A Prince Among Kings: the Political Anxiety of What’s Going On

Adam Solomons | 23rd April 2021 | Uncategorised

The back cover of the "What's Going On" LP.

Forged in an era of political turmoil and ecological uncertainty. the album’s sentiments still resonate 50 years later

Marvin Gaye was not a political artist until he produced one of the most influential and affecting didactic albums ever made. He stopped being a political artist soon later. The Motown icon and “prince of soul” became a household name on the back of his velvety voice, swoon-inducing lyrics and trademark appearance. For the first decade of his career in music, Gaye would only be seen in a crisp dark suit, all the buttons on his shirt done up. Sometimes, a tie. Always clean-shaven. That scrupulously digestible image was a masterwork of good marketing by a record company which had turned hair and make- up into an art form. Founder and ex-factory worker Berry Gordy ran Motown like an assembly line, with songwriters, sound engineers and performers kept separate in order to protect “the Motown sound”. Gordy was only 29 years old when Gaye arrived in Detroit, already something of a mogul, and an unpredictable but dogmatically ambitious record producer who had no time for quirk or, God forbid,...

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