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Forsooth (adv., 4-SOOTH)
Indeed, a fancy way to express the word "indeed."
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Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
C'mon talk to me
So you can see
What's going on
Marvin Gaye released this song and album in 1971, not without struggle. It was a clear departure from his Motown record company sound, and the label did not want to release it. The song sat for almost six months. In that time, Marvin Gaye refused to record other material, trying to force the studio's hand. Eventually, it was released, became a hit, and paved the way for Gaye to record the rest of the album.
"What's Going On" is a song and album of an era. It captures the divisions, problems, and tensions of the late-1960s/early-1970s perfectly. Police brutality. Poverty. War. The environment. Things ripping apart the nation in those days—and things not uncommon in our days too.
And that's the interesting thing about "What's Going On": it is timeless. The musicianship is effortlessly immaculate, the lyrics are pointed and ubiquitous, and the spirituality provides a depth to the struggle, turning it into a lament. Its sentiments feel as perfect and relevant today as they did forty-five years ago. The cries for humanity and understanding that slide over the beat, breaking through the mundane rhythm, continue to pour out of us today as well.
If the highest purpose of art is to reach the parts of us that we can't put into words, the highest purpose of popular art is to put into words the emotions of the people. In "What's Going On," Marvin Gaye did that with a beautiful grace that has been rarely matched.
AudioMarvin GayeWhat's Going OnSoulPeace, Love, and UnderstandingNothing new under the sun