What's Going On?

[LoveSupreme]

After all the unnecessary violence of this past weekend - I revisited this legendary Motown classic.

I listened to it not with the ears of yesterday but with the ears of today and sadly it is still relevant and boy, did it hit me hard. I can only imagine the impact it had on the public when it was initally released.

[RanRan79]

I mentioned in a previous What's Going On thread how sad it is to think about how relevant the content of this album remains today. I think it's a testament to the tastes of the folks of that time that the album and it's singles were so well received. I don't think an album with this concept would get a similar reception today.

[thanxal]

I mentioned in a previous What's Going On thread how sad it is to think about how relevant the content of this album remains today. I think it's a testament to the tastes of the folks of that time that the album and it's singles were so well received. I don't think an album with this concept would get a similar reception today.

I don't know what the exact reaction was to WGO when it was released, but today a non-trivial number of [[white) people would be calling for Marvin to be boycotted. "How dare a black man speak his mind!" and "If he doesn't like America, get out" is exactly what they would and do say today [[Colin Kaepernick, anyone???).

We have regressed as a country in many respects. I'm still not over the fact that the popular vote losing president dog-whistled his reaction to Charlottesville for two days. I'm not at all surprised that it happened and not really surprised he vacillated and pandered to his racist base. Its just sad and unacceptable that its still happening in 2017.

[RanRan79]

Nothing about #45 surprises me. We've known what he is for quite some time. We've known who his supporters are for quite some time. Recent events have only served to confirm what was already known.

As for WGO reception, it was an all around critical and commercial success. I imagine was extremely popular with the 20 something and 30 something crowd. A WGO album today...I just don't see that same age group flocking to get it. Even with a lot of us having our attention on the issues, I think an issues oriented album would fly over most of our heads and that's sad.