The year is 1971. The narrator is a young man, let’s call him Anthony Curtis, and he’s back from the horrors of Vietnam, longing for his life in the land of the free, home of the brave. The soul food, his old pals, the streets he grew up on and honestly feared he wouldn’t see again during each mortar attack from the VC.

What he finds is that the war he left behind was just a bootcamp to the new war he was going to endure. Drugs, prostitution, urban decay and a government that abandoned them, plus a racial struggle that wasn’t completely solved.

That’s the plot of Dead Presidents, but it works as a visual companion to what Marvin Gaye sang about 40 years ago. Finding the home you cherished so much torn asunder by social discrepancies.

So is the thematic of Marvin Gaye’s What’s going on, a bonafide classic and one of the first concept albums. Marvin’s soft, gauze like voice is a clear juxtaposition to the harsh realities depicted in the lyrics. “Mother, there’s too many of you crying”, declares ‘What’s going on’, the first of 9 soulful, funky tracks with an actual message about an era long gone, but with many of the issues from back then still being a tribulation right now (the war on drugs, the financial crisis, the class gap, etc).

Social struggles (police clashing with rioters, poverty, Vietnam) is the bread and butter for Mr. Gaye’s music, with a clear stream of messages that get across and seep through your mind. It just goes to show that you don’t have to shout to be listened; you don’t have to grate to deliver your message. You can be poignant and still sound like aural Ambrosia, no need to break the windows in your commercial district.

The environment (‘Mercy mercy me’), drugs (‘Flyin’ high in the friendly sky’ – chilling intro) all the worries that Mr. Marvin Gaye had in his mind and felt he had to express about are all here, this album that is a cathartic experience. ‘Inner city blues (make me wanna holler)’ is possibly my fave Marvin Gaye song, with the poignant intro of ‘Rockets / Moon shots / Spend it on the have nots’ being the crux about the late 60s, early 70s major problem in the USA: yes, they went to the Moon, but the social gap was wider than those 357,000 km separating us from our closest piece of lifeless rock.

Anyway, due to site’s policy, I’m not allowed to talk about politics, so I’ll refer you to Marvin Gaye’s lyrics. Better expressed than anything I could write. Much better sung too.  The album is fantastic, but you already knew that, it is a classic for a reason. This 40th anniversary edition has some nifty extras. It should, after all, it’s two cds and a vinyl record, with lavish photos of the making of this album.

For starters, on cd number 1, after the 9 classic tracks from the original album, you get a couple of rare tracks and the mono mix single versions of some of the songs. It’s good to listen to another take and ‘I love the ground you walk’ is worth the price of admission alone, it’s a groovy instrumental track (mit glockenspiel) that is full of honest happiness, a good point to soak into the positive vibe the band is using to dispel all the bad vibes from the otherwise dark lyrical content.

Hold that thought on the jam numbers. Cd number 2 is the one containing unreleased tracks, some b-sides and some orphaned songs from the You’re the man album that never happened. ‘Mandota’ is a tour  de force in funky music, with everyone contributing equally to this instrumental track. The band are in control of their instruments but no one will upstage the other, showing a true camaraderie that is seldom found in music. The jamming nature of most of the songs in this disc make them memorable, specially since most of them are unreleased tracks. A true collection of gems and personally, the selling point of this connection. Nothing like getting a classic holler of “1, 2, 3” followed by a groovy jam of funk music.

The LP, well, if you ever wanted a copy of the fabled (or infamous, I never remember which adjective to use) “Detroit mixes” of What’s going on, well, there they reside, in a shiny 12 “ vinyl. It’s the first time I listen to them on a higher quality mix and although they take you out  a bit on a first listen due to the familiarity of what you’ve listened before so many times,  it’s nice to hear these alternate mixes. It shows the organic nature of music and how the brush strokes you give might not be the final painting.

The mix in general is pretty nifty, with James Jamerson’s basslines resonating without getting drowned, with every single conga and organ note being on a same level and the string sections sounding as heavenly as Marvin Gaye’s voice.

This lush 40th anniversary release of What’s going on is a real treat, a proper tribute to one of the classiest albums and surely a watermark for concept albums. Marvin Gaye might be gone but this collection is a good encomium to his legacy.

Words: Sam

Random Fact: The studio in Detroit where What’s going on was recorded? Same one for Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul. Booyah, brothers.