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“What’s Going On” is one of Marvin Gaye’s best-known tracks, but it also represented a major turning point in his career and a breakthrough for socially conscious music in the mainstream, and that’s just the opening track of an album that still tops Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 55 years after its release. Across a nearly seamless 35-minute masterpiece, Gaye pours out his feelings about war, police brutality, racism, ecological destruction, and spirituality on top of surprisingly laid-back grooves, sumptuous strings, and reverb-soaked percussion.
In many ways, the story of the title track is the story of the album. While it’s known today as an anthem of peace and love, “What’s Going On” was the product of a very dark time for the artist personally and American society at large. The United States was still entrenched in Vietnam, anti-war protests were being violently quashed by police, LGBTQ Americans were fighting for their rights at Stonewall, and activist leaders like Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King, Jr. were being assassinated.
All of this, along with Gaye’s friend and collaborator Tammi Terrell being diagnosed with a brain tumor after collapsing into his arms onstage, caused the singer to slip into a deep depression. He felt unworthy of his 1969 Grammy nomination for “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and even said he “felt like a puppet” of Motown’s notoriously controlling founder, Berry Gordy, and his sister Anna (Gaye’s wife at the time). After Terrell’s death in 1970, Gaye stopped performing live and didn’t bother to promote his latest album, That’s the Way Love Is.
During this time, Gaye shook off his squeaky-clean image by growing a beard, became increasingly dependent on drugs, got in touch with his spirituality, and became a regular at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He even considered a career change into sports by trying out for the Detroit Lions (who soaked up the press coverage but ultimately convinced him not to). It was one of the most tumultuous times of his life, but out of it came a work of art that put him back on the map and forever changed the landscape of music.
Here’s what went on during the making of What’s Going On.
Although it came to be a defining album for Marvin Gaye, the initial concept of What’s Going On actually came from his friend and fellow Motown artist Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops. In March of 1969, Benson witnessed police violently attacking protesters during a confrontation in Berkeley, California, that would later become known as Bloody Thursday.
“I saw this and started wondering, ‘What was going on, what is happening here?’,” Benson recalled. “One question led to another. Why are they sending kids far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own kids in the street?” Benson shared these feelings with Motown staff songwriter Al Cleveland, who put them to music, and the first version of “What’s Going On” was born.
Benson initially brought the song to his own group, but the other three Tops turned it down, feeling that a “protest song” didn’t fit their clean-cut image. He then offered the song to Gaye, who initially wanted to pitch it to The Originals before being convinced by Benson to sing it himself. Ultimately, Gaye agreed with the condition of a co-writer credit so he could put his own spin on it. According to Benson, Gaye “added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem more like a story than a song.”
Sessions for what was then just a single began on June 1st, 1970, at Hitsville U.S.A., Motown’s humble studio in a converted house on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. The band was recruited from the usual group of Motown session players known as the Funk Brothers, but one key element was missing: James Jamerson, the bassist whose fluid, melodic style was a cornerstone of the “Motown Sound.” As the story goes, Gaye finally tracked down Jamerson playing at a local bar, already deep in his cups by the time they got him to the studio.
As was typical for Motown productions, the backing tracks were recorded live with all the players together in the “Snakepit” (so called because of its slightly sunken floor dominated by tangles of mic cables). Across the glass from engineer Steve Smith, Gaye led the band from his seat at the grand piano with a clear view of drummer Chet Forest at the far end of the room and guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina off to his right. According to multiple accounts, Jamerson was too intoxicated to sit on his usual stool and opted instead to play lying on his back.
The grand piano in the "Snakepit" of Motown Studio A. Note drum kit and moveable baffle in the corner.
While there’s no detailed technical information from this particular session, Motown followed a rigid and repeatable formula in the studio, including mic choices like Neumann U67s for the snare and drum overheads and Neumann KM‑56s or RCA 77-DXs on the piano. By 1970, the AKG D12 had become the standard kick drum mic at Motown, but before that, many engineers used the RCA 77-DX, so there’s a chance it was used on the session. “People couldn't believe we were using a ribbon microphone on a bass drum,” Motown engineer Kenneth Sands recalled. “The wave front of a bass drum would tend to stretch the ribbon of a ribbon microphone, but that's what we used. That was the foot sound, that was Motown.”
To minimize bleed in the room, electric guitar and bass were recorded direct, running through a custom five-channel amplifier built by Motown’s expert studio tech Mike McLean. McLean also designed the studio’s console, a transistor-based desk built to replace the old console when Motown began to transition away from tube gear. By this time, Studio A was equipped with a state-of-the-art Ampex MM1100 16-track tape machine, giving engineers more flexibility than ever. Outboard gear included the famous Motown EQ alongside newer Pultec EQs, as well as classic compressors like the LA-2A and 1176.
Percussion overdubs were also done in Studio A, including one of the song’s most defining elements: the congas and bongos played by Eddie "Bongo" Brown. His playing is superb, but what really brings it to life is the reverb from Motown’s famous echo chamber. From the control room, engineers could send any track to a speaker in the attic of the house, which was finished with a highly reflective coating and equipped with a Shure SM57 wired back to the control room. Although more reverb was added later, at least some of it would have been printed straight to tape; another significant piece of the Motown Sound.
After basic tracking at Studio A, additional overdubs were recorded at Motown’s Studio B, a separate facility that was formerly operated by Golden World Records before being absorbed into the Motown machine. During these sessions, engineers Kenneth Sands and Russ Terrana tracked lead and background vocals, Eli Fontaine’s saxophone, strings arranged by David Van De Pitte, and the iconic party chatter that opens the track (featuring some of Gaye’s friends on the Detroit Lions).
What’s Going On is notable for its unconventional use of dual lead vocal tracks, which came about as a result of a happy accident in the studio. After recording a couple of solid takes (with a Neumann U87, if you’re curious), Gaye asked Kenneth Sands to bounce a copy of each version to compare. “Instead of doing that, I made one stereo mix with the entire track in the center of the mix, the first vocal on the left-hand side, and the second vocal on the right, just to save time so he could listen to them simultaneously or against each other,” Sands recalls. “As it turned out, singing against himself worked. That's how a lot of things happen. A lot of brilliance is spread out of happy accidents.”
Another unplanned gem was the alto sax line at the beginning of the song, which Eli Fontaine improvised over what he thought was just a demo. Fontaine insisted he was just “goofing around,” to which Gaye replied, "Well, you goof off exquisitely,” and decided to keep it. Arising out of the opening chatter as if it were just another voice in a crowded room, the sax sets a mournful yet hopeful tone for the song, a theme that is reflected throughout the entire album.
When the last of the overdubs had been laid down, Sands mixed the single in the tenth-floor studio at Motown HQ (equipped with an Electrodyne console and Altec 604E coaxial monitors). But when Gaye presented the finished product to Gordy, the Motown founder rejected it outright. Allegedly calling it “The worst thing I ever heard in my life,” Gordy took issue with everything from the political lyrics to the scatting section in the middle. In protest, Gaye refused to record anything else unless Motown released the song.
While Motown’s founder and its biggest star remained in a deadlock, Motown A&R man Harry Balk conspired with VP of Sales Barney Ales to release the single anyway (with the B-side “God Is Love”). Right under Gordy’s nose, they had 100,000 copies pressed and promoted it to radio stations all over the country. The January 17, 1971, release was so well received that another 100,000 copies were pressed immediately, and all 200,000 sold within a week. Instantly won over by the monetary success, Gordy changed his tune and gave Gaye the go-ahead (and creative control) to produce a full album by the end of March.
The rest of What’s Going On was recorded over ten days, using mostly the same instrumentation, session players, and studios. More Funk Brothers were brought in for the full album, including Bob Babbitt replacing Jamerson on “Mercy Mercy Me” and several other tracks, Wild Bill Moore on tenor sax, Johnny Griffith on celeste, and Earl Van Dyke on additional keyboards, Jack Brokensha on vibraphone, and additional percussion by Jack Ashford, Earl DeRouen, and Bobbye Hall. The Andantes provided additional background vocals.
At the time, Motown had already begun moving operations to Los Angeles, so basic tracking was done in Detroit while the remaining orchestral parts were recorded at the Sound Factory Studio in West Hollywood. Conducted by Motown arranger David Van De Pitte, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra recorded the album (except for the first track) straight through like a suite, giving the songs a cohesive flow from track to track.
In fact, the album itself almost feels like a suite, with a consistent overall sound broken up by slight variations in arrangement, tempo, and dynamics. The second track, “What’s Happening Brother”, sounds very much like the first but with jazzier vocals, while “Flyin’ High” slows things down a bit with a looser feel. “Save The Children” takes things in a more serious direction with spoken word and sung vocals in a call-and-response style, and “God is Love” brings back the funk with a strong bass and conga groove. Side A closes with the album’s second biggest hit, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, featuring Gaye on Mellotron (most audible in the eerie choral slowdown at the end).
Side B consists of only three songs, beginning with “Right On”, an unusually long track for a Motown record that clocks in at seven and a half minutes. “Wholy Holy” is the album’s softest ballad, featuring sultry strings and sax with only chimes for percussion. As if to make up for a deficit of rhythm instruments, “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” closes out the album with the full complement of congas, bongos, drum kit, and triangle, leading into a gradual reverb fadeout.
Although the record was initially mixed at Motown Center by Steve Smith and others, the version that actually ended up on the LP was done by Russ Terrana at the Sound Factory in LA. The “Detroit Mix” was eventually released as part of the 2001 Deluxe Edition and features a few notable differences. The first thing you’ll notice is the lack of party chatter at the top of “What’s Going On” (although it does come back later), along with wider panning on the dual lead vocals and far less reverb overall. Hear the differences for yourself:
Although it certainly ruffled some feathers at the time, What’s Going On achieved incredible success, staying on the Billboard charts for over a year and becoming Gaye’s best-selling album with over two million copies sold in that period alone. Rolling Stone named it 1971’s Album of the Year, and it continues to top the magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list (just ahead of Pet Sounds).
Like all great albums, What’s Going On is more than the sum of its parts. A combination of great songwriting, world-class musicians, top-notch engineering, and a few happy accidents elevated an idea born out of pain and darkness into a message of peace and humanity; a message that just happens to slap incredibly hard. Whether any album can top it remains to be seen.
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