What's Going On
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There are lots of good biographies about Marvin Gaye knocking about already so it was difficult to know exactly what yet another one might add. Ben Edmonds addresses the problem by focusing on just a single aspect of Marvin's life. As he himself explains in his introduction: "This book is not intended to be a biography of Marvin Gaye, nor is it a history of Motown records. You already have multiple choices of both ......... This volume is concerned only with a slice of the Gaye story, but its subject - on the surface a simple vinyl disc not unlike millions of others - has held me spellbound for nearly 30 years to the day I am writing this" So it is not intended to be a biography at all, merely the story of a single record, the seminal release of 'What's Going On'. It is against the objective that the book should be judged. I confess to not having liked the record when it was first released. I was far too enamoured with the traditional Motown Sound which this record clearly challenged. With maturity however comes increased objectivity and I can no longer deny that this was a groundbreaking piece of work. It offers depth both musically and socially which earlier, possibly more innocent recordings, lacked. Clearly the influences which caused Marvin to put this song together need to be acknowledged, and nobody can doubt that his brother Frankies experiences in Vietnam must go down amongst them. I think Ben Edmonds does take one or two liberties in other areas however in finding material for his work. Everyone knows that the death of Tammy Terrell (Montgomery) affected Marvin deeply, but there is little evidence to suggest that this in any way influenced the song under consideration. Maybe in sticking solely to the story Ben found himself short of material and needed to pad it out a little. In my view there are definitely areas where he deviates from his specified objective and finds himself clearly in personal biography territory. This however does not detract from the fact he was wholly successful in achieving what he set out to do. He not only explains why this was such a ground breaking record and the history behind it, but he also captures the mood of the musicians involved. Not just Motown's R&B house band, but also the imported Jazz musicians who added their own intricate improvisations. All of them knew instinctively that they were working on something very special. A mood, not only on the single, but which was integrated into the whole album in its entirety. Despite the digressions identified I wholly enjoyed this book as the author more than successfully completed what he set out to do. One word of warning however, the book is double line spaced and written an a relatively big font, which from the point of view of eyestrain was to be commended. From the point of view of volume however it looks to have more content than is actually the case. A story well written and well told and as a hardback publication just about justifies its £9.00 price tag. |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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