What's going on?

Hootsmon

Bought this a few weeks ago to get some Marvin into my life...his best work they say.

JHC & FFS! what an enormous big slice of HAM.....and cheese this is

unbelievably dated and a comedy almost, a parody of every cliche from the 70s

I think this is the 2nd album i have switched off in 20 odd years

Must have started with the wrong Marvin album I guess

fields5069

Hmm. I mean, it came first, it broke more than one mould, was a complete departure for the artist, and was a big risk for Motown who wanted him to carry on screaming his way through more hits. It can't really be a cliche if it was out on its own though. I don't like all the spiritual bollocks, and short though it is it does seem to go on a bit too long. I love most of it though. To each his own of course. IMO it's like saying Hitchcock films are badly acted - the music is of it's time to a certain extent though I think it stands up well against anything made since.

EricTheWeary

Ahh. Wasn't it the greatest album of all time on the Rolling Stone list this year? 

It's not necessarily to my taste but as said above it was a radical thing at the time. Something I've dipped into, gone that's amazing but after two tracks wanted to listen to something else.  

Hootsmon

EricTheWeary said:

Ahh. Wasn't it the greatest album of all time on the Rolling Stone list this year? 

It's not necessarily to my taste but as said above it was a radical thing at the time. Something I've dipped into, gone that's amazing but after two tracks wanted to listen to something else.  

now you mention it i think that's why i had the look see

ICBM

I didn't get it the first time I listened to it, but it's worth giving it more than one listen. It isn't the greatest album of all time, but it's very good.

As fields5069 said, if it sounds like a cliché of the 1970s it's because it wrote the book on them...

pigface

When I read that title, I always think first of the Taste song, as I did just now. That's a goodie :-). Mind you, the Marvin one's not bad either. And as the others have said, it defined the clichés, it didn't use them.

horse

I love it - as much as anything for the production / what it sounds like

Emp_Fab

Hootsmon said:

Bought this a few weeks ago to get some Marvin into my life...his best work they say.

JHC & FFS! what an enormous big slice of HAM.....and cheese this is

unbelievably dated and a comedy almost, a parody of every cliche from the 70s

I think this is the 2nd album i have switched off in 20 odd years

Must have started with the wrong Marvin album I guess

Yeah.....  it sounds like you picked Hank.

Redlester

It’s alright. Not the  best ever but it’s alright. 

Astral Weeks is the one folk rave over which is complete pants. 

scrumhalf

There is only one "What's Going On". One of the best side one track ones you'll ever hear, and one of the best albums.

PhilW1

pigface said:

When I read that title, I always think first of the Taste song, as I did just now. That's a goodie :-). Mind you, the Marvin one's not bad either. And as the others have said, it defined the clichés, it didn't use them.

Ha! That’s what made me click on...fucking click bait

ICBM

Forgot to say, if do you want to hear some Marvin Gaye and you don't know where to start, it's hard to go wrong with this.

https://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/store/products/the-very-best-of-marvin-gaye-marvin-gaye

PhilW1

scrumhalf said:

There is only one "What's Going On". One of the best side one track ones you'll ever hear, and one of the best albums.

Sorry to digress Hoots, but this is what I love about this site, it keeps popping up with musical gems that I haven’t listened to in a long time.
Already this week I’ve gone back to Uli era Scorpions and Budgie, now Taste.

Nitefly

scrumhalf said:

There is only one "What's Going On". One of the best side one track ones you'll ever hear, and one of the best albums.

Farkinell, I haven't heard that for nearly 50 years!  What a bloody great album that was...

ICBM

Following up on the 'cliché' criticism, I've noticed something... this morning I'm listening to 'Now 100 Hits Of The 70s', and most of the songs that are actually from 1970 - rather than '71 or later - really sound very different, much more like the late 60s than like "the 70s". I have a suspicion that What's Going On, released in 1971, is a big part of the reason for that.

Emiel

I love it, but there are only like three great 3 tunes on it. In a way it's like Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' success could be due to the single 'Another Brick In The Wall Part 2'..?

I prefer Marvin's later albums 'Let's Get It On', 'In Our Lifetime' and 'Midnight Love'. He has some written some incredible music. And that voice...!

monquixote

It's a bit like listening to Robert Johnson and saying it's a cliche because it rips off Eric Clapton. 

It's the mould from which all the socially aware soul music comes from. He pretty much invented that sound.

Like his other classic album Let's Get It On it's all very one note and all the songs are sort of variations on a theme, but that makes it a nice listen.

suitablyswell

Keep listening. It's not a "song"-based album, it's about the overall mood over the course of the whole thing. I hope it clicks for you, I find it extremely rewarding.

Littlejonny

I used to love this album - will have to dig it out

Kittyfrisk

Close to Marvin era. For a rock fan, I really loved The Commodores 'Machine Gun' album. Thought it was absolutely great, funky but raw.

And then I realised that  "Young Girls Are My Weakness" wasn't such a cool song...