What's Going On

Motown, under Universal. A letter to a nation that is hurting its own.

Motown released it, after trying not to. Universal holds Motown now. Gaye had sung hits. This is the one where he turned and asked what the country was doing to its own children.

It is not a museum piece. If the week has a war in it, or a boy coming home wrong, this is the record that already knew the question.

The eight

Industry
8/10
He fought the company to put this out. The record is the work.
Household
7/10
Mothers, brothers, sons coming home. The house is the reason.
Piety
7/10
He talks to the Father without using it as decoration.
Courage
8/10
He said the unpopular thing to his own label, and then to the country.
Republic
9/10
War, the street, the neighbor. Duty is the subject.
Temperance
7/10
Grief, not a party.
Truth
9/10
He will not call the damage by a softer name.
Stewardship
9/10
Still the question a house should be able to ask.

Live historicallyPlay it once this week with the news off, and let somebody in the house say what they are actually seeing.

Song · Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and YouTube Music · 1965

Impulse! · Universal Music Group

A Love Supreme

Impulse!, under Universal. The record is a repayment.

Impulse! released it. Universal holds Impulse. Coltrane had come through the appetite and the dark, and this is where he says the thanks out loud and refuses to make it small.

Play the opening when the house has been given something it did not earn. Then be quiet long enough to mean it.

The eight

Industry
10/10
Four men, one offering. Nothing in it is casual.
Household
5/10
No kitchen. A man putting his life back in order.
Piety
10/10
Gratitude, named, and then played until the band is spent.
Courage
8/10
He had been in the dark. He does not hide the turning.
Republic
5/10
A private vow made in public.
Temperance
8/10
The length is the devotion, not a sprawl.
Truth
9/10
He says who the thanks is for.
Stewardship
10/10
A standard of thanks. A house can grow up near it.

Live historicallyOnce this month, the first movement, phones in another room.