Week 6: 50 Albums that Changed Music

[Swish]

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (1971

Gaye's career as tuxedo-clad heat-throb gave no hint he would cut a concept album dealing with civil rights, the Vietnam war and ghetto life. Equally startling was the music, softening and double-tracking Gaye's falsetto against a wash of bubbling percussion, swaying strings and chattering guitars. Motown boss Berry Gordy hated it but its disillusioned nobility caught the public mood. Led by the oft-covered "Inner City Blues", it ushered in an era of socially aware soul. Withouth this there would be no Innervisions (Stevie Wonder) or Superfly (Curtis Mayfield).

Swish - not to be trusted

[BradH]

Good call on this one. I never thought of the Marvin Gaye/Stevie Wonder connection but it makes sense lyrically. Although it's odd they would cite 1974's Innervisions when Wonder had already done 3 albums in that style starting with Music Of My Mind (1972). But Wonder's musical inspiration for those albums started with hearing Sly Stone.

[3-LockBox]

I like this one too. For an established artist, who had every reason to rest on his laurels, to stick his neck out and make an artisitc statement like this, was a pretty gutsy move. Still as soulful as anything he had ever done, and yet carried a message of social discord without blugeoning you over the head with it. I can't think of another artist that was as majestic as Marvin Gaye.

And Gaye, while he wasn't a pioneer in the field of soul (Sam Cooke was), he did show that a black performer could produce such an album and still satisfy the Motown hit machine. Gaye was as involved in the production scheme as Wonder was, even playing many of the instruments on future albums. His vision for R&B and Soul mixed with edgy social commentary would be a major influence later on in Rap and hip/hop.

[bobsticks]

I agree that this is a good album and an important album, but I question its effects on the the artists listed.

[audiobill]

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (1971

Great album that speaks to us today. Good call, Swishster.

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, 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 - Ya

I think I'm going to toss the disc on the player.

Cheers,

audiobill

[Davey]

Yeah, I do love this one. Got a pretty nice sounding LP, and then later picked up one of the gold plated remastered from 20-bit blah blah blah CDs. Like Brad though, it's kind of hard to imagine Stevie Wonder not doing Innervisions, the path was already there and the music was already flowing from his mind. But yeah, What's Going On was huge, and undeniably had to influence every serious soul artist of the time, and probably most since. Still sounds great, almost timeless, even though it is so much a part of the 60s and 70s. Albums were so much shorter and more focused back then. Too bad it didn't have a more lasting affect on Marvin himself, as much of what he did after this just seems so glossy and lightweight to me (although often mixed with some great, sexy, and fun songs too). I was never really clear how much of the music and lyrics Marvin was responsible for on this one (I know the title track wasn't his), but it definitely has his sound.

[nobody]

Fantastic record that I play often. And, influential as a strong early example of how soul music could be more message oriented over the course on an entire album. Curtis Mayfield, quite earlier with the Impressions, had already shown the way with songs, but I don't recall off hand another soul album as cohesive as this with a social conscience. Feel free to correct me if I am forgetting something. The use of percussion was pretty forward thinking for the time too.

I've always been interested in how out of character it really was for Marvin Gaye to release this one. I often hear this album name checked as an example of how older soul music was more about something when compared to modern stuff that’s all about sex. Well, OK...this album, but that forgets that not only did Marvin Gaye release What’s Going On, but he also put out Lets Get It On...or how about Sexual Healing? Or, how about his earlier standard issue love songs?

Either way…great record and a high point for both Marvin Gaye as an artist and soul music as a genre that at least influenced generations of singers to strive toward equaling it.

[BradH]

... but I don't recall off hand another soul album as cohesive as this with a social conscience. Feel free to correct me if I am forgetting something.

I think you're right on the money. The social message had largely been coming from funk with JB and Sly Stone. Isaac Hayes broke some musical barriers with longer songs in 1970's Hot Buttered Soul but that's not quite the same thing. I think Black Moses was after What's Goin' On wasn't it?

[3-LockBox]

I've always been interested in how out of character it really was for Marvin Gaye to release this one. I often hear this album name checked as an example of how older soul music was more about something when compared to modern stuff that’s all about sex. Well, OK...this album, but that forgets that not only did Marvin Gaye release What’s Going On, but he also put out Lets Get It On...or how about Sexual Healing? Or, how about his earlier standard issue love songs?

More evidence of his long-term influence. This album, and his next were precursors to the next two or three generations of soul, funk, and later hip/hop and rap with sexuallity and social commentary becoming more and more overt with each decade.

But Gaye was just soooo classy about it.

[3-LockBox]

I think you're right on the money. The social message had largely been coming from funk with JB and Sly Stone. Isaac Hayes broke some musical barriers with longer songs in 1970's Hot Buttered Soul but that's not quite the same thing. I think Black Moses was after What's Goin' On wasn't it?

I think What's Goin' On? was a landmark because it was primarily a concept piece (ah, there's that 'album as artisitic statement' thingy again). Because yes, others had been playing around with socially conscious lyrics, such as Mayfield, JB and Sly Stone, but funk at the time was still a fringe genre, while Gaye was an established and highly successful commercial act. His venture was riskier.

But yeah, Wonder had already started down this path with Talking Book a year before Innervisions (and a year after What's Goin On). What Gaye did was to tap into a well that was already there, but being who he was at the time, his success turned that well into a floodgate.

[DariusNYC]

You guys are being so boring. C'mon, this album sucks ass and you all know it.

Where's Troy when you need him?

(OK, just kidding -- I dig the album too. Although I don't think there's anything on it that's quite as good as "I Heard it Through the Grapevine". But hey, I'm a guy that thinks "I Was Made to Love Her" is the best thing Stevie Wonder ever did.)

[nobody]

Will it help if I admit that while I do listen to What's Going On a ton, I probably listen to Superhits even more?

[DariusNYC]

Will it help if I admit that while I do listen to What's Going On a ton, I probably listen to Superhits even more?

Nice album cover! A bit Snoop Doggy Dogg-ish.

[nobody]

Album covers like that are my reason #1 for liking vinyl.

[3-LockBox]

Will it help if I admit that while I do listen to What's Going On a ton, I probably listen to Superhits even more?

holy crap! That's a hideous cover.