What's Going On

The album widely regarded as Marvin Gaye's masterpiece almost never got made at all. At the turn of the 70s, Gaye had fallen out of favour at Motown and developed a reputation for wayward behaviour. Traumatised by the death of duet partner Tammi Terrell in March 1970, he had retreated from the limelight and was smoking grass in prodigious quantities.

His return to the studio was therefore met with some scepticism by Motown boss Berry Gordy. The first track to emerge was the titled track, which in itself had a convoluted genesis. Written by Four Tops member Renaldo Johnson and lyricist Al Cleveland, it had already been turned down by the Tops and Joan Baez. Johnson and Cleveland persuaded Gaye to record it only by dangling the carrot of a cut in the publishing.

From then on, recording proceeded in a relaxed atmosphere amid clouds of dope smoke. What's Going' On reflected a new mood of dissatisfaction with contemporary America. The promised Great Society had failed to appear and the inner cities were awash with race conflict, hard drugs and poverty. As well as the continued conflict in South East Asia, America was at war with itself.

Some musicians used this as a platform for belligerence, confrontational lyrics and a rising militancy. Gaye, however, took the opposite view. What's Going On was a relaxed, inclusive record, epitomised by the 'brother, brother' opening. Gaye cast his eyes over a range of social ills, from the plight of the ghettoes to the state of the planet. Throughout the message was sweetened by David van DePitte's smooth string arrangements and expertly assembled rhythm tracks, over which Marvin double tracked his vocals. Gaye was partial to protracted bouts of masturbation to rid him of sexual tension and to help achieve a suitably relaxed ambience. Tellingly, the album's themes were all resolutely non-sexual.

However, the relaxed vibe didn't make Gaye easier to work with. He was regularly late for sessions, or missed them altogether. When he did appear it could take hours to nail a good take. Confidence in the album wasn't high, and it took the unexpected success of What's Going On in the single charts to change Berry Gordy's mind and finally give Marvin free rein in the studio.

Gordy, whose reputation was forged in Hitsville USA with a string of classic singles throughout the 60s, suddenly seemed like a man out of time. The album was a massive critical and commercial success, re-establishing Gaye as the company's premier artist even while he drifted further away from the man who was both his boss and brother-in-law. He followed it up with his tremendous soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Trouble Man, before returning to politics of a sexual nature on Let's Get It On. However, What's Going On remains his best.