Ed Said 'What's going on'

 

It’s mid-morning, and outside the menacing cloud to the northwest has brought what will turn out to be a cool passing shower. I’m sitting at my desk, looking for some inspiration, and from my computer Marvin Gaye appeals ‘What’s going on?’. I take a sip of hot coffee and a moment of quiet reflection. Yeah Marvin, I agree my brother, what the hell is going on these days?

‘What’s going on?’ was a question Gaye asked 50 years ago. The song’s release in 1970 came at a troubled time in America’s history when racial tension, civil unrest and protests against the Vietnam war divided the country. It could just as easily have been last week. What was Gaye seeing at the time? Police protests, environmental issues, hate, war. Substitute that war for the war on Covid-19 and suddenly 1970 is in a tardis and hurtling towards 2020, where it seems we still can’t come up with an answer.

It’s amazing how music has a way of reflecting the times when it is made, and then also defining a culture over time. Of course, even before Marvin asked ‘What’s going on?’, James Brown screamed ‘Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)’, Aretha Franklin demanded ‘Respect’, and according to Bob Dylan the answer is ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’. So, the solution is definitely out there somewhere, and Marvin Gaye reckons he heard it on the grapevine.

‘What’s going on?’ is a more passive, non-aggressive protest song, so while the message is confronting – crying, dying, war, hate – the groove and soulful layered vocals deliver that message with a gentle conviction, promoting peaceful protesting: ‘You know we’ve got to find a way, to bring some lovin’ here today’ never sounded so smooth.

In a cruel and ironic twist of fate for Gaye, ‘What’s going on?’ was probably the last thing he said just before his own father shot him in the chest after an argument on April 1, 1984. Somehow it seems so poignant that the message in this song be immortalised by his untimely and violent death, aged just 44.

Many issues Gaye sang about then are also reflected in the culture and short history of our own country where we are also waging our own war with coronavirus, and challenged by issues of race, gender equality, social unrest, and a large section of society who are disillusioned and want to know ‘What’s going on?’

In an interview with Disc and Music Echo in 1971 Gaye spoke about his three year hiatus from performing prior to recording ‘What’s going on?’: "I spent the three years writing, producing and reflecting. Reflecting upon life and upon America especially – because that's where I live – its injustices, its evils and its goods. I feel very good about it (the song). I wasn't sure what would happen to it. But I don't feel good for myself – I didn't have much to do with the song; I feel it all came from God. He drew me into it.”

The rain has blown through and a weak shaft of sunlight spreads across my desk. Lost in whatever moment I was having, my last mouthful of coffee is a cold one.

Rich Pooley
Editor
info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz