Rambling Rhoads: 2020-05-10

As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

LP #33 Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)

Mother, mother

There's too many of you crying

Brother, brother, brother

There's far too many of you dying

Motown turned out classic hit singles by the truckload in the 1960s and beyond. This is arguably the first really significant Motown album. “What’s Going On” and “Inner City Blues”, the opening and closing tracks, are as relevant now, almost 50 years later, as they were when the record was released.

Favorite tracks:

What’s Going On

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

What’s Happening Brother

Mercy Mercy Me

Save The Children