Marvin Gaye, What’s Happening Brother | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 71^st edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “What’s Happening Brother” by Marvin Gaye.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 71^st edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “What’s Happening Brother”, performed by 🎙 Marvin Gaye. 

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💿 What’s Going On, released in 1971, is one of the greatest soul albums of all time. Furthermore, the gold certified masterpiece by soul icon 🎙 Marvin Gaye is one of the best albums of all time regardless of genre.  The opening track, 🎵 “What’s Going On”, is EPIC.  That makes the second track, 🎵 “What’s Happening Brother”, have a truly hard act to follow 😬.  The good news is “What’s Happening Brother” continues the impressive musicianship and socially conscious themes of the opener.  

After one of the lushest instrumental intros you’ll ever hear, Gaye sings in the first verse, “War is hell, when will it end? / When will people start getting together again?” Unity – togetherness – is the modus operandi for Marvin Gaye, as well as a better world. “Can’t find no work, can’t find no job, my friend / Money is tighter than it’s ever been,” he asserts in the second verse, adding, “Say man, I just don’t understand what’s going on across this land? / Ah, what’s happening brother?”  What is interesting about this song which criticizes war, the economy, and disunity is that these problems remain prevalent across the world in the 2020s.  The theme of “What’s Happening Brother” alone makes it relevant more than 50 years later.  Sure, the likes of 🎵 “What’s Going On”, 🎵 “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, and 🎵 “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” are the bigger songs but 🎵 “What’s Happening Brother” deserves its fair share of love too.  

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🎙 Marvin Gaye • 💿 What’s Going On • 🏷 Motown • 📅 1971 

Marvin Gaye, “What’s Happening Brother”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 71 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Motown; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]