engage directly with the political and social upheaval of the times, from the Vietnam War to environmental pollution." Q (1/03, p.69) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever" Q (10/99, p.161) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Motown Records Of All Time - "...one of the finest albums ever recorded.... gorgeous soulful settings, bewitching melodies and Gaye's magisterial singing." Q (10/99, p.161) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Motown Records Of All Time - "...one of the finest albums ever recorded.... gorgeous soulful settings, bewitching melodies and Gaye's magisterial singing." Q (6/01, p.128) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...The live album that forms the centerpiece of this re-packaged version of Gaye's greatest work is... astonishing..." Uncut (p.95) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "WHAT'S GOING ON is a fully rounded auteur classic, a sort of soul version of PET SOUNDS..." Uncut (5/03, p.116) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Global and personal anguish were never so exquisitely conveyed..." Uncut (5/03, p.116) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Global and personal anguish were never so exquisitely conveyed..." Vibe (12/99, p.164) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century Vibe (12/99, p.164) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century Living Blues (5-6/01, p.100) - "...A masterwork....Sumptuous packaging, insightful liner notes, and v
