Free Republic

youtube.com/watch?v=7DulLDLzsF4Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On? (YouTube at the click) occurred at a different point in the cycle of manipulation of powerlessness, rage and scapegoating in his time than we are now at in our cycle within cycles. We are suffering from much more oppressive "partisan 'tolerance' " (some freedom of expression more "equal" than others) absolutely forbidding any dissent, than people were in Marvin's time, exhausted by successive tsunamis of violence and disillusionment, JFK, MLK, RFK, Chicago 1968, Viet Nam, Watergate brewing in 1971. So Marvin asked them for self-reflection, What's Goin' On?Today's fomenters of dissatisfaction and alienation keep up...

The son of a Motown Records behind-the-scenes legend and inspiration for bassists the world over said he's planning to pay tribute to this father the best way he knows how. James Jamerson Jr. said he will strap on a bass Friday and play his father's part on "What's Going On," the Marvin Gaye hit that the elder Jamerson "always bragged about." He will play during the National Association of Music Merchants show in Anaheim, Calif., and join his mother, Annie Jamerson, and other family members to accept the International Bassist Award on behalf of James Jamerson Sr., who died in...