- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 75984108
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.
What's going on?
What's happening it's been so long what's going on
And what's going wrong? The good old days are gone
You forgot your plot and your plans as a young man
You invented a scam even you don't understand
You rig the enigma can't figure it out
You change the route now you're in doubt
You use to cut class smoked grass still passed
Figured you was all that but that ain't last;
The times is harder, the drugs is heavier
You say whatever, the more, the merrier;
Smoke chokes your dreams and blurs your scenes,
Now a young man fiend change his plan to schemes;
No more good times, no more time,
Too far to find, you're almost blind,
You can't see what spot that the trap is in...
(Hey bra!)What's happening!
You had it mapped out, your plans get torn,
You stayed up for days and now your dreams are gone
You said you quit, stated your word is bond
(Hey bro) what's going on?
What's going on?
My neighborhood don't look so good
I'll find a way out.. yeah, I would if I could,
But the government is doing a project...
so I live in the projects;
Where we fight for elbow room to the doom,
Try to live long but you die too soon,
I might not be alive to see 25,
Taught at ten to make money and strive;
I sold tapes at school and made some ends
Met a lot of skins and even made some friends,
Cool, 'cause now I got a crew to run wit,
Break a couple of rules, have crazy fun wit;
But every now and then, they give my knuckle game a test,
But I won't fess, I just get rid of the stress!
And then shake hands like a man,
'Cause it's a family thing, only the crew would understand!
But you had a one on one fight wit drugs,
When we ain't cool no more, we buss slugs,
Clip after clip, until one of us is gone...
(Hey bra!) what's going on?
Yo, what's going on?
The crime rate in New York State elevate,
A city filled wit hate, more deaths accumulate,
Drug wars daily, a lot of blood spilt,
Kids on the playground shot down and kilt!
Nobody wants to live on the 1st floor no more...
'Cause stray bullets explore!
We're killing ourselves off slowly but surely,
And at the end of the year, I'm sure many more'll be
Rubbed out in a quest for clout
The rest'll be drugged out, this is bugged out!
Half of the projects is dead or locked up,
Kids getting kidnapped and then found chopped up.
Human abortion create distortions...
And that's just a portion, you know that we're lost when
Babies are addicted to drugs when they are born....!