Third Man Books is proud to announce its publication of Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On? and the Last Days of the Motown Sound by 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated writer Ben Edmonds. Originally published in 2001 and long out-of-print, Edmonds’s acclaimed in-depth history of Gaye’s landmark 1971 album is available now at Third Man Records digital and physical storefronts and booksellers everywhere.
PURCHASE MARVIN GAYE: WHAT’S GOING ON?
AND THE LAST DAYS OF THE MOTOWN SOUND
With a career that exemplified the maturation of romantic Black pop into a sophisticated form spanning social and sexual politics, Marvin Gaye was one of the most consistent and enigmatic of the Motown hit makers. Gaye’s determination and vision resulted not only in inspirational, pioneering grooves but in a milestone canon of songs that both challenged America and proved among soul music’s most enduring bodies of work. Named by Rolling Stone atop 2020’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” What’s Going On truly established Gaye as a unique and maverick musical talent. His determination and vision resulted in an inspirational and pioneering collection that, in the era of Vietnam and the civil rights protests, asked America to take a long hard look at itself. Ben Edmonds examines in detail the making of this legendary work — initially rejected by Motown’s quality-control department — interviewing many of the artists and record company employees closest to the singer, to arrive at a deeper understanding of what the album means. It is, without question, one of the greatest stories ever told.
As Edmonds writes in the introduction, “This is not simply about a singer and a record album. It is the story of an idea, formed out of the mixed ethers of social anger and spiritual longing, that Marvin Gaye articulated with a cast of brilliant accomplices, and fought to get recorded and released. From that idea, and with that help, and out of that struggle, something was fashioned that continues to touch souls more profoundly than even its creator could have imagined.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ben Edmonds, as an editor at Creem magazine (1971-1975), played a pivotal role in shaping the narrative of music culture. Edmonds – whose insightful articles also graced the pages of Rolling Stone and MOJO, for which he served as a US correspondent – was the recipient of two ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor Awards honoring his music criticism as well as two GRAMMY® Award nominations for his contributions to albums by The Pretenders and Phil Ochs. Tragically, pancreatic cancer claimed Edmonds’s life in 2016. MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band, co-written by Edmonds with Brad Tolinski and Jaan Uhelszki, was published posthumously in 2024 by Hatchette Books.
