What's Going On (Live) (Remastered) Marvin Gaye

• 1 Sixties Medley (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 13:17
• 2 Right On (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 07:34
• 3 Wholy Holy (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 03:31
• 4 Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 09:06
• 5 What's Going On (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 05:41
• 6 What's Happening Brother (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 02:54
• 7 Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 03:49
• 8 Save The Children (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 04:21
• 9 God Is Love (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 01:44
• 10 Stage Dialogue (Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 02:33
• 11 Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (Reprise / Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 05:10
• 12 What's Going On (Reprise / Live At The Kennedy Center Auditorium, Washington, D.C., 1972) 04:11
• Total Runtime 01:03:51

Info for What's Going On (Live) (Remastered)

Newly remastered! May 1, 1972 was a whirlwind day of celebration in Marvin Gaye's hometown of Washington, D.C. Designated "Marvin Gaye Day," it began with Gaye giving a speech to students at Cardozo High, the school he'd attended, before he and his parents were ushered by motorcade to other points around the city. They visited the office of D.C.'s mayor, Walter Washington, who presented Gaye with a key to the city. A VIP reception followed at the U.S. House of Representatives' Rayburn House Office Building, before the evening's hotly anticipated main event at the Kennedy Center: Marvin Gaye's first live performance in four years. After opening acts and onstage testimonials by others, Gaye finally took the stage at around 11pm.

The legendary concert – Marvin Gaye's only live performance of his iconic 1971 What's Going On album in full – was recorded. After being shelved for decades, the recording was eventually released on CD in 2001 within Motown/UMe's expanded deluxe edition for Gaye's What's Going On album. Never before issued on vinyl or as a standalone CD, What's Going On Live is newly mixed by John Morales at M+M Mix Studios and mastered by Alex Abrash at AA Mastering for its October 18 release by Motown/UMe.

What's Going On Live includes the only known live recordings of Gaye performing four songs: "That's The Way Love Is" and "You," which he opened the D.C. concert with as part of a meditative 13-minute medley; "Right On;" and "Wholy Holy." Due to an unfortunate lag in switching the first reel-to-reel tape to a second one during the concert, Gaye's performance of "Mercy Mercy Me" from the What's Going On album was not successfully recorded.

Gaye did not tour in 1972, and he had not toured in years prior, following the collapse and subsequent tragic death of his singing partner Tammi Terrell. While he was on top of the world with the massive success of What's Going On, he much preferred the studio to live performance, suffering from acute stage fright throughout his career. That year, his only live shows were the D.C. concert and one other, a brief set in Chicago on September 27, which was filmed and recorded for the Save the Children documentary film.

Years later, Gaye reflected on his "Marvin Gaye Day" experience in Washington, D.C., telling David Ritz, "I understood that I'd been punishing myself by staying away so long. I'd been denying myself love, and that's one of the most foolish things a man can do. It was certainly the biggest day of my parents' life. Here they came to Washington in the thirties without a penny, and their son was being honored by the mayor as some sort of hero. At least on this one day I felt like I made Father proud."

Marvin Gaye, vocals, piano

Digitally remastered

Marvin Gaye
Brilliant, enigmatic, and headstrong, Marvin Gaye was an innovator. In 2009, he would have been 70 years old, and it has been 25 years since his tragic death. But today Marvin remains as influential and exciting as ever: Rolling Stone recently named him one of the greatest singers of all time.

He was born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. on April 2, 1939, in Washington, D.C., where he dreamed of singing before large crowds; he joined a co-founded a local doo-wop group, the Marquees, who were spotted by Harvey Fuqua, who made them his new Moonglows. Marvin arrived in Detroit on tour with the Moonglows and stayed, as did Harvey, and Marvin was signed to Motown just based on raw singing talent. He was also a songwriter, an OK drummer-and handsome as hell. He wanted to sing jazz, to croon Tin Pan Alley standards, but that didn’t pan out. Motown founder Berry Gordy encouraged Marvin to sing R&B, and once Gaye sang the soulful (and autobiographical) “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow” in 1962, stardom enveloped him. The incendiary “Hitch Hike,” “Pride And Joy,” and “Can I Get A Witness” sold like crazy in 1963, and Marvin oozed silky sexiness on the 1965 classics “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” “I’ll Be Doggone” and “Ain’t That Peculiar.”

By 1968′s immortal “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” and on a series of electrifying duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston (“It Takes Two”), and his ultimate singing partner, the ravishing but ill-fated Tammi Terrell (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” et al), Gaye was a commercial force. He soon became recognized as an artistic one as well.

At decade’s turn, Marvin seized full control of his output with the deeply personal, socially aware 1971 masterpiece What’s Going On, which produced three hit singles: the title track, “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” and “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).” He defied expectations again with “Trouble Man,” a 1972 hit single featured in his haunting, jazzy score of the movie of the same name. He zoomed to the top of the charts with his passionate Let’s Get It On, while delivering a pop confection in Diana and Marvin, his duet album with Motown’s queen, Diana Ross. I Want You, released in 1976, was another sensual masterwork, a meditation on obsessive love that was also No. 1. Marvin made his personal life public through his songs, and it was never more evident in 1978′s Here, My Dear, a sprawling double-album chronicling his divorce from Anna Gordy, Berry’s sister. Even his No. 1 dance classic from 1977, “Got To Give It Up,” a studio cut added to flesh out the double-LP Live At The London Palladium, was about the singer’s reluctance to get loose on the dance floor.

Marvin left Motown in 1981, with the politically tinged album In Our Lifetime. He fled to London, then Belgium, where he created for Columbia Records “Sexual Healing,” his first Grammy® winner. But another hit was not salvation from his demons. On April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday, Marvin was shot to death by his father.

Marvin’s influence reaches across the generations. He was rightfully among only the second group of artists honored with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987. More recently, Marvin was No. 6 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time. “Motown Week” on American Idol 2009 (Season 8) featured remaining contestants singing not one but two of Marvin’s songs. His records-and his ringtones and his DVDs-are still going gold.

This album contains no booklet.