Alternate Vocal, Strings:



Rhythm & Strings Mix:



Instrumental:



Isolated Bass Track (James Jamerson):



Acapella:



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Enjoy the wonderful mixes of one of the greatest songs to ever be released and enjoy the geniuses that are Marvin Gaye, James Jamerson and the rest of the Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its background vocalists (Mel Farr & Lem Barney).

Remember on the American Masters when they had his acapellas on Pro Tools?


That was awesome!!!

bboy87 said:

And just the bongos and bass that followed afterwards.

what do you think of donny hathaways live performance of this song?

motownlover said:

It's a jam too.

You know, you really have something special if you can strip away every instrument on your track and your vocal is still so powerfull that the song loses none of its emotion or brilliance. Marvin gayes vocal arranging is underatted - its a term that gets thrown around alot but his vocal arrangements were nothing short of genius. I hear alot of his arrangement style in Prince's work - something that gets rarely mentioned. Check out when doves cry for instance. i could see Marvin covering that song and just killing it.

It still kills me that Berry Gordy didn't want to release this. I mean, I can understand the elements that he thought wouldn't be successful (the scatting in particular), but the sheer beauty and truth of the song trumps all. It's just so utterly fantastic it's almost painful.

AlexdeParis said:

even then it was important to release stuff that was " in

I always found this album to be prophetic of sorts. He was talking about things that really were not going on at the time but are going on right now.

IAintTheOne said:

Besides the Vietnam War?

AlexdeParis said:

besides that.. shit

I could listen to this all day long. An amazing song. One of my favorite songs by any artist period. I think the song will always be relevant.

IAintTheOne said:

You know what's funny about that album is that at the time Marvin was basing the entire album almost on his little brother who had returned from Vietnam (he was a radio deejay there for three years). The album dealt with the aftermath some faced after the war: returning to social life after a long time away, finding out finances weren't as good as they were when he left, some troops lost themselves in heroin addiction. When the album turned into something else was when he focused mainly on the inner city ("Save the Children", "Inner City Blues"), divided souls ("Right On"), environmentalism ("Mercy Mercy Me") and God ("Wholy Holy", "God is Love").

He was mainly doing things, like you said, that no one was really talking about at the time. You rarely heard a pop singer sing about religion in the 1970s (reminds me of what Kanye West said when he was told "Jesus Walks" wasn't commercial) and you rarely heard any pop singer mention about the humanity of children though you can say The Stairsteps' "Ooh Child" predated it somewhat.

And the even more unique thing, the many issues he conquered like police brutality, racism, the war, protests, tax troubles, drug addiction and all of that, that's going on now more than it ever did when Marvin recorded it 37, 38 years ago.

That's why the album remains as timeless as it is now because of the many issues going on today. It gives the album an extra purpose. Marvin was definitely prophetic.

motownlover said:

Berry didn't wanna release the song for several reasons: the man was basically a heartthrob in the sixties and Berry figured that if Marvin released a song like "What's Going On" that it would destroy his image. Marvin was going through personal issues at the time like the death of Tammi Terrell, his fading, stormy marriage to Berry's sister, and felt Motown was squeezing him in a formula that was fake. Also after his brother and he had emotional discussions over the war, Marvin could ever not let up and would not let up and once he told Berry, "if you don't let me release it, I ain't gonna record for you ever again." Berry had to finally say "alright, alright..." Once the song was released, it became a surprising hit, according to Berry.

Berry's other thing is when he heard the album, he didn't like the way Marvin and his engineers had produced it because everything was like a segue. He wanted Marvin to cut parts of the length just so he can create some "singles", but again Marvin figured this production way was beautiful and it shouldn't be tampered with. Berry let it go after that. After it was released in May 1971, Berry couldn't really help but tell the truth as he did: "What's Going On was probably the greatest album that Motown ever put out"

Even Stevie Wonder, a man who created five masterpieces in the 1970s, and Smokey Robinson, said the album was the greatest album ever done.

Plus as someone said, Sly Stone and The Temptations' own social songs may have been recorded from a strong, psychedelic and harsh tone, Marvin's own social anthems were created out of sophistication and its arrangements, which sounded as if it came from an orchestral funeral, made the album really personal.