In anticipation for the vinyl release of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On Live on October 18, Motown Records has released a music video for the awakening title track.
The Savanah Leaf-directed video starts with Gaye on stage at a legacy concert. As sweat drips down his face, the singer asks the question, “Who really cares, to save a world in despair?”
The video transitions to the present, putting societal problems happening today in Detroit and Flint, Michigan under a more delicate microscope. The video puts focus everything from Flint’s water crisis and healthcare to heinous school shootings and police brutality.
“This is a historic song for an important moment in history, and what’s beautiful is that its message is timeless and universal,” Leaf told the audience at recent panel discussion in Washington, D.C. “It’s about human emotions, human relationships and a coming together. My hope is that our music video will remind people to continue asking the question Marvin Gaye asked in 1971.”
The vinyl debut of What’s Going On Live will contain Gaye’s vocals from his May 1972 concert at the Kennedy Center in his hometown of Washington, D.C. during Marvin Gaye Day.
What’s Going On Live is second Gaye project released this year. His 1972 album You’re the Man was released in March.
The video for “What’s Going On” is the first visual from Universal Music Group’s “Never Made” project, a series that creates compelling content for songs that never had an accompanying music video.
