Album: What's Going On (1971)

Charted: 9

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• Rockets, moon shots
  Spend it on the have nots
  Money, we make it
  Fore we see it you take it
  Oh, make you wanna holler
  The way they do my life
  Make me wanna holler
  The way they do my life
  This ain't livin'
  This ain't livin'
  No, no baby, this ain't livin'
  No, no, no
  
  Inflation no chance
  To increase finance
  Bills pile up sky high
  Send that boy off to die
  Make me wanna holler
  The way they do my life
  Make me wanna holler
  The way they do my life
  
  Hang-ups, let downs
  Bad breaks, set backs
  Natural fact is
  I can't pay my taxes
  Oh, make me wanna holler
  And throw up both my hands
  Yea, it makes me wanna holler
  And throw up both my hands
  
  Crime is increasing
  Trigger happy policing
  Panic is spreading
  God knows where
  We're heading
  Oh, make me wanna holler
  They don't understand
  Make me wanna holler
  They don't understand Writer/s: James Nyx, Marvin Gaye
  Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 9

• Owen from Eugene, OregonGreatest libertarian song of all time
• Jordan from Omaha, Nebeautiful song. shows the horrors of reality in its time. weird how not alot has changed since then though.
• Dave from Rockford, IlMarvin was greatly troubled by the Viet Nam War. He had a brother and friends from Detroit that had served and begun to return home. "What's Going On" , (note the abesent question mark)was to be a suite, a compostion that was directed to one sinuglar idea. Barry Gordon would not allow Marvin to record it at Motown; thus, Marvin recorded it on his own, with his own money, and he slipped it by Gordy. Not until it became a hit with the title track did Gordy capitulate.
• David from Reading, EnglandI really like Sevendust's cover of this; the singer seems to have captured the feeling of the song well, particularly during the "make me wanna holler" part.
• Larry from New York City, Ny"Inner City Blues" is a realistic song about the enforced poverty and brutality so many Americans must endure in this the richest country in the history of the world, all the while watching their children being used as cannon fodder in foreign wars or succumbing to a culture of ignorance and criminality at home. This song is a strange companion to the fantasy song "Trouble Man," also by sung by Marvin Gaye. "Trouble Man" is the theme song for movie, an urban crime drama, in which a black anit-hero (played compellingly by Robert Hooks) uses brutality and guile to successfully overcome all the exploitative societal traps bemoaned in Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues."
• Mel from Riverbank, CaI dedicate this song to the Republican party..
• Yos from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republicyup, if they kept the beat going for about 30 seconds more
• Guy from Woodinville, WaGreat song. As with all Marvin Gaye's songs, I wish it lasted longer, to keep that aura going.
• Konstantin from San Marcos, TxMy favourite song by Gaye. Even better than whats going on simply becuase of the way it sounds.

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