What's Going On

Berry Gordy heard the title song and refused to release it, so Gaye stopped recording anything until Motown gave in. The single sold over a million copies and bought him control of the album. He wrote much of it through the eyes of his brother Frankie, just back from three years in Vietnam, looking at a country he did not recognize. The nine songs flow into each other without breaks, covering the war, the cities, drugs, children, and the planet, and nothing on it raises its voice.